With reference to religious instruction at the normal schools, Dr. Ryerson has kindly furnished me with the following statement:—"A part of each Friday afternoon is set apart for this purpose, and a room allowed for the minister of each of the religious persuasions of the students, to give instruction to the members of his church, who are required to attend, as also to attend the service of such church at least once every Sunday. Hitherto we have found no difficulty, reluctance, or neglect, in giving full effect to this system."
The only difficulty in these matters that I have heard of, is a long dispute with the Roman Catholic bishop of Toronto; but such an event one must be prepared for when dealing with a church which claims infallibility. I have no doubt the tact and moderation of Dr. Ryerson have ere this thrown oil on the troubled waters, and restored the harmony which existed between the former Roman bishop and the reverend doctor. To those who take an interest in education, the report of the system used in Canada, drawn up by Dr. Ryerson, and printed by order of the Legislative Assembly, will afford much pleasure and information. It is, of course, far too large a subject to enter upon in these pages, containing, as it does, so vast an amount of matter worthy of serious reflection. I will, however, indulge such of my friends as were taught to read in the last century, with a quotation from page 67, which will probably astonish them.
Mr. Horace Mann, so long the able Secretary of the Board of Education in Massachusetts, after pointing out the absurdity of worrying a child's life out, in teaching the A B C, &c., and their doubtful and often-varying sounds utterly destitute of meaning, instead of words which have distinct sounds and distinct meaning, thus winds up:—"Learning his letters, therefore, gives him no new sound; it even restricts his attention to a small number of those he already knows. So far, then, the learning of his letters contracts his practice; and were it not for keeping up his former habits of speaking, at home and in the playground, the teacher, during the six months or year in which he confines him to the twenty-six sounds of the alphabet, would pretty near deprive him of the faculty of speech."
This extract, from the pen of one who has devoted so much talent and patient investigation to the subject of education, entitles it to the serious consideration of all those who are in any way connected with the same subject in this country, where the old A B C cramming all but universally prevails.—But to return to Upper Canada and its schools. Some estimate of the value of its scholastic establishments may be formed from the fact, that while its sphere of usefulness is rapidly extending, it has already reached the following honourable position: The population of Upper Canada is close upon 1,000,000; the number of children between the ages of 5 and 16 is 263,000; the number of children on the rolls of the common school establishments is 179,587; and the grand total of money available for these glorious purposes, is 170,000l. I feel conscious that I have by no means done full justice to this important subject; but the limits of a work like this render it impossible so to do. Let it suffice to say, that Upper Canada is inferior to none of its neighbouring rivals, as regards the quality of instruction given; and that it is rapidly treading on the heels of the most liberal of them, as regards the amount raised for its support. The normal school, I conceive to be a model as nearly perfect as human agency has yet achieved; and the chemical and agricultural lectures there given, and practically illustrated on the small farm adjoining the building, cannot fail to produce most useful and important results in a young uncultivated country possessing the richest soil imaginable. The Governor-General and the Government deserve every credit for the support and encouragement they have given to education; but, if I may draw a comparison without being invidious, I would repeat, that it is to the unusual zeal and energy of Dr. Ryerson, to his great powers of discriminating and selecting what he found most valuable in the countless methods he examined, and to his combination and adaptation of them, that the colony is mainly indebted for its present admirable system. Well may Upper Canada be proud of her educational achievements, and in her past exertions read a hopeful earnest of a yet more noble future.[[AT]]
But it is not in education alone that Canada has been shadowing forth a noble career. Emancipated from maternal apron-strings by a constitutional self-government, and aided by the superior administrative powers of the Earl of Elgin, she has exhibited an innate vitality which had so long been smothered by Imperial misrule as to cause a doubt of its existence; and if she has not shown it by the birth of populous cities, she has proved it by a more general and diffusive prosperity. A revenue quadrupled in four years needs no Chicagos or Buffalos to endorse the colony's claims to energy and progress. Internal improvements have also been undertaken on a large scale: railways are threading their iron bands through waste and forest, and connecting in one link all the North American colonies; the tubular bridge at Montreal will be the most stupendous work yet undertaken by engineering skill; canals are making a safe way for commerce, where a year or two back the roaring rapid threw its angry barrier. Population, especially in Upper Canada, is marching forward with hasty strides; the value of property is fast increasing; loyalty has supplanted discontent and rebellion; an imperial baby has become a princely colony, with as national an existence as any kingdom of the Old World.[[AU]] These are facts upon which the colonists may, and do, look with feelings of both pride and satisfaction; and none can more justly contemplate them with such emotions, than those through whose administrative talents these prosperous results have been produced, out of a state of chaos, in eight short years. Dissatisfied men there ever will be among a large community, and therefore questions of independence and annexation will be mooted from time to time; but it seems hardly probable that a colony which enjoys an almost independent nationality would ever be disposed to resign that proud position, and to swamp her individuality among the thirty-three free and slave States of the adjoining Republic. At all events, the colony, by her conduct with reference to the present war, has shown that she is filled with a spirit of loyalty, devotion, and sympathy as true, as fervent, and as deep as those which animate all the other subjects of our beloved Sovereign.
Farewell, Canada! May the sun of prosperity, which has been rising upon you steadily for eight years, rise higher and higher, and never know either a cloud or a meridian! Canada, adieu!
FOOTNOTES:
My observations at various schools in the United States satisfied me that no attention is paid by the teachers to the tone of voice in which the boys give their answers.