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 and their affections yet green and

young, they are associated under conditions which are likely to

promote among them the growth of those truly Christian graces—mutual

respect, forbearance, and charity."

The position of the building is well chosen, being surrounded with cultivated ground sufficiently extensive to be usefully employed in illustrating the lectures given on vegetable physiology and agricultural chemistry. The rooms are all very lofty, airy, and scrupulously clean. A notice at the entrance warns you—"The dirty practice of spitting not allowed in this building;" and as far as eye could discern, the notice is rigidly obeyed. I was told that a specific had been found to cure the filthy habit. I mention it for the benefit of hotel-keepers and railway-conductors, in all places where such a relic of barbarism may still find a welcome. On a certain occasion, the lecturer having received undeniable proof that one of the students had violated the above-mentioned regulation, stopped in the middle of one of his sublimest flights, repeated sonorously the notice, called the culprit by name, informed him that his endeavour to dissipate his filth into infinity by the sole of his shoe was useless, and ordered him forthwith to take his handkerchief out and wipe it up clean. Disobedience was expulsion: with crimson cheek he expiated his offence by obedience to the order, and doubtless during the hushed silence in which he completed his labour, he became a confirmed anti-expectorationist.

Great attention is very properly paid to cleanliness, inasmuch as if these young men, who are destined to teach others, acquire filthy habits, they naturally encourage the same vice in their pupils, and thus may be almost said to nationalize it. All the tables and stools are fitted like those in the schools of the United States, which is an immense improvement on the one long-desk and long form to match, which predominate all but universally at home. The instruction given is essentially by lecture and questioning; and I was particularly struck with the quiet modulated tones in which the answers were given, and which clearly proved how much pains were taken upon this apparently trifling, but really very important, point.[[AR]] You heard no harsh declamation grating on your ear; and, on the other hand, you were not lulled to sleep by dreary, dull monotony.

There are two small schools attached to the establishment, for these Normal aspirants, male and female, to practise upon, when considered sufficiently qualified. Those thus employed during my visit seemed to succeed admirably, for I never saw more merry, cheerful faces, which I consider one of the best tests of a master's efficiency. The little girls, taking a fancy for music, purchased among themselves a cottage piano, which, being their own instrument, I have no doubt increased their interest in the study amazingly. The boys have a kind of gymnasium under a shed, which, when released from school, they rush to with an avidity only equalled by that which the reader may have experienced in his early days when catching sight of a pastry-cook's shop immediately after receiving his first tip.[[AS]]

I believe that to this establishment, which was founded in 1846, belongs the honour of being the Pioneer Normal School in the Western Hemisphere. But while giving due credit to the Governor-General and the Government for their leading parts in its foundation, it should never be forgotten, how much indebted the establishment is to the unwearying zeal and patient investigations of Dr. Ryerson, the chief superintendent of schools in Canada. This gentleman carefully examined the various systems and internal arrangement of scholastic establishments, not only all over the States, but in every country of the Old World, selecting from each those features which seemed to produce the most comfort, the best instruction, and the greatest harmony. The result of his inquiries I subjoin from his own pen:—