Laying the Corner Stone of the Normal School Building, 1851.
On Wednesday, the 2nd of July, 1851, the imposing ceremony of laying the corner stone of the new edifice took place. The guard of honor was the 71st Highlanders, under Sir Hew Dalrymple. Ministers of both Houses of Parliament, the city corporation, etc., attended. The inscription on the brass plate—I quote from the original, as written by Dr. Ryerson—was as follows:
"This Institution, Erected by the Enlightened Liberality of Parliament, is Designed for the Instruction and Training of School Teachers upon Christian Principles."
Right Rev. Bishop Charbonnell, to whom was assigned the duty of presenting the Governor-General with the silver trowel, spoke with great cordiality, and with French grace and eloquence. He said:
"Monseigneur,—Je suis très heureux et très honoré d'avoir èté choisi par le Conseil de l'Instruction Publique, dont votre Excellence a daignè me faire membre, pour lui prèsenter cette truelle d'argent aux industrieuses emblèmes du blazon des Bruces.
"L'etablissement dont votre Excellence va poser la pierre angulaire, Monseigneur, sera un des plus glorieux monuments de tout ce que son libéral gouvernment aura fait pour la prospérité, de ce pays: ad ædificationem."
This in substance is as follows:—
"My Lord,—I am very happy and am highly honored to have been chosen by the Council of Public Instruction—of which your Excellency has condescended to make me a member—to present to you, on their behalf, this silver trowel emblazoned with the industrial emblems which form the arms of the Bruces.
"The institution, of which your Excellency is about to lay the corner stone, is destined to be, my Lord, one of the most glorious monuments amongst all of those which your liberal administration has devised for the welfare of this country."
In laying the corner-stone, Lord Elgin was particularly happy in his reply to these remarks, and to the address of the newly-constituted Council of Public Instruction. He said, addressing Dr. Ryerson:—
"It appears to me, sir, ... that this young country has had the advantage of profiting by the experience of older countries—by their failures and disappointments, as well as by their successes; and that experience, improved by your diligent exertions and excellent judgment ... and fortified by the support of the Council of Education, and the Government and Parliament of the Province, has enabled Upper Canada to place herself in the van among the nations in the great and important work of providing an efficient system of general education for the whole community.... I do not think that I shall be charged with exaggeration when I affirm that this work is the work of our day and generation—that it is the problem in our modern society which is most difficult of solution.... How has Upper Canada addressed herself to the execution of this great work?... Sir, I understand from your statements—and I come to the same conclusions from my own investigation and observation—that it is the principle of our educational system that its foundation be laid deep in the firm rock of our common Christianity.... Permit me to say, both as an humble Christian man and as the head of the Civil Government of the Province, that it gives me unfeigned pleasure to perceive that the youth of this country, ... who are destined in their maturer years to meet in the discharge of the duties of civil life upon terms of perfect civil and religious equality—I say it gives me pleasure to hear and to know that they are receiving an education which is fitted so well to qualify them for the discharge of these important duties; and that while their hearts are yet tender ... they are associated under conditions which are likely to provoke amongst them the growth of those truly Christian graces—mutual respect, forbearance and charity."
One of His Excellency's last acts in Toronto, when about to leave the country, was to visit those buildings and express his satisfaction with the several departments of the system therein conducted.