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Besides treating your pupils kindly and justly, you should manifest some interest in those things which interest them take some part in their amusements, when you can do so with propriety. Great care is necessary, lest a teacher mingle with his pupils in such a way as to allow them to take advantage of him. He should never permit improper treatment, or allow them to take unwarrantable liberties. This he can easily guard against. Teachers should never descend to those familiarities which occasion disrespect. ter take no part in the amusements of your pupils, unless you can preserve your dignity of character. We once knew a teacher, at times, rather severe, who used to join his boys in their plays, during the intermission. He had incurred the displeasure of some of them, who took advantage of these opportunities to retaliate; and, as one of his pupils informed me, he was sometimes minus a coat-tail; or, particular pains would be taken that he should receive the hardest snow-balls. They seemed to take delight in offering him some indignity which passed under the name of play.

Grant your pupils favors when you can do so without injury to the school. When you think best to refuse a request, assign a reason, that they may understand why you cannot gratify them. It is not always necessary to give the reason at once, but better to let them wait until a particular hour; especially, if you are engaged at the time of the request.

9. If you wish your pupils to be polite to you, be polite to them. Every morning, bid the roughest boy in the school "Good mornrning," as he enters the room; and, in one week he will expect his morning greeting as regularly as he goes to school, and be ready to return it. Cherish the practice of bidding your pupils "Good evening" at the close of the day, and they soon form a polite habit, which they will not forget while you are connected with them. These things may seem unimportant to you; but they are the secret avenues which lead the teacher to the hearts of his pupils, and through which, he gains a hold upon their affections-School Friend.

CONVERSATION.

It would be useful to consider the art of conversation as a means of improvement. A considerable portion of our life is given to conversation, which we abandon to chance; yet there are few things, from which wisdom might draw more advantage. Here, doubtless, we should guard ourselves against the exaggerations of method and regularity. Conversation resists a rigorous discipline. To turn it into a methodical dialogue, would be to rob it of its naturalness and truth of expression which produces communion of mind and heart. But, without robbing it of this character, we can make it useful. Without pedantry, with modesty, even with gaiety, we can put in circulation true thoughts and honorable sentiments. Sincere goodwill serves as an easy passport. And we cannot more delicately flatter, than by giving others an opportunity of telling us what they know. Everything may be thrown into conversation, and every thing may be gathered from it. It yields favorable occasions to draw close the tie which unite us to others, and to discover the

means of serving them. The talent of conversation is a great power in the actual state of society. Vanity and ambition have used it. Can we do nothing for the interests of truth and virtue by means of it? The liberal-minded and generous can alone comprehend all the privileges of speech, and draw from it the means of moral conquests, for in order to captivate, they only need to be known; in showing themselves superior, they are so natural, that, as they rise without effort, so they are contemplated without envy; always simple and sincere, they enlighten and persuade by the force of their own conviction, and by the ascendancy of the sentiments which inspire them; we feel better their presence, because we are permitted to sympathize with them; they are the altars where our hearts are kindled and reanimated; they exercise an apostleship upon earth; the admiration which they excite, and the affections which they receive, being confounded with the worship of excellence, and language from their mouths becoming a celestial messenger, who announces the blessings of virtue. The good also supply, by the influence of their character, the want of a talent for conversation; we listen more willingly to the unpretending, whom we do not suspect of any artifice; and the desire of being useful has in itself a kind of eloquence. A talent for listening may contribute to our progress, and furnish us with the means of being useful. To listen to a sufferer is often the means of consoling him. In the manner

of listening there is something which testifies good-will, and which serves to obtain it. In the study of mankind, the ear is what the eye is in the study of nature.

A PICTURE OF TIME.

Time is the most undefinable yet paradoxical of things; the past is gone, the future is not come, and the present becomes the past, even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and then expires. Time is the measure of all things, but is itself immeasurable, and the discloser of all things, but is itself undisclosed. Like space it is incomprehensible, because it has no limit, and it would be still more so if it had. It is more obscure in its source than the Nile, and in its termination than the Niger; and advances like the slow tide, but retreats like the swiftest current. It gives wings to pleasure, but feet of lead to pain, and lends expectation a curb, but enjoyment a spur. It robs beauty of her charme, to bestow them on her picture, and builds a monument to merit, but denies it a house; it is the transient and deceitful flatterer of falsehood, but the tried and final friend to truth. Time is the most subtle, yet the most insatiable of depredators, and by appearing to take nothing, is permitted to take all; nor can it be satisfied until it has stolen the world from us, and us from the world. It constantly flies, yet overcomes all things by flight; and although it is the present ally, it will be the future conqueror of death. Time, the cradle of hope, but the grave of ambition, is the stern corrector of fools, but the salutary counsellor of the wise; bringing all they dread to the one, and all they desire to the other; like Cassandra, it warns us with a voice that even sages discredit too long, and the silliest believe too late, Wisdom walks before it, opportunity with it and repentance behind it; he that has made it his friend, will have little to fear from his enemies; but he that has made it his enemy, will have little to hope from his friends.-Colton,

THE BLESSINGS OF VICISSITUDE AND CHANGE.

No person, however unfortunate, can look upon his own life without having to remember with gratitude and devotion many singular and auspicious conjunctures which no skill or merit of his own could have contrived; with many escapes from the natural consequences of his own misconduct, or from accidents which cross us even in our most guarded and virtuous paths; and who has not felt in the changes from sickness to health, from pain to pleasure, from danger to security, and from depression to joy and exaltation, a fuller and a higher satisfaction (independently of the uses of such reverses) than could have arisen from the uninterrupted continuance of the most prosperous condition. As there must be light and shade in every picture, so there must be perpetual changes to make human life delightful. Nothing must stand still the sea would be a putrid mass if it were not vexed by its tides, which, even with the moon to raise them, would languish in their course, if not whirled round and round those tortuous promontories which are foolishly considered to be the remnants of a ruined world. Marks, as they undoubtedly are, of many unknown revolutions; the earth probably never was nor never can be more perfect than it is. It would have been a tame and a tiresome habitation if it had been as smooth as the globes with which we describe our stations on its surface. Its unfathomable and pathless oceans--its vast lakes cast up by volcanic fire, and its tremendous mountains contending with the clouds, are not only sources of the most picturesque and majestic beauties, but lift up the mind to the most sublime contemplation of the God who gave them birth.-Lord Erskine.

LIMITS TO KNOWLEDGE.

There are in every direction some bounds to our knowledge, which, although they continually recede as investigation proceeds, can never be passed; which equally exist, though their extent is different, for the most ignorant savage and the most enlightened philosopher; and at which every man, feeling himself suddenly arrested, and being unable to explain the connection between certain phenomena, feels the sentiment of wonder, and is compelled to reverence a power, the ways of which, he is thus mid sensible, are inscrutable.-Burke.

Miscellaneous.

THE CHILD AND THE DEW DROPS.
"Oh! father, dear father, why pass they away,
The dew-drops that sparkle at dawn of the day,
That glitter'd like stars in the light of the moon,
Oh! why are the dew-drops dissolving so soon?

Does the sun in his wrath chase their brightness away,
As though nothing that's lovely might live for a day?
The moonlight had faded, the flowers still remain,
But the dew drops had shrunk in their petals again,
Oh! father, dear father, why pass they away,
The dew-drops that sparkled at dawn of the day?"

"My child," said the father, "look up to the skies,
Behold that bright rainbow-those beautiful dyes;
There-there are the dew-drops in glory re-set,
'Mid the jewels of heaven they are glittering yet.

Then are we not taught by each beautiful ray,

To mourn not earth's fair things, though passing away
For though youth of its beauty and brightness be riven,
All that withers on earth blooms more sweetly in heaven.
Look up," said the father, "look up to the skies,
Hope sits on the wings of those beautiful dyes."

Alas! for the father-how little knew he,
That the words he had spoken prophetic would be,
That the beautiful cherub-the star of his day,
Was e'en then like the dew-drops dissolving away;
Oh, sad was the father, when low in the skies,
The rainbow again spread its beautiful dyes,
And then he remembered the maxims he'd given,
And thought of his child and the dew-drops in heaven.

A MOTHER'S LOVE.

Last among the characteristics of woman is that sweet motherly love with which nature has gifted her; it is almost independent of cold reason, and wholly removed from all selfish hope of reward. Not because it is lovely does the mother love her child, but because it is a living part of herself-the child of her heart, a fraction of her own nature. In every incorrupted nation of the earth this feeling is the same. Climate, which changes everything else, changes not that. It is only the most corrupting forms of society which have power gradually to make luxurious vice sweeter than the tender cares and toils of maternal love. In Greenland, where the climate affords no nourishment for infants, the mother nourishes her child up to the third or fourth year of his life. She endures from him all the nascent indications of the rude and domineering spirit of manhood, with indulgent, all-forgiving patience. The negress is armed with more than manly strength when her child is attacked by savages. We read with astonished admiration the examples of her matchless courage and contempt of danger. But if death robs that tender mother, whom we are pleased to call a savage, of her best comfort-the charms and care of her existence-where is the heart that can conceive her sorrow? The feeling which it breathes is beyond all expression. Montgomery.

IMPROVEMENTS IN THE DISCOVERIES AND APPLICATIONS OF PRACTICAL SCIENCE DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY.

It is the glory of modern science that theory and practice have been combined.

Men have not been content with sagacious generalizations. They have continually enquired how their race might be benefited by their labours, and persevered in the exercise of ingenuity, till the new developments have issued in contrivances adapted to lessen toil or contribute to the pleasure and comfort of mankind. The proofs are all around us, and in every one's dwelling. Not a day passes without giving us the opportunity of reflecting on the improved position we occupy, and the favorable circumstances in which we are found, as contrasted even with those of the immediate predecessors of the majority of this asse.ably. Some few illustrations may be adduced.

In 1800, a journey of 100 miles was a serious affair. It occupied, even in England, a long day, and in some parts of the country double that time, imposing great inconvenience and fatigue on the traveller. In 1850, that distance can be accomplished without difficulty in three hours, sitting entirely at one's ease and reading or conversing with pleasure.

In 1800 a voyage to India occupied from four to six months; in 1850, India can be reached in a month, and China in less than another.

In 1800, the merchant could not pass from England to Canada, or back again, with any certainty of reaching the port of destination in a specific time-it might be one month, it might be three. In 1850 he can cross the Atlantic in ten days, and visit the old country twice a-year as regularly as the mercantile traveller used to take his accustomed rounds.

In 1800, the streets of our towns and cities were lighted, if lighted at all, with miserabie oil lamps, which did little more than make darkness visible, but rendered small service to the passenger. In 1850 the brilliancy of gas gives the splendour of an illumination within doors as well as without.

In 1800, if a calamity occurred, requiring to be announced to a friend at a distance, the Post Office presented the quickest mode of transmission, and in innumerable instances sad and fatal consequences ensued, and most poignant distress was inflicted from the impossibility of conveying intelligence by any swifter medium. In 1850, a message can be sent 500 miles in five minutes, and next morning the friend to whom you sent may be at your door.

In 1800, the amputation of a limb being necessarily accomplished with excrutiating pain, the patient often shuddered at the endurance, and refused to submit to the operation, or lingered so long that it was too late, in either case to save his life. In 1850 the sufferer inhales a pleasant odour, falls into a sweet slumber, it may be into delightful dreams, and when he comes out of his reverie, finds himself minus a leg or an arm, without feeling a pang, or knowing how the separation has taken place.

In 1800, the miner received no warning of the approach of the destructive gas which deals death to all who come within its influence. In 1850 he goes fearlessly, safety lamp in hand, into the lowest depths and murkiest passages, and knows when to retreat from the advancing danger, and how to secure his escape.

In 1800, the deaf could only sit and see the speaker, faintly guessing at the terms of his address. In 1850, by applying the elastic tube to the ear, the lost sense is, as it were, restored, and communion of mind with mind is again enjoyed.

These illustrations might be multiplied almost ad infinitum. Even the match with which we now so easily procure instantaneous light, reminds us of that flint and steel and tinder-box of our early days, and many vain attempts to dispel the midnight darkness, when sickness or other necessity supervened; and numerous other conveniences and comforts are there, the loss of which would be deemed calamitous, and for which we stand indebted to profound and varied scientific research.

Then who can enumerate the endless inventions of mechanical genius and the appliance of chemical skill, in various manufactures, by which, in conjunction with the marvellous adaptations of steam, processes are performed with such facility, and on so extensive a scale, that articles which fifty years ago could only be purchased by the wealthy, are now produced at so small a cost as to be procurable by all classes? And who that desires the progress of society will fail to rejoice at the creation of a refined taste, a perception of the elegant and beautiful, among those who were formerly obliged to content themselves with the roughest specimens of the mechanic's handiwork, because their scanty means prevented them from obtaining any other? Nor will the rightly-instructed member of the higher orders envy his fellow-creatures the possession of these new sources of enjoyment, or be dissatisfied with the revolution that has placed in the tradesman's dwelling a product of art which, 50 years ago, could only be found in the palace, or enabled the peasant to purchase a dress which at that period a princess would not have disdained to we: r.-Rev. Dr. Cramp's Lecture, and 1850," before the Montreal Mechanics' Institute.

1800

GREAT MEN ARE LIKE PLANETS, which to their inhabitants, seem nothing but a lump of dirty earth; while to those who view them from a distance, they appear like brilliant luminaries.

MENTAL ADAPTATION. Wonderfully does the mind suit itself to occasions, and become accommodated to every circumstance. It will rise superior to the strokes of fortune, be happy in adversity and serene in death. The consciousness of rectitude will not only enable it to endure evil, but divest misfortune of its every terror. Tenderness will yield to an unbending firmness, and the eye in which the tear of emotion has so often started will disdain to weep. He who remarks the vicissitudes of fortune, and how quietly prosperity may be succeeded by a fall, can alone appreciate that property of the mind by which it becomes elevated in triumph, and extracts from adversity its hidden jewel. The principle of adaptation to every thing which can be the lot of man, is a good genius which follows him throughout his being and its workings are alike evident, whether you regard his mental or physical relations to the phenomena which encompass him; it is this which gives a zest to his pleasures, a solace to his cares; it gilds for him the sunbeams of the morning, and when night approaches, it smoothes for him "the raven dawn of darkness till it smiles."-F. W. Barlow.

QUAINT DEFINITIONS.

Language.—A chain to unite men and keep mankind disunited. A large issue of notes which has often a small basis of gold. Miser. An amateur pauper. A lover who is contented with a look. China.-A hermit among nations.

Politics. A national humming-top, which spins the least when it hums the most.

Charity. One whom we delight to follow, but dread to face.
Marriage.-Love brought to trial.

Slave. A human epitaph of human feelings.
Ireland--The Acteon of nations.

Bee. A self-taught botanist, whose works command a ready sale.
Ship. The telescope of the world.

Money. The largest slave-holder in the world.
Experience. The scars of our wounds.

Debt. A slice out of another man's loaf.

CULTIVATE ENERGY.-Many of the physical evils, the want of vigour, the inaction of system, the langour and hysterical affections which are so prevalent among the delicate young women of the present day, may be traced to a want of well-trained mental power and well exercised self-control, and to an absence of fixed habits of employment. Real cultivation of the intellect, earnest exercise of the moral powers, the enlargement of the mind by the acquirement of knowledge and the strengthening of its capabilities for effort, the firmness for endurance of inevitable evils, and for energy in combating such as may be overcome, are the ends which education has to attain; weakness, if met by indulgence, will not only remain weakness, but become infirmity. The power of the mind over the body is immense. Let that power be called forth; let it be trained and exercised, and vigour, both of body and mind, will be the result. There is a homely, unpolished saying, that "it is better to wear out than to rust out;" but it tells a plain truth; rust consumes faster than use. Better, a million times better, to work hard, even to the shortening of existence, than to sleep and eat away this precious gift of life, giving no other cognizance of its possession. By work or industry, of whatever kind it may be, we give a practical acknowledgement of the value of life, of its high intentions, of its manifold duties. Earnest, active industry is a living hymn of praise, a never-failing source of happiness; it is obedience, for it is God's great law for moral existence.

WHAT IS A CHILD?

A child is a man in a small letter, yet the best copy of Adam before he tasted the apple; and he is happy whose small practice in the world can only write his character. He is nature's fresh picture newly drawn in oil, which time and much handling dims and defaces. His soul is yet a white paper unscribbled with observations of the world, wherewith, at length, it becomes a blurred note-book. He is purely happy, because he knows no evil, nor hath made means by sin to be acquainted with misery. He arrives not at the mischief of being wise, nor endures evils to come by foreseeing them. He kisses and loves all; and, when the smart of the rod is past, smiles on his beater. Nature and his parents

alike dandle him, and entice him with a balt of sugar to a draught of wormwood. He plays yet, like a young prentice the first day, and is not come to his task of melancholy. All the language he speaks yet is tears, and they serve him well enough to express his necessity. His hardest labour is his tongue, as if he were loath to use so deceitful an organ; and he is best company with it when he can but prattle. We laugh at his foolish sports, but his game is our earnest; and his drums, rattles, and hobby-horses, but the emblems and mockings of man's business. His father bath writ him as his own little story, wherein he reads those days of his life that he cannot remember, and sighs to see what innocence he hath outlived. The elder he grows, he is a stair lower from God, and, like his first father, much worse in his conduct. He is the Christian's example, and the old man's relapse; the one imitates his pureness, and the other falls into his simplicity. Could he put off his body with his little coat, he had got eternity without a burden, and exchanged but one heaven for another, and then returned again to his regiment.-Bishop Earle.

THE DETACHED THOUGHTS, translated from the German of Jean Paul Ritcher, bear continual evidence of a mind shrewd in its conceptions and original in its construction. The following are well worthy perusal :

Lively, novel images are the blossoms of our mental conceptions, which, in the cool autumn of mature intellect, bear fruit for reason. He who creates new imagery creates the germ of new thoughts.

We breathe upon the diamond that we may behold its flaws undazzled; thus sorrows awaits us that we may see ourselves. Phoebus endows the weak poet, like the statue of Memmon, only with sound.

Some people think that the great man must be always great, as in heraldry the eagle is always represented with outspread wings. Youth, especially female youth, gives a poetic tinge-a softened colouring to its sorrows: thus the sea, when the morning sun shines upon it, is covered, even in the storm, with rainbows.

The physician and the undertaker stand in the same relation to each other that the bird-catcher does to the birdcage-maker. We forget most easily that of which we know least; the less we have in the sieve, the more easily it passes through.

The system-maker passes through the region of truth as a travelling merchant does through a country; both care only for their wares, and are blind to everything worthy of observation.

The first great men of a nation who have opened the way for others are forgotten, their successors are immortalized; thus the first snow-flakes melt, the others remain and give their own hue to the country round.

Many have intellect only for learning, and none for the common affairs of life. How many animals walk badly but climb admirably. Errors hurt an empty head most, as poison does an empty stomach.

A poet is a sowing-machine; a commentator, a thrashing-machine.
I would not be a woman, for then I could not love her.
The philosopher's stone was the foundation of many a man's house.
Many witty sallies sting, like the bees, only once.

Red lips and red cheeks are pretty; why not red eyes and red noses ?

Many a man fancies his head thinks like Pope's, because it aches like his.

Joys are our wings, sorrows our spurs.

We have nothing so certain as God, and everything external is understood only through him. He alone appears to us in the moral, the beautiful, the true; and our identity appears only in him, for he is the atlas, the supporter of our whole heaven of thought. From him all our thoughts proceed, to him all return, and he suffers not one, even the most secret, to fall to the ground.

The paleness of death is more lovely than the paleness of sorrow. To the earthly-minded, immortality is a formidable thought; to the high-minded, transport. Thus the heavens reflected in the sea appear a fearful abyss, but behold above us, a sublime height.

The thought of immortality is a glittering sea, in which he who bathes is surrounded with bright stars.

It is difficult to attack the abuses of irreligion, by its professors without injury to religion itself. Few are such good shots as Alcon, who, without hurting his child, killed the dragon in whose grasp it was.-. -Blackwood.

JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.

TORONTO, JANUARY, 1850.

We renew our solicitations to every friend of general education and knowledge to aid us by his subscription and influence in the circulation of this Journal. Our labours shall be free, as heretofore, in conducting it; and we promise our best exertions to render it worthy of the name it bears and of the object it contemplates. But its usefulness depends upon the extent of its circulation, as well as on the character it sustains. That circulation must depend upon the voluntary co-operation of others. Our aim is to make this Journal the faithful friend of Youth, Teachers, and Parents; and if each of them will but give a tenth of the labour in promoting its circulation that we do in editing it for their advantage, its usefulness will be immeasurably increased. Our single object is, the sound education of every child in the land, and suitable food to satisfy the intellectual hunger and thirst of every child and inhabitant by the establishment of public libraries in every Township, Town and Village. We ask the co-operation of all who agree with us in this object.

We beg to direct attention to the extracts (under the head of Educational Intelligence) which we have made from the last Report of the Irish National Board of Education, and from the last Report of the Superintendent of Schools for the State of New York— both of which have been received since the commencement of the present month.

FREE SCHOOLS IN UPPER CANADA.-We learn by private letter, that at a very numerously attended public School Meeting held in the Town of Niagara, in the Town Hall, on Thursday evening the 24th inst., the Mayor in the chair, "it was almost unanimously determined that the Schools shall be supported as heretofore, by assessment, and not by rate bill." We learn that a similar resolution was adopted at a public meeting by the inhabitants of each of the three School Sections in which the Town of Simcoe (Talbot District) is divided, and where Free Schools have been heretofore established. The Common Schools in a majority of the towns of Upper Canada, are at the present moment free; and we hear of the inhabitants in various country School Sections taking the necessary steps to obtain the same boon for their children. We look with confidence to the near approach of the day-and a glorious day it will be-when every Common School in Upper Canada will be as free to every child in the land as the water we drink and the air we breathe.

ENCOURAGEMENT OF CANADIAN MECHANISM.-The Governor-General, in his characteristic desire to promote Canadian improvement, has offered through the Mechanics' Institute of Toronto, a prize medal of the value of £12 10s. to the author of the best specimen of mechanical skill. The competition to be open to all Canadian mechanics.

LOCAL SUPERVISION OF SCHOOLS.

In the official correspondence which has lately been published on the subject of the new School Bill, it was stated by the Superintendent of Schools that the Bill was essentially defective in respect to provisions for local supervision, the establishment of an uniform system throughout Upper Canada, the means of procuring requisite local information by the Education Department, &c. Those who

may have expressed or entertained doubts as to the correctness of his remarks and views on this subject, are respectfully referred to the following remarks from the last official report of the Superintendent of Schools for the State of New York, laid before the Legislature on the 1st of the present month :

cer.

"The Superintendent would renewedly urge upon the Legislature the restoration, in some form, of the office of County Superintendent. In addition to the reasons heretofore submitted in previous reports from this Department, the experience of the last two years warrants the assertion that an efficient administration of the Common School system cannot be secured without the assistance of this class of officers. It has been found utterably impracticable to keep up the correspondence with nearly nine hundred Town officers, which the exigencies of the Department constantly required, and which is absolutely essential to its practical workings. A very large proportion of the statistical information which is almost indispensable to a full knowledge and an accurate survey of the educational condition of the State, has been omitted in the tables herewith submitted, for no other reason than because it has been found impossible to obtain from these officers that accurate and reliable information which alone could be of any value, Within the legitimate sphere of their operations, Town Superintendents have, in general, faithfully and satisfactorily discharged the duties incumbent upon them. But they cannot, from the nature of the case, be expected to supply the place or fulfil the functions of a County offi. The County Clerk has no other duty imposed upon him, under the present law, than that of transcribing and certifying the official reports of the Town Superintendent made to him, and embodying their results in one general table. Between the Town and State Superintendents there is urgent need of a class of local supervisory officers, through whom the latter may constantly communicate with the former and with the inhabitants and officers of the several districts, and by whose agency an uniform and harmonious co-operation may be secured throughout the entire extent of the State. It is undeniable that during the five years in which the system of County supervision was in force, notwithstanding the many unfavorable influences under which it laboured, and the numerous prejudices against which it was forced to contend, the schools of the State were advanced and improved to an extent far surpassing the experience of any previous period. An impulse was given to the efforts of the friends of education, by the active and enlightened labors of these officers, which will long continue to be felt, and the abundant fruits of which are visible in every direction around us. The mode of selection and of compensation of the County Superintendent was doubtless unwise. In some instances injudicious selections may have been made; and various causes may have existed which rendered the office itself obnoxious to a portion of our fellow-citizens. But the paramount importance, and indeed absolute necessity of a local supervision of our schools, independent of that of the Town Superintendent, and comprehending a wider and higher sphere, is so manifest to the Department, and so clearly demanded by the friends of education throughout the State, that the Superintendent deems it his duty earnestly to press the subject upon the favorable consideration of the Legislature. He would respectfully suggest the expediency of electing, once in three years, by the popular vote at the annual election, a Superintendent for each Assembly District of the State, whose duty it should be periodically to visit and examine the several Schools in his District, to inspect and license teachers, to hear and pass judgement in the first instance upon all appeals originating within his District, subject to the final revision of the State Superintendent, to receive, condense and transmit to the Department, the reports of the several Town Superintendents of his District, and generally to discharge such duties as may, from time to time, be required of him by the Legislature and the Department. His compensation should be fixed by law, and paid from the unappropriated revenues of the Common School Fund."

GALT COMMON SCHOOL-ANNUAL SCHOOL MEETING.
Extracts from the Minutes of the Proceedings of the Annual
School Meeting, held in Galt, 8th January, 1850.
The annual general meeting of the inhabitants of the Galt School
Section was held this day in the School Room, the Rev. J. M.
Smith presiding. The Secretary-Treasurer's report for the past

year was duly submitted and unanimously approved of, which Reports shows the number of children in the Section, between the ages of five and sixteen years, to be 498, the numbers entered on the School roll during the year, 303, making with six free scholars a total of 309, of which 206 were boys and 103 girls. The average attendance in summer was 106, and in winter 165; and the school had been kept open during the whole year. Amount received from the District Superintendent, £76 8s. 3d., and that collected by rate Bills, £92 17s. 1d. The School rates for the year having been two quarters 3s. 9d., and two quarters at 4s. 41d. each scholar. The building account was also submitted and approved of.

"On reference to the Minute Book the following visitations were found recorded, viz.: District Superintendent 1; Clergymen 9; District Counsellors 1; Magistrates 1.

"The meeting then proceeded to the election of a Trustee in the room of Mr. George Lee, who retires by rotation. Mr. N. D. Fisher was declared duly elected.

"The advantages of establishing a common School Library was next submitted to the meeting, and warmly approved of by the Rev. J. Strang and others; but as no part of the School Fund coming into the hands of the Trustees can be appropriated to this purpose, it was resolved to leave the matter in the hands of parents sending children to the schocl, to commence the Fund, and afterwards to appeal to the public for assistance."

[Remarks by the Journal of Education.-The above is the first account we have seen of the proceedings of an Annual School Meeting conducted in all respects in the manner suggested in the Circular of the Superintendent of Schools-although we have understood that the proceedings of many of the late Annual School Meetings have been conducted in the same way. The law requires nothing more to be done at an Annual School Meeting than the election of a Trustee in the place of one retiring by rotation. In addition to that, the Chief Superintendent recommended each Board of Trustees to have their Annual School Reports prepared and read at the School Meeting-giving in account of the state and operations of the school for the year, and the receipts and expenditures of all moneys belonging to the School Section; and then that they should transmit said report to the local Superintendent. The Galt Trustees seem to have done so in a very complete and satisfactory manner. It will readily be seen, that such a mode of proceeding is calculated to secure punctuality and accuracy in the School Reports, to give additional interest and importance to Annual School Meetings, and to furnish the constituency of each School Section with that to which it is fairly entitled-an account of the expenditure of all the moneys raised and received by its Trustee-representatives during each year.

Complaints have sometimes been made that Trustees have not accounted for moneys which had come into their hands for the building of school-houses, their repairs, &c.; and that they have, in some instances, done the work required and paid themselves exorbitantly out of such moneys-refusing to give any account to their constituents of their proceedings. It is probable that the examples are extremely rare of Trustees conducting unjustly in any such cases of complaint; but Trustees should be placed in circumstances in which they could not be unjustly implicated, and the school-rate payers are entitled to a full and satisfactory account of the disposal of all moneys paid by them, or received from any source by their elected Trustees. For this the late School Act contained no provision; nor does the new Bill-though it imposes upon each Board of Trustees the trouble of making out three copies of their Annual School Report instead of one. With a view of making legal provision for the conducting of the proceedings of all Annual School Meetings in the admirable manner adopted by the Galt Trustees, and for securing systematic accounts of the receipts and expenditures of all school moneys belonging to each School Section,

the following clause was recommended in a draft of Bill submitted to the Government by the Superintendent of Schools in October, 1848:

:

"V. And be it enacted, That it shall be the duty of the Trustees of each School Section to prepare and read, or cause to be prepared and read, at each Annual School Meeting for their Section, their Annual School Report, which shall include among other matters required by law, a full account of the receipts and expenditures of all school moneys which have been received and expended in behalf of such Section for any purpose whatever during the year then terminating and if said account shall not be satisfactory to a majority of the householders present at such meeting, then such householders present, or a majority of them, shall appoint one person, and the said Trustees shall appoint another person, and the two arbitrators thus appointed, shall examine said account, and their decision respecting it shall be final; or if the two arbitrators thus appointed shall not be able to agree, they shall have authority to select a third arbitrator, and the decision of the majority of the three arbitrators thus appointed or selected, shall be final; and such arbitrators, or a majority of them, shall have authority to collect, or cause to be collected, whatever sum or sums may be awarded by them, in the same manner and under the same regulations as those according to which Trustees are authorized to collect school-rate bills; and the sum or sums thus collected, after deducting the lawful expenses of collection, shall be paid into the hands of the local School Superintendent, and expended for the Common School purposes of said Section."

We think experienced practical men in Common School affairs, will regret the omission of this simple local self-government provision in the School Law, and the introduction of the inefficient and more cumbrous provisions on this subject in the new School Bill.] CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING DISTRICT GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.

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LONDON, C. W., Dec. 28th, 1849.

To the Editor of the Journal of Education.

REV. SIR,-In the Journal of Education for last month, there is an article on Grammar Schools, upon which (as the Principal of one) I trust you will allow me to say a few words. Approving highly of the general scope and bearing of your remarks, I must, however, enter my protest against the inference you draw from the sad fact of there having been but eight students matriculating at the last annual convocation of our University. Instead of inferring, as you appear to do, that in the whole of Upper Canada (including the Upper Canada College, the Grammar Schools, Private Schools, &c.,) there were but eight lads qualified to enter the University, I would rather conclude that in consequence of the unsettled state in which that institution has been kept, and more especially from the late changes which have taken place in it, the parents and guardians of the youth of Canada are unwilling to intrust them to its care-feeling doubtful of the success of the experiment which has been made. It may be said this is only the opinion of an individual; but I can state a fact in support of it. At the present moment there are in my School two lads who could have entered with credit at the October examination, had their parents considered it desirable. They however have preferred leaving their sons still under my care, although they formerly intended to have given them an University education. When I take upon myself to say they could have entered with credit, I do not speak in ignorance of the standard of qualifications required, as the University mathematical scholarship of the previous year (1848) was obtained by a pupil from my school, who has, in every examination since, taken high classical and mathematical honors, my opinion may perhaps be regarded as worth something on this point. Now as it is probable most other Grammar Schools could bear similar testimony, I think we are warranted in coming to a very different conclusion from your's respecting the capability of our schools for supplying the University with students.

There was one other observation which I would wish to make. You say, "We think the general rule is, whether there be an assistant or not, to admit pupils of both sexes and of all ages and attainments from a, b, c, upwards." What the rule may be else,

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