So carefully had these two grants been husbanded that when the buildings were completed and furnished, there was a balance left over of £90. With this sum the expense of fitting up the Departmental Library was defrayed. The result was highly gratifying to Mr. Hincks, and he so expressed himself at the opening of the buildings in the following year.
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:—