Journal of education, 1 septembre 1859, Septembre

'UBVmÊpRft fwÔMNÏ! 9 LA6 1 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.Volume ni.Montreal, (Lower-Canada) September, 1859 Ko 9.SUMMARY.—Canadian History : A hnndred years ago.by H.G.M.—Literature.— Poetry : Gray’s Elegy.—The use of catechisms, by Keble.—Science : Convention of the American Scientific Association for 1859.—Education : School days of eminent men in Great-Britnin, by J.F.Timbs, (continued from our last).—Suggestive hints towards improved secular instruction, by the Rev.R.Dawes, 5th iNatu-ral History, 6th Arithmetic.—Officiai.Notices : Appointments.—tfival Normal School,—School Commissioners and Trustees.—Annexation to a School Municipality.—Donations to the library of the Department.—Situation as teacher wanted.—Editorial : Necrology, Death of John Head, Esquire.—The English language in Lower Canada.—Ninth conference of the Association of Teachers in connexion with the Jacques-Cartier Normal School.—The Deaf and Dumb Institute of Montreal.—Notices of Books : Gameau’s History of Canada —Memoirs of the Htslor-ical Society of Montreal.—Borthwick’s Cyclopaedia.—Bell-Centenmum.—Monthly Summary : Educational intelligence.—Advertisements.OANrADIAN HISTORY.A Hundred Years Ago.There is a period in the life of man, during which his mind is replete with the thoughts of the past.It comes when age has whitened his locks and infirmities have bent his frame.Separated by a short space of time from the grave, waiting at every moment to receive him, and warned by his failing strength, that his days are few, he indulges in no hopes for the future ; he lives with the past.How fondly does he not dwell, on the scenes of his youth and early boyhood, how often does he not recount the events of his infant years ; ceasing to act he becomes the historian of his actions, and wishes to transmit to his remotest posterity the history of a peacefully passed or eventful career as the case may be, but always to him full of interest and forming an endless theme of discourse.Is there, in this point a resemblance between the nation and the individual ?does the former like the latter dwell on its days of childhood when the hand of decay has withered its features, and declining vigor menaces it with dissolution ?Is it that the historian enters the scene to narrate the past glories of his country, dwell with ecstasy on its greatness, speak with admiration of its institutions and then close the book of history to all future heroic deeds?Like the aged do we dwell with fondness on the reminiscences of the past as on the beauties of a setting sun which is never more to shed its beams ?Or rather, are we not contemplating our history for the purpose of exciting ourselves to a greater love for a country which can count many departed heroes, show her battlefields, speak ot the storms she has withstood, the tempests which have passed unheeded by, never swervering her from her course ; of which the historian can narrate in trlowinv terms her happy issue from a thousand difficulties, through a sea of troublous waters, to her present smiling haven of peace ?When we turn over her annals is it not to see whether in these our forefathers’ testament, there be not some instructions to follow, some sage councils to fulfill ; and when in a spirit of filial piety we read with avidity their generous sacrifices for the country for which they have sited their blood, are we not incited to watch and keep strict vigil over this, our adopted latherland, an inheritance purchased at the cost of many lives, preserved by the devotedness of the brave and the patriotic, and to be transmitted intact to our heirs ?Yes, with such and no other object in view have the Canadians, this year, celebrated the memory ot their illustrious dead.If, a few months hack, a thousand voices sung the hymn of thanksgiving for the happy development of Lower Canada’s o-reat educational institution and spoke in words of praise of the devoted founder, Bishop Laval ; if the press, with many voices, recorded that Canada celebrated the second centenary of the landing on its shores, of the first Bishop of New France ; if a few days ago, on the 13th and 14th September, the great events of 1759 were dwelt upon, and a thought given to the generals who had played so important a part in Canada’s destinies ; if, with searching eyes, we have perused with interest and fixed attention the silent testimonials of the past, it was with the feelings of the son of a soldier, desirous of knowing all the brave deeds of his father.It was with no melancholy foreboding that Canada, in her onward and rapidly progressing career, cast a look back on her history, and dwelt with” complacency on the memories of her sons, whose remains lie beneath the sod of the plains of Abraham.It was with no fear of evil that these centenary feasts were celebrated, but with a lively faith and firm confidence in the future.When we recall to our minds that this country in the first stages of her existence could endure so much and perform so much, of what do we not now think her capable, greatly increased as she is in growth and prosperity and desiring, with a noble emulation, to rank side by side, with the great nations ot the earth taking a part in their actions and placing her name with theirs on the page of universal history.Let no superstitious fancy, let not the chance flight of some bird of ill omen dibturb us in the enjoyment of the bright visions which hope seems to promise to Canada.A hundred years ago, Canada was a wilderness, peopled "by savage tribes, and the theatre of a sanguinary warfare ; a hundred years have gone by, and it has become a rich and powerful colonial dependency of Great-Britain.Under the French rule it was seldom prosperous ; surrounded on all sides with enemies, abandoned by the mother country ; often visited by scarcity, and its frontiers the scene of a ruthless border warfare.During that trying and heroical period the devotedness of the inhabitants to their King and to their country calls forth our involuntary admiration.Whoever attentively considers that early period of our history cannot fail to express his surprise at the determined and unflinching bravery of the French colonists, who often carried desolation into the English colonies and for a long time resisted armies more numerous than the total population of New France.It required an English fleet, two English armies, to subdue a handful of men far distant from their fatherland and straitened even in their munitions of war.The history of New France, from the date of its settlement to that of its cession to Great-Britain, is a history of a series of struggles, of privations and of poverty.Under the British rule, Canada presents a more agreeable picture. 134 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION True there are not so many stirring incidents, and its history, now and again diversified with a few temporary commotions, is not so interesting; but happy, has said the prince of historians, the nation whose history is not interesting.For what renders a nation’s annals intei esting, unless it be campaigns, battles, sieges, or civil wars ! A century ago, Canada was little known in Europe ; indeed until very recently its inhabitants were by many litterati of the old world thought little more of than Indians or barbarians.Now emigrants from all parts of Europe flock to our shores, eaving their homes, endeared to them as the resting places of countless generations, to seek in our land that sustenance which the worn out old world refuses them, knowing that by patient industry and a lew years ol hard labor they may secure a home for their old age, and bequeath broad acres to their children.A hundred years ago, might be seen here and there a cultivated plot of land, an odd house, and at great distances small villages ; and had you once passed Montreal, you were in the wilderness.The warwhoopwas then more frequently heard than the sound of the woodman’s axe, and the affairs of war more sedulously attended to than those ol husbandry.Now agriculture has redeemed vast tracts from the wilderness, enriching the children of the soil and enabling them to expoit their superabundant produce and to receive in ^change the more costly articles of European manufacture.We now count over two millions of inhabitants, and another century w ill probably behold in us the connecting link of a great northern confederation.We contemplate with satisfaction the past : the Eng-lishman with feelings of honest pride for victory fairly gained over a brave enemy, the Scotchman can say that the Tartan plaids were fust to appear on the battle ground, and the Irishman recognises in Wolfe a fellow countryman.These three nations thus have a common honor in the victory.If the French Canadian was defeated, he was defeated by a generous foe ; he succumbed to circumstances, he was even victorious under Chevalier de Lévy in the last battle fought near Quebec ; and a treaty secured him full possession of all the liberties and immunities that he enjoyed as a subject of the King of France, besides the new and invaluable privileges peculiar to the British subject.What a lesson does not the history of Canada teach its inhabitants ; while in the state of warfare the condition of the country was miserable in the extreme, since peace blessed the land all has prospered; so long as it continues we shall continue to prosper.So long as good will and harmony reign among our citizens, so long as they lend each other mutual help, Canada will continue in her onward march, and never retrograde or decay while concord reigns in her midst ; the motto engraven on her copper coin, should be still more deeply engraven on the hearts of all true lovers of this fair land, Concordia salus.We glory in the illustrious warriors, whose exploits have thrown a halo of fame round the heights of Stadacona, and we are determined to render full homage to their memory, for the moral worth of a nation like that of an individual, is to be estimated by the gratitude it manifests towards its benef tors.The fondness then with which we recur to our annals, the avidity with which we seek anything throwing light on the lives of eminent men who performed a part in our history, the number of our historical societies, and the numerous learned persons who labor inde-latigably in clearing obscure points in our records, is a proof of the love of Canadians for their native land, and the deep interest they take in all that concerns it.Though Livy wrote the history of Rome, when the last of the Romans had died, and when love of country and martial valor had given place to luxury and to war as a means of sordid gain ; though Tacitus wrote of a people, who had even in.his time forgotten the virtues of their ancestors, we trust that, our historian, for we count one that can rank, if not with the classic historians of Rome and Greece, at least, with those of any modem state of Europe, has not narrated the last deeds which are to be done in this part of the continent.The more wt> consider the past, the fairer hopes we have for the future.How resolutely has not this colony struggle to gain its present prosperous condition ; how many difficulties have been surmounted, how many obstacles removed ; it has passed the ordeal of famine and warfare; and although intestine divisions seem at times to threaten a dreary future, it still remains with us to avert so disastrous a fate by our mutual forbearance.We shall then be pardoned if we speak of Wolfe and Montcalm, and advert to those interesting times, when was fought that great battle, on the fields of Abraham, which changed the destinies of the Northern portion of America.Only a few weeks separate the second centenary of the landing of Mgr.Laval, at Quebec, and the first centenary of the death of Wolfe, the English conqueror, and of Montcalm, the heroic defender of the fortress of Quebec.The last moments of Wolfe were consoled by the thought that he died victorious ;he yielded his life willingly when he knew that it had secured to the crown of Great-Britain a precious jewel ; not the less tranquil were the last moments of Laval, who died happy at the sight of the flourishing condition of the Seminary, with the foretaste ol eternal bliss, meet reward for his apostolical labors and spiritual conquests; if Montcalm was defeated, no ignominy rested on his name, he fell doing his duty, and he fell fighting against one ol England’s best generals; if fortune refused him the day, she saved him the humiliation of signing a capitulation, and afforded him the satisfaction of having it said that, while Montcalm lived, the white fleur delis waved over New France.These three illustrious men (lied content ; Wolfe on the field of victory, Laval after accomplishing his life long task, Montcalm resigned to the will of Providence, who guideth all things and who disposeth everything for the best.Canada shall never forget them and despairs of ever producing greater men.A hundred years ago, on the 13th September 1759, the battle of Abraham (1) was fought.The army, under the command of General James Wolfe, consisted of eight regiments, two battalions of Royal Americans, besides rangers, artillery and a corps of engineers, the fleet, under Admiral Saunders, mustered twenty-two ships of the fine, five frigates and nineteen smaller vessels of war, with a crowd of transports (2).James Cooke, the future navigator and explorer of the Pacific, was master on board one of the ships ; by a curious coincidence, de Bougainville, his rival in naval fame, was colonel in Montcalm’s army.The brigadiers-general were Monckton, George Townshend, and James Murray ; for adjutant-general, Wolfe selected Isaac Barre, afterwards so distinguished by his eloquence in the House of Commons ; Colonel Guy Carleton commanded the grenadiers ; Lieutenant-Colonel Howe, a detachment of infantry.On the 27th June, the whole army disembarked on the fertile Island of Orleans, two leagues from the lofty citadel of Quebec, then the bulwark of New France and the last stay of its power.Montcalm had but few troops to protect this seemingly impregnable fortress.Superior in point of numbers, he was inferior in all other respects; wanting ammunition, his soldiers on scanty rations, and the inhabitants of the town receiving but two ounces of bread daily.So great was the scarcity that fifteeen hundred horses were purchased and distributed ; artisans and day laborers were so enfeebled that they were unfit for toil and tottered from debility (3).Though this dreary state of things was sufficient to damp the greatest courage, Montcalm did not despond.Montmorency was fortified and entrenchments thrown up as far out as Cap Rouge.Wolfe, unsuccesful in his attack of the 31st July on Montmorency, defeated twice in his attempts to land on the north shore, disappointed in his expectations of Amherst’s approach, disabled by fever, the fine season fast passing by, began to fear for the ultimate success of the expedition.Determined to make a final effort, he adopted the suggestion of his council, proposing to convey five thousand men above the town and draw Montcalm out of his entrenchments.A French deserter pointed out a path and gave the countersign.(4).At one o’clock, on the morning of the 13th September, Wolfe, with Monckton and Murray and half his troops, started on the forlorn hope.The ships covered the landing.At daybreak Wolfe stood on the heights of Abraham.“ We are lost, exclaimed Montcalm, on hearing the news,” they have at last got the weak side of this miserable garrison ; we must give them battle and crush them before mid-day.” He then hast'y marshalled his troops and went forth to battle.The two armies were about equal in numbers, each being composed of less than five thousand men (5) ; but the British army was composed of regulars ; the French, of Canadian irregulars, unaccustomed to fight in open field and without discipline ; the French infantry was indeed their sole strength.Wolfe occupied a 6trong position ; screened by brushwood, and not easily accessible on account of intervening shallow ravines and rail fences ; his troops were elated at their morning’s success and devoted to their (1) The Plains of Abraham, were once the property of Abraham Martin, dit l’Ecossais.Hence the derivation of the name.—See “ The Plains of Abraham,” by Lt.Colonel Beatson.(2) Warburton : Conquest of Canada.(3) Bancroft: Hist.United States, vol.iv.(4) Relation du Siège de Québec.(5) Bancroft. FOR LOWER CANADA.135 commander.At ten o’clock a cannonade opened which lasted for an hour.Montcalm, having despatched messengers for De Bougainville and De VaudreuiT, advanced at the head ol his troops against the left wing of the British and endeavoured to drive them down the declivity.Outmanceuvered by Wolfe, Montcalm ordered the general charge.Tne British received the shock with calmness reserving their lire till the enemy was within forty yards , the line began a regular, rapid and exact discharge of musketry.The Canadians were already wavering ; when Wolfe, charging with the 28th and the Louisburg grenadiers, forced them to give way.While at the head of his men Wolfe received three balls, the first in the wrist, the second in the upper part of the abdomen, and the third inflicted a mortal wound in the breast.“ Support me, he cried to an officer near him, let not my brave fellows see me drop.” He was carried to the rear, and they brought him water to quench his thirst.“ They run, they run,” spoke the officer on whom he leaned ; “ Who run,” asked Wolfe, as his life was fast ebbing.“ The French, replied the officer, give way every where.” “ What, cried the expiring hero, do they run already?Go, one of you, to Colonel Burton, bid him march Webb’s regiment with all speed to Charles river to cut off the fugitives.Now, God be praised, I die happy.”—(Bancroft.) The defeat of the French was complete; they hastily retreated within the walls of the city, in despair of ever retrieving their defeat.The English army was victorious, but its triumph was saddened by the death of its general.The spot where Wolfe died, is now marked by a handsome monument, a few steps from the St.Louis road and within a mile of the gates of the town.He was snatched away just at the budding of his fame, at the early age of thirty-three.He left a widowed mother whom he always obeyed and loved with a filial piety, and who, a few days before, had wept over the remains of his father; a maiden whom he had betrothed and whom he intended to espouse alter the conquest of Canada.Wolfe entered the army at the early age of fifteen, as second lieutenant in his father’s regiment.He was born on the 2nd January, 1727, (of Irish descent on the paternal side,) at Wester-ham, in Kent.It is surprising that, Wolfe thus brought up in a camp, and not particularly distinguished while at school, acquired that love for letters, and that exquisite sensibility to the charms of poetry, which render him remarkable.Some think poetry a trivial study, and consider it little better than a toy for the infancy of a nation, unworthy of its consideration when grown to manhood.Now, was it not the high thoughts breathed in song, which inspired Wolfe with that disinterestedness and romantic love of country, which sheds a new lustre on his deeds ?Had the fires of poetry never awakened him, perhaps Canada would not have been conquered.Of a delicate frame and refined taste, he found, even amid the turmoil of the camp, moments when he would picture to himself the joys of domestic happiness, and sigh for the tranquillity of retirement.The following lines, addressed to Miss Lowther, on the eve of his departure from England, show that he was a poet in soul, and fully susceptible of the emotions ol the gentler passions.“ At length, too soon, dear creature, Receive my fond adieu ; Thy pangs, oh ! love, how bitter, The joys, how short, how few ! “ I go where glory leads me, And dangers point the way ; Though coward love upbraids me, Stern honour bids obey.“ Two passions vainly pleading, My beating heart divide ; Lo I there my country bleeding, And here my weeping bride.“ But, ah, thy faithful soldier Can true to either prove ; Fame fires my soul all over, While every pulse beats love.“ Then think, where’er I wander, The sport of seas and wind, No distance hearts can sunder Whom mutual truth has joined,” &c , &c.Wolfe commenced his military career on the continent.He carried the colors of the 12th regiment at the battle of Dettingeu.He served under the Duke of Cumberland, at the defeat of Fonte- noy.Sent to Scotland with his regiment to help in suppressing the second scotch rebellion, he was present at the battle of f alkirk, and there distinguished himself by his coolness and intrepidity.At Cu I loden, Wolfe acted as aide-de-camp to General Hawley.After the pacification of Scotland, he rejoined the British army in the Netherlands, and at the battle of Lanfeldt was wounded.After the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle he again returned to Scotland and remained there till 1753.In 1749 at the early age of twenty three he was appointed to a lieutenant colonelcy (1).In 1758 he sailed from England with General Amherst.His distinguished conduct at the siege of Louisburg, attracted the notice of Pitt.This great statesman, quick to discern merit, gave Wolfe the command of the expedition against Quebec, with the rank of Major-General.The expedition left England on the 17th February 1759.It was eminently successful and the ability which Wolfe displayed merits for him a place among England’s greatest Generals.On hearing of the conquest of Canada, “ America, says Bancroft, rung with exultation ; the towns were bright with illuminations, the hills with bonfires ; legislatures, the pulpit, the press echoed the general joy ; provinces and families gave thanks to God.” England rejoiced also ; but she mourned the death of the victor, and shed the tear of affliction and sympathy with the bereaved mother.Happy mother ! with whom a nation weeps the loss of her child and perpetuates its name by raising a monument to its memory among the sepulchres of her kings.While gladness reigned throughout Britain and while America rung with exultation, grief at the sight of the bleeding Montcalm afflicted the colonists.In losing Montcalm they had lost their last defender ; they must renounce allegiance to France, and bow their heads beneath a foreign yoke.Wolfe died on the field of victory, in the arms of his brother officers and under the shade of the British colors.Montcalm died in his bed.In his last moments he showed that greatness of soul, which he had ever displayed during life.Being apprised that he could not count a day’s existence ; “ So much the better,” was his answer.“ I shall not live to see the surrender of Quebec.” When de Ramezay asked his advice about defending the city.—“ To your keeping,” he replied, “ I commend the honor of France.As for me, I shall pass the night with God, and prepare myself for death.” Then abandoning all thoughts of temporal concerns, he passed the remaining few hours of his existence with his confessor, and calmly passed, towards five o’clock on the morning of the fourteenth of September, to a better world.Louis Joseph de St.Veran, marquis de Montcalm, was born on the 28 of February 1712, descended from an honorable and distinguished family of Rouergue, at the château of Candiac, near Nismes.In his youth he applied himself with great zeal to the study of the dead languages ; and the hope which he entertained, when commanding an army, of being one day received member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, is a proof of the estimation in which he held letters.In the army he rose step by step, having been successively Ensign.Lieutenant and Captain.The command of the French troops in America was given to him in 1756.While in the inferior grades, he was unremitting in the study of all the branches of the military art.He received three wounds at the battle of Placencia.During his short career in Canada he gave many proofs of generalship, and secured by his affability the love of the inhabitants.The Indians always considered him as their father ; he was one of the few who could restrain their impetuosity within the limits of discipline, and 6often their cruel mode of warfare.He was buried on the evening of the 14th September 1759, within the chapel of the Ursuline Convent (2).The descendants of the seventy thousand colonists, who at the period of the conquest were, with a few tribes of Indians, the only inhabitants of the soil, celebrated the centenary of his death by a religious ceremony performed in the chapel attached to the Ursu- (1) Bell’s lecture.(2) But the valiant Frenchman regardless of pain relaxed not his efforts to rally his broken battalions in their hurried retreat towards the city until he was shot through the loins, when within a few hundred yards of St.Louis Gate.And so invincible was his fortitude that not even the severity of this mortal stroke could abate his gallant spirit or alter his intrepid bearing.Supported by two grenadiers—one at each side of his horse—he re-entered the city : and in reply to some women who, on seeing blood flow from his wounds as he rode down St.Louis’ street, on his way to the Château, exclaimed Oh mon Dieu ! mon Dieu ! le Marquis est tué ! courteously assured them that he was not seriously hurt, and begged of them not to distress themselves on his account.— Ce n’est rien! Ce n’est rien! Ne vous affligez pus pour moi, mes bonnes amies.—Beatson. 1S6 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION lines (1).The interior of this small but interesting chapel was hung in black, and in the centre of the aisle was erected a catafalco covered w.th a mortuary cloth spangled with silver/eurs- de lis.The epitaph had been fixed over the spot where the remains of Montcalm were laid the 14th September 1759.A low mass was offered up, and the solemn prayers for the repose of the faithful were chanted by the daughters of St.Ursula.Many of the citizens, and in compliance with the request of the marchioness of Montcalm, the Christian Brothers assisted in a body at this ceremony.In the evening the Bishop of Tloagave the solemn absolution.The Rev.Father Martin, of the Society of Jesus, delivered the funeral oration.He especially insisted on the vanity of human things, the frivolity of human glory, to which the skull of Montcalm preserved in a shrine, bore strong testimony, and sustained with mute eloquence (2).The learned orator read a letter from the marquis to the Superior of the Hôtel-Dieu, requesting the prayers of the timid virgins under her charge.The stern and fearless warrior thus to ask°the prayers of weak women ! All honor and praise is due to the citizens of Quebec, and particularly to M.Faribault, who keeps vigilant and constant watch over the honor ot Canada, and is always the first in renderino-homage to his ancestors.Bo-ton has celebrated this month a memorable day in the history of North America, the anniversary of its foundation, by erecting a statue to the memory of Webster.A most eloquent oration was delivered at the inauguration by the Hon.Edward Everett.The Bostonians also remembered the gratitude they owe to Wolfe, and flocked in crowds to hear the lecture of the Hon.Lorenzo Sabine on the “ Life and character of General James Wolfe.” We now close this article with feelings of just content for the zeal which this country has paid to the illustrious.When Canada shall have raised a monument to Jacques-Cartier, to Champlain and a few others of her great men, and placed their statues on pedestals, she will have fulfilled the duty she owes to those who made so many sacrifices for her sake.We subjoin the history of the epitaph which was solemnly placed on the 14th of seDtember, in the chapel of the Ursulines.“The French troops which served in Canada being anxious to honor the memory of their lamented General by the erection of a monument over his grave, permission to give effect to that laudable desire was requested, on their behalf, in 1761, by M.de Bougainville ; whose letter to Mr.Pitt, and that great statesman’s cordial reply, were in the following terms : “ Sin, “ The honours paid, under your ministry, to Mr.Wolfe, assure me that you will not disapprove of the grateful endeavours ot the French troops to perpetuate the memory of the Marquis de Montcalm.The body of their General, who was honoured by the regret of your nation, is interred in Quebec.I have the honour to send you an epitaph made for him by the Academy of Inscriptions : I beg the favour of you, sir, that you will be pleased to examine it ; and, if not improper, obtain leave for me to send it to Quebec, engraved on marble, that it may be placed on the Marquis de Montcalm’s tomb.“ Should such leave be granted ; may I presume, sir, that you will be so good as to inform me of it, and, at the same time, to send (1) There happened, at that time, to be living in the neighbourhood of the Convent, a little girl about nine years of age, who, prompted by curiosity, followed the funeral procession into the Chapel ; and, standing close to the grave, witnessed the interment.She afterwards became a Nun in the Convent, and in May 1833, when upwards of eighty years old, was enabled, by her perfect recollection of the position of the grave, to point it out so exactly that no difficulty was experienced in finding the hero’s remains.These consisted—besides the skull—of only a few fragments of bones, so completely decayed as to crumble into dust on being touched ; and the spade used in making the excavation, having unfortunately come in contact with the upper jaw, broke it in pieces.This injury has, however, been neatly repaired with wax ; and the skull, since its exhumation, has been carefully preserved, uuder a glass case, in the apartments of my venerable friend the abbé Maguire : to whose kindness and to the courtesy of the Lady-Superior I am indebted for the privilege cf being allowed to have this interesting relic accurately delineated, and cast of it taken.—(Beatson.) (2) On the skull the marks of two wounds are distinctly visible; one, an inch and three quarters in length, on the left side of the occiput ; the other, two inches long, on the right side of the frontal bone, and close to the suture which separates that boue from the right parietal bone.me a passport?that the marble, with the epitaph engraved on it, may be received into an English ship ; and that Mr.Murray, Governor of Quebec, may allow it to be placed in the Ursuline church.“^ou will be pleased, sir, to pardon me for this intrusion on your important occupations ; but endeavouring to immortalize illustrious men and eminent patriots is doing honour to yourself.“ I am, with respect, &c., “ De Bougainville (3).“ Paris, 24th March, 1761.” “ Sib, “ It is a real satisfaction to me to send you the King’s consent on a subject so affecting as the epitaph, composed by the Academy of Inscriptions at Paris, for the Marquis de Montcalm ; and which it is desired may be sent to Quebec, engraved on marble, to be placed on the tomb of tb at illustrious Soldier.It is perfectly beautiful ; and the desire of the French troops which served in Canada to pay such a tribute to the memory of their General, whom they saw expire at their head in a manner worthy of himself and of them, is truly noble and praise-worthy.“ I shall take a pleasure, sir, in facilitating, in every way, such amiable intentions: and on receiving notice of the measures taken for shipping this marble, will not tail to transmit to you immediately the passport you desire, and to send directions to the governor of Quebec for its reception.“ I withal beg of you, sir, to be persuaded of my just sensibility of that so obliging part of the letter which you have honoured me relating to myselt ; and to believe that I embrace, as a happiness, this opportunity of manifesting the esteem and particular regard with which! have the honour to be, &c.“ London, April 10th.1761.W.Pitt.” EPITAPH.Hie jacet, Utroque in orbe æternum victurus, LUDOVICO'S JOSEPHUS DE MONTCALM GOZON, Marchio Sancti Verani, Baro Gabriaei, Ordinis Sancti Ludovici Commendator, Legatus-Generalis Exercituum Gallicorum ; Egregius et Civis et Miles, Nullius rei appetens præterquam verse laudis, Ingenio felici, et literis exculto ; Omnes Militiæ gradus per continua decora emensus, Omnium Belli Artium, temporum, discriminum gnarus, In Italia, in Bohemia, in Germania Dux industrius.'' Mandata sibi ita semper gèrens ut majoribus par haberetur.Jam clarus periculis Ad tutandam Canadensem Provinciam missus, Parva militum manu Hostium copias non semel repulit Propugnacula cepit viris armisque instructissima.Algorjs, inediæ vigiliarum, laboris patiens, Suis unice prospiciens, immemor sui, Hostis acer, victor mansuetus.Fortunam virtute, viriutn inopiam peritia et celeritate compensavit : Imminens Coionia?fatum et consilio et manu per quadriennium sustinuit, Tandem ingentem Exercitum Duce strenuo et audaci, Classemque omni bellorum mole gravem, Multiplici prudentiâ diu ludificatus, Vi pertractus ad dimicandum, In prima acie, in primo conflictu vulneratus, Religioni quam semper coluerat innitens, Magno suorum desiderio, nec sine hostium moerore, Extinctus est Die xiv.Sept., a.d.mdoclix.ætat.xlviii.Mortales optimi ducis exuvias in excavatâ humo, Quam globus bellicus decidens dissiliensque defoderat, Galli lugentes deposuerunt, Et generosæ hostium fidei commendârunt.TRANSLATION.Here lies, In each hemisphere to live for ever, LOUIS JOSEPH DE MONTCALM GOZON, (3) Jean Pierre de Bougainville, Secretary to the Academy of Belles-Lettres and Inscriptions, at Paris.He died in 1763, of asthma, brought on by intense application.He was brother to the celebrated navigator.—(Beatson.) JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 137 Marquis of St.Veran, Baron of Gabriac, Commander of the Order of St.Louis, Lieutenant-General in the French army ; Illustrious both as Citizen and Soldier, And desirous of nought but true glory.Gifted with superior abilities, improved by literature ; Having passed through the various grades of military rank With uninterrupted honor, Skilful in all the arts of war and in the exigencies of the times, In Italy; in Bohemia, in Germany, An indefatigable General ; He so discharged his important commands As always to be deemed worthy of still greater.Now, rendered famous by the dangers he had surmounted, Sent, with a small army, To defend the Province of Canada, He more than once repulsed the ennemy’s forces, And captured their forts replete with men and arms.Enduring cold, hunger, watching, and labor, Unmindful of himself He cared only for his soldiers : As an enemy, determined ; as a conqueror, mild ; Adverse fortune he compensated with valor ; The want of strength, with skill and activity ; And by his counsel and energy For four years averted the impending fate of the Colony.At length, after having, by great foresight, Long baffled a powerful army Under an enterprising and intrepid leader, And a fleet laden with all warlike stores, He was compelled to give battle.Wounded, in the foremost rank, at the first onset, Depending on the religion he had always revered, Greatly longed for by his own army, And not unregretted by his opponents, He died, On the 14th day of September 1759, In the 48th year of his age.His weeping countrymen Deposited the mortal remains of their most excellent General In an excavation formed by the bursting of a fallen bomb ; And commended them to the generous care of the enemy.” For some reason which we cannot account lor this monument was never landed in Canada.It is to the generosity and commendable piety of Mr.Faribault and of his friends, that a handsome tablet, bearing the arms of Montcalm and the above inscription, was executed by Mr.Morgan, sculptor at Quebec, and placed over the warrior’s grave alongside of the laconic and beautiful french inscription, which Lord Aylmer caused to be fixed in the wall, in 1831, which reads as follows : Honneur à Montcalm ! Le destin, en lui dérobant la victoire, L’a récompensé par une mort glorieuse ! H.G.M.LITERATURE.POETRY.Now fades the glimmering landscape on tbe sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds : Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower, The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, Molest her ancient solitary reign.Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree’s shade.Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.The breezy call of incense-breathing morn, The swallow twittering from the straw-built shed, The cock’s shrill clarion, or the echoing horn, No more 6hall rouse them from their lowly bed.For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn, Or busy housewife ply her evening care : No children run to lisp their sire’s return, Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke ; How jocund did they drive their team a-field I How bowed the woods beneath their sturdy stroke 1 Let not Ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys, and destiny obscure ; Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile The short and simple annals of the poor.The boast of heraldry, the pomp of powrer, And all that beauty, all that wealth e’er gave, Await alike the inevitable hour :— The paths of glory lead but to the grave.Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault, If Memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise, Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.Can storied urn or animated bust Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath ?Can Honour’s voice provoke the silent dust, Or Flattery soothe the dull cold ear of Death ?Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ; Hands that the rod of empire might have swayed, Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre : But knowledge to their eyes her ample page Rich with the spoils of time did ne’er unroll ; Chill Penury repressed their noble rage, And froze the genial current of the soul.Full many a gem, of purest ray serene, The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear : Full many a flower is born to blush unseen, And waste its sweetness on the desert air.Elegy written in a Country Churchyard.“ Wolfe had a keen appreciation of the art of poetry.The night before the battle he went in a boat to visit some of the outposts.The night was fine, the prospect of the next day cheering and impressive.As they rowed along, the General with much feeling, repeated nearly the whole of Gray’s elegy, which had recently appeared, and was but little known, to an officer who sat with him in the stern of the boat, adding as he concluded, “ that he would prefer being the author of that poem to the glory of beating the French to morrow.” The anecdote was related by the late Professor Robinson, of Edinburgh, at that time a midshipman in the Royal navy, and who happened to be on duty in the boat with Wolfe.This will account for the insertion in this number of that beautiful elegy although many of our readers may as well as Wolfe know it by heart.The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herds wind slowly o’er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me.Some village-Hampden, that with dauntless breast The little tyrant of his fields withstood ; Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest, Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.The applause of listening senates to command, The threats of pain and ruin to despise, To scatter plenty o’er a smiling land, And read their history in a nation’s eyes.Their lot forbade : nor circumscribed alone Their growing virtues, but their crimes confined ; Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne, And shut the gates of mercy on mankind : The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide, To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame, Or heap the shrine of Luxury and Pride With incense kindled at the Muse’s flame.Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife Their sober wishes never learned to stray j 138 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION Along the cool sequestered vale of life They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.Yet even these bones from insult to protect, Some frail memorial still erected nigh, With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture decked, Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered muse, The place of fame and elegy supply : And many a holy text around she strews, That teach the rustic moralist to die.For who, to dumb Forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing anxious being e’er resigned, Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind ! On some fond breast the parting soul relies, Some pious drops the closing eye requires : Even from the tomb the voice of nature cries, Even in our ashes live their wonted fires.For thee, who, mindfull of the unhonoured dead, Dost in these lines their artless tale relate ; If chance, by lonely Contemplation led, Some kindred spirit shall inquire thy fate ; Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn Brushing with hasty steps the dews away, To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.There at the foot of yonder noddiDg beech, That wreathes its old fantastic roots so high, His listless length at noontide would he stretch, And pore upon the brook that babbles by.Yet is He near us, to survey These bright and order’d files, Like spring-flowers in their best array, All silence and all smiles, Save that each little voice in turn Some glorious truth proclaims, What sages would have died to learn, Now taught by cottage dames.And if some tones be false or low, What are all prayers beneath But cries of babes, who cannot know Half the deep thought they breathe ?Keble.SCIENCE.Convention or tlie American Scientific Association for 1S59.This body held its annual meeting at Springfield, Mass., under the presidency of Dr.Alexander, during the week commencing August 3rd.There was a good attendance, and many interesting and important papers were read ; the whole number registered being 108.On Tuesday the 9th, after having chosen Dr.Isaac Lea ot Philadelphia to be president, and Dr.B.A.Gould, jr., of Boston, to be vice president for Ihe next year, the association adjourned to meet at Newport, Rhode Island, on the 1st of August, 1860.It is chiefly from the reports of the meeting published in the Springfield, Republican, that we extract the following abstracts of several papers, which may prove interesting to our readers.Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn, Muttering his wayward fancies he would rove ; Now drooping, woful, wan, like one forlorn, Or crazed with care, or crossed in hopeless love.One morn I missed him on the 'customed hill, Along the heath and near his favourite tree ; Another came ; nor yet beside the rill, Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood wa3 he.The next, with dirges due in sad array, Slow through the churchway path we saw him borne ; Approach and read (for thou canst read) the lay Graved on the stone beneath yon aged thorn.’ THE USE OF CATECHISMS.Oh say not, dream not, heavenly notes To childish ears are vain, That the young mind at random floats, And cannot reach the strain.Dim or unheard the words may fall, And yet the heaven-taught mind May learn the sacred air, and all The harmony unwind.Was not our Lord a little child, Taught by degrees to pray, By father dear, and mother mild Instructed day by day?And loved He not of heaven to talk With children in His sight, To meet them in his daily walk, And to his arms invite ?What though around Hi3 throne of fire The everlasting chant Be wafted from the sacred choir In glory jubilant ?Yet stoops He, ever pleased to mark Our rude essays of love, Faint as the pipe of wakening lark, Heard by some twilight grove : METEOROLOGY.The first paper was by Professor Henry of the Smithsonian Institute, on Meteorology.He said that extensive operations had been made in Europe and in this country, by the British admiralty, the French government, the States of New York and Pennsylvania, and by the Smithsonian Institute.The Institute had purchased many hundred instruments which had been distributed over the country, but only a series of observations extending over many years could be of value.Prof.Coffin of Lafayette College had been especially employed by the Institution : he was abundantly qualified to execute the work.The labors performed had been immense, and an idea of what progress had been made would be given.There are 350 observers in the United States who make observations three times a day.To arrive at satisfactory results the observations must also be carried on at sea.This would be done eventually, especially if the public should demand it.It was a science which required time.It was impossible, he said, to make any advance in science if it had no hypothesis We could collect facts, but to use them we must have a place.In studying nature, we soon learn to reject what is not true and preserve what is true.He proceeded to give some general views of meteorology.The general idea of the motion of the atmosphere was from Hadley.The moving power in meteoric changes was the sun.It was originally supposed that the currents of air flowed from the equator to the poles, but that could not be true ; on account of the convergence of the meridians, there was not room for the air at the poles.There were middle systems, of intermediate currents of air.But these points were not fully estab ished.There were exceptions in the general action which could be determined in their general bearings only by long observation.One cause of the fitful disturbances of the atmosphere was the conversion of water into vapor.During a single shower an amount of water fell upon the Smithsonian Institute building equal to 20,000 horse-power an hour ; that is to say the heat necessary to evaporate it would be equal to that required for working an engine of twenty thousand horse-power one hour.Another cause of distuibance was the motion of the earth itself upon its axis.In illustration, diagrams were given showing that the currents of air moved in circles,—that the same quantity of air that moved north must come from the north, of course not in the same track.Observations made tended to show a series of currents completely around the earth, north and south of the equator, also in the temperate latitudes, and in the Arctic circles.The calms at the equator, it was shown, were caused by the upward currents of the air,—currents coming from the north and south and rising over the equator, under the influence of heat. FOR LOWER CANADA.139 In regard to the meteoiology of our own continent, it was shown that there were four circles,-—two in the Atlantic, one of which the Gulf Stream complete its circle once in three years, one in the Southern Atlantic, one in the Northern Pacific, and one in the Southern Pacific.These are sub-divided into minor currents, ft is found that the cold Arctic current setting south from the coast of Labrador, passes through the Gulf of St.Lawrence, while the ice which comes down sets eastward towaids Europe.Between these there is produced the deposition of vapor or fog on the banks of Newfoundland.He had been assured by Mr.Wise, the æronaut, that out of 200 ascensions, he had always been enab'ed to move east on reaching an upper stratum of air.He (Prof.H.) therefore did not think it impossible that an aerial voyage could be made to Europe.Success would greatly depend upon ihe ability to make the balloon air-tight.If kept in the upper strata, it might succeed, although it was not certain there was not a reverse current in mid ocean.In the lower strata there were irregularities which must be avoided.The balloon he considered as an important means of meteorological observation ; by it, electrical phenomena and the formation of clouds could be observed.The reason why the English meteorologists had failed to make any satisfactory obvervations, was because they lived on the western side of a great continent, with no opportunity to make observations west of them, while we lived on the eastern side ot a great continent, with telegraph lines extending inland thousands of miles.The formation of hail, thunder gusts, tornadoes, and other phenomena, were explained in a clear manner, which was listened to with intense interest and frequent applause.He gave an account of the method of observation pursued each day at the Smithsonian Institute.They have a map of the United States hung upon a board, with pins stuck through it at the points where the observers of the institute are stationed.The Institute has daily reports by telegraph from many of these points.Each morning an assistant hangs a cord on the pins to indicate the state ol the wea'her—black if raining, green if snowing, brown if cloudy, and white if fair.All storms travel east, and thus they are enabled to predict with great certainty the condition of the weather twelve hours in advance.Meteorology as connected with agriculture, was then considered.It was shown that the fertility of the soil of the United States was owing to the currents from the Mexican Gulf and the Pacific ; and it was shown that the climate of the 100th meridian must forever be unfruitful, unless trees should be planted, which might modify it somewhat.CORRELATION OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL FORCES.Professor Joseph Le Conte, of South Carolina, read one of the ablest papers of the session on the above subject.The fact that matter is constantly changing its form, and is also indestructible, is universally admitted.Both these axioms hold good with regard to force.“ The same absolute of force exists in the universe at all times and forever.The mutual convertibility of the various forms of force, is called the correlation of forces; and the unvariability of the absolute amount in the midst of changes shows the conservation of force.” There are four planes of material existence, which may be regarded as being raised one above another.The first and lowest is The plane of elementary existence, the second the plane of chemical compounds or mineral kingdom, the third the plane of vegetable existence, and the fourth animal existence.Now it is apparently impossible for any known force in nature to raise matter through all these grades at once.On the contrary, there is a special force adapted for the elevation of matter from each plane to the one above.It is the special function of chemical affinity to raise matter from plane one to plane two.All the changes too which take place upon plane two by the mutual reaction of bodies situated upon t at plane, are under the guidance and control of this force.It is the special prerogative of the force of vegetable life, to lift matter from two to three, or from the condition of mineral to the higher condition of vegetable matter.All the changes which take place upon this plane, the laws ot which constitute vegetable physiology, are under the guidance of this force.Finally the force of animal life, and that alone, enjoys the privilege of lifting matter still higher into the fourth plane, i.e.the plane of animal existence.No force in nature can lift from one to three, or from two to four.Plants cannot feed entirely upon elementary matter, nor can animals feed upon mineral matter.The reason of this will be seen in the sequel.Thus it seems that after matter is raised from the elementary to the mineral condition, it requires an additional force of another and peculiar kind to raise it into the vegetable kingdom, and again another accession of force to raise it into the animal kingdom.Thus these kingdoms are truly represented as successive planes raised one above the other thus : 1, elements ; 2, mineral kingdom ; 3, vegetable kingdom ; 4, animal kingdom.FORMATION OF OCEANS AND CONTINENTS.Prof.Le Conte then gave his views in respect to the formation of continents and oceans, ft was an attempt ,o prove the truth of the theory of Prof.Airy as to the laws governing bodies floating upon fluids, and considered as explaining the phenomena of continents, oceans, and volcanoes, upon the supposition that the inside of the earth is fluid and enclosed by a crust.Prof.Le Conte gave an elaborate explanation illustrated by diagrams of different bodies floating upon water, proving that the under surface of such bodies may be judged of as to their configuration by a simple inspection of their upper surface.“ If there is a general rising or depression of the upper surface from the margin towards the middle, we may be absolutely sure there is a general projection or hollowing of the under surface corresponding ; in a word, the general outline of the two surfaces is similar.” If the surface of the earth is raised by continents, a corresponding thickness or elevation must be found inside, a swelling inward of the crust ; and if the outer surface is depressed as in ocean bottoms, there the inner surface is hollowed out, making the middle of the bottom much thinner than the edges.The speaker from the evidence adduced to prove these general ideas, assumed that the centre of the earth was fluid, that the crust floats upon its surface and is subject to the laws of floating bodies.The laws and conditions under which this crust cooled and its state when solidified were then scientifically explained at length, as tending to confirm the generally accepted theories as to the fluidity of the central mass.This theory, the speaker remarked, would satisfactorily account for the distribution of volcanoes, if not for the phenomena.He admitted that volcanoes were the most difficult of explanation oi all the igneous phenomena in nature, and although gases and vapours are probably one cause of the eruptions, yet he thought few physical geologists -would admit the local pressure of gas as the only or even the chief cause.The great general cause, he thought, might be the reaction of the crust upon the interior fluid, and gave his reasons therefore.At any rate the disruption of the crust should take place in the thinnest part as the bottom of the sea, and the next place should be the next weakest part or the margins of the sea, and these are exactly the places where the volcanoes occur.Of 225 active volcanoes mentioned by Humboldt, 155 are situated upon islands in the ocean, and of the remaining 70 almost the whole are situated near the sea-shore, while but very few are found in the interior of continents.This paper as a whole was remarkably clear, logical and conclusive, and presented many points worthy of study.GYPSUM AND MAGNESIAN ROCKS.Mr.T.Sterry Hunt, of Montreal, showed that besides those gypsums formed by the alteration of beds of limestone, another class, by far the more important, comprehends those gypsums which have been deposited directly from water.Such may be produced during the evaporation of sea-water ; but Mr.H.has recently shown that sulphate of magnesia is decomposed by solution of bicarbonate of lime, giving rise to gypsum, which is first deposited, and a more soluble bicarbonate of magnesia, which by further evaporation is separated as hydrous carbonate, either alone or mingled with carbonate of lime.When these magnesian precipitates are gently-heated under pressure they are changed into magnesite or dolomite.Thus are explained the magnesian rocks associated with gypsums and with rock salt.The action of solutions of bicarbonate of soda may in like manner separate the lime from sea-water and gire rise to solution of bicarbonate of magnesia ; in this way are formed the magnesian limestones which are not associated with gypsum.The intervention in this process of the waters of alkaline metalliferous springs will explain the metalliferous character of many magnesian rocks.The source of the bicarbonate of soda has been the decomposition of feldspathic rocks to form clays and clay slates.The action of this alkaline carbonate upon the lime and magnesia salts of the primitive sea has been the source of limestone and dolomites, as well as of the sea salt which we find in the ocean, at the same time that the intervention of the carbonic acid of the atmosphere which has been through the medium of the soda, fixed in the form of carbonate of lime, has served to purify the air and fit it for the support of higher orders of plants and animals.In this relation between the atmosphere, the argillaceous rocks, the limestones and the salt of the sea, we have a remarkable illustration of the balance of chemical forces in inorganic nature. 140 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FORMATION OF SIUCIOUS ROCKS.Mr.Sterry Hunt then spoke of sediments resulting from the désintégration and chemical decomposition of quartzose, feldspathic and pyroxenic rocks.In these the coarser portions consist of quartz and ol feldspar containing potash, while the finer clays have less silica but more alumina, and besides alkalies lime, magnesia and iron, which are rare in the coarser sediments.These latter being more pervious to water, the small portions of soda, lime and magnesia still remaining are removed by lixiviation, while the clays retain these bases.When these different sediments are altered and crystallized we shall have on the one hand granitic or trachytic, and on the other pyroxenic rocks, the two great types recognized in igneous rocks, all of which Mr.H.regards as derived from the alteration and fusion of sedimentary strata.To the gases and vapors evolved by the fusion of deeply buried strata are to be referred the phenomena of earthquakes and volcanos.The latter although dependent on the heat of the earth’s nucleus, are not directly connected with the central fire.LITHOLOGY OF VERMONT.Mm C.H.Hitchcock read a paper upon the so-called talcose schists of Vermont.The geological surveys of the various states have made known the existence of a broad belt of rocks from Canada to Georgia, consisting of green schists denominated talcose, associated with gneiss.This implies the presence of the mineral talc, which contains a large per cent ot magnesia.He would not affirm the conclusion at which he had arrived applied to the whole beit, but that probably the character of the whole was the same—aluminous instead of magnesian.Mr.Sterry Hunt of Montreal had analyzed some of these rocks in their northern extension into Canada, and decided that there was no magnesia present, and that talc was replaced by pyrophyilite or pholerite, and had proposed to call them nacreous schists, instead of talcose.The rock was originally clay slate.Mr.Hitchcock offered several analyses of these rocks in Vermont, which were made for him by Mr.G.G.Barker of Boston, whence he concluded that there was no magnesia present, but that they were hydrous silicates of alumina with feldspar.One of the specimens from Pownal, Vt., was interesting as affording the composition of dsysintribite and of parophite, a mineral found in certain rocks in Canada by Mr.Hunt.An analysis of a sandstone belonging to the Oneida conglomerate was also given, which went to show that some ofthe talcose schists were formed from sandstone probably of that age.THE FLORA OF JAPAN AND NORTHEASTERN AMERICA.Prof.Asa Gray, gave a theoretical explanation of the identity or similarity existing between the flora of Japan and that of the northeastern part of North America.In the beginning, the speaker said that many plants supposed heretofore to be found only in the northeastern part of North Ameria had lately been found indigenous to Japan, and instanced the poison ivy, the fox grape, choke cherry, sweet cicely and ginseng as examples.Among shrubby plants our poison dog-wood has a prototype in the varnish tree of Japan.Closely allied species generally occur in the same, or contiguous localities, but here are identical species found on opposite sides of the globe, and the question naturally arises, what bearing have these facts on the theories of the original distribution of species?Three different views have been advanced to explain the distribution of the same plants on the globe.The first supposes them to have originated in many different localities where they now are found.This is the view entertained by Prof.Agassiz, and on this theory these peculiar plants must have originated in two distinct and widely separated districts.The second theory refers the origin of each species, to one place, but allows some of them to have been reproduced in other localities as exceptions to the general law.The third refers each species to one place only as its starting point, though not from one pair, necessarily, unless it be in the case ofthe higher plants.This was the theory adopted by the speaker, although the facts already given as to the plants found in Japan, at first seemed opposed to such an idea.In explanation of those facts, he said the similarity of climate between Japan and New England would not be sufficient.The plants of western Europe are not like those of Oregon and California, though the climate is.The idea that the seeds have been carried naturally from one country to the other is not satisfactory.He supposed the flora of this country to be older than the fauna ; and that it dates back probably to the post-tertiary period.The evidence of this last he based principally on the alleged fast that fossilized specimens of our present flora have been found, and referred to about the time of the drift period ; and he then explained at some length his views as to the effect produced on the vegetation by the changes in temperature during the glacial period.Whatever dispute there might be as to this last matter, the fact would not be denied that our present flora appeared soon after that period.In the diluvial epoch the temperature in this latitude must have been much warmer than it now is ; the temperate flora of the present day, then also in existence, must have extended much further north, perhaps nearly up to the Arcticjcircle, and probably spread across from one continent to the other.Want of time prevented him from giving his views as to why he adopted the third theory of the origin and distribution of plants rather than the others ; he simply wished to-day to give his views in explanation of facts seemingly opposed to it.DEVONIAN AND CARBONIFEROUS FLORA OF BRITISH AMERICA.Prof.Dawson of Montreal gave a summary of results which he had obtained from the study of the land plants preserved in the Devonian rocks of Gaspé,—the Gaspé sandstones of Sir W.E.Logan’s survey.The most remarkable of these remains is a Lyco-poaiaceous plant, for which he had instituted the new genus Psilo-phyton ; it is so preserved in the Gaspé sandstones as to exhibit all its parts in a remarkably perfect manner.Many so-called Devonian fucoids are merely fragments of this plant.The Devonian flora of Canada also includes a conifer named by Prof.D.Protota.vites Logani, a Lepidodendron, Nœggeralhia, and Knorria, with nome other plants not determined.In the collection of Dr.Jackson of Boston, and at Portland, Prof.D., had seen specimens indicating that a similar flora exists in rocks probably Devonian at Perry, Maine.The remainder of the paper was occupied with the results of an extensive series of Microscopic observations on the Coal of Nova Scotia, prepared by new methods.A number of beautifully preserved vegetable tissues were described, and the following general conclusions stated.1st.The mass of the coal is of gymnospermous or cryptogamous origin, principally from sigillaria and calamites, and accumulated by growth in situ.2d.The rate of accumulation of coal must have been very slow.The sigillaria were allied in structure to cycads and conifers, and it is chiefly their bark and woody axes that occur in the coal.In a vertical foot of coal we may have the bark of a hundred successive generations of trees.The climate of the coal-producing eras was equable and moist as in the islands of the southern hemisphere at the present day.The coal forests were dense and covered large plains ; as the trees fell they gradually decayed, and a dense vegetation soon covered the whole mass.The growth of sigillaria was more rapid than that of trees ofthe present day of like size, but their structure proves that they did not spring up in a month or two as some have supposed.DEVONIAN GRANITES AND TACONIC ROCKS.Prof.Hitchcock of Amherst then read a short paper giving an account of a deposit of fossiliferous limestone beneath granite and mica slate in Derby, Vt.He wished to call attention to this locality, as he had found something new to him, and leading to different conclusions than those commonly held.This deposit occurs near Lake Memphremagog.He showed by diagrams the granite overlying the iimestone, and what was singular, the former dipped down into the latter in veins and there terminated.He called on Sir William Logan of Montreal for his views on the subject.The latter said that on the Canada side of the boundary line this limestone had been traced from Memphremagog lake near Derby, to the Gulf of St.Lawrence in Gaspé, a distance of 500 miles.It was well stored with fossils at several places, and appeared to be partly Upper Silurian and partly Devonian.One of the localities of los'ils was Memphremagog lake, when the fossils appeared to be allied to Devonian forms.In this neighbourhood there are masses of granite.Bebee’s plain bordering on the lake presents an area of thirty-six square miles of granite from which emanate dykes cutting and dislocating the calcareous strata.From this it is evident the granite is newer than the limestone, and therefore may well be found occasionally to overlie it.The granite he considered to be ofthe same age as that so widely extended in New Hampshire and Maine : it had been traced to New Brunswick, and at Bathurst was found to underlie the coal formation.Its age would thus be Devonian.On the west side of the Green Mountain range there was a calcareous area related to the limestones of Rutland, which, from a section he had lately made eastward from Lake Champlain in the neighbourhood of Burlington, he considered to be of the same age a 4 that at Memphremagog.Mr.J.P.Lesley of Philadelphia, said that since Sir William Logan had informed them, that he had lately been making some investigations in Vermont, he would probably be able to state some opinion in regard to the Taconic rocks. FOR LOWER CANADA.141 Sir William Logan replied that having been referred to the black slate outside of Sharp-Shins near Burlington, as an instance of Ta-conic slates, these he had found lying conformably beneath the magnesian limestones of the same point, and at Apple-tree Point on the outside of this he had found, among similar slates, Triarthrus Beclcii, a fossil known to belong to the shales of the Lower Silurian series.The magnesian limestone and the black shales beneath, he had traced in the same relation almost without a break, to the Canada boundary.From Quebec he had traced black shales and magnesian limestone, in the same relation to the same point on tho boundary line.At Quebec both the shales and the limestoue were characterized by rock-marked fossils.The fossils of the shales were those of the Utica slate and Hudson River Group, and he had no doubt that the slates of Sharp-Shins were of the same age.ON THE LAURENTIAN LIMESTONES.Sir William Logan exhibited to the section, a map on which was delineated in detail on the scale of an inch to a mile, the distribution of some of the bands of crystaline limestone interstratified with the gneiss of the Laurentian series of rocks on the north side of the Ottawa River, about forty miles above Montreal.This he explained was a continuation of similar work shown at the Montreal meeting of the association.By his recent exploration, two additional bands of limestone had been ascertained to underlie the lowest of those previously examined, the whole of the strata associated with these lower three, including the limestones, being supposed to be about 15000 feet thick.These three bands are separated from one another by gneiss, a large portion of which is porphyroid or coarse-grained, the feldspar being almost wholly orthoclase, whereas, as was stated at the Montreal meeting, calcareous bands above them are largely associated with labradorite.Intercalated with the coarse and massive orthoclase gneiss, were frequent beds, which may be characterized as mica slate, and approaching the calcareous bands are beds of hornblende rock, and quartz rock, these latter, and sometimes bands of nearly pure white orthoclase, when immediately near the limestone or interstratified with it, being very often thickly studded with pink garnets, one of the beds of white and nearly pure quartz rock, which was traced for a mile and a-half, presented a thickness of 1000 feet.No instance of clay slates was met with.These strata are exceedingly corrugated, and the outcrop of the limestone presents a multitude of sharp turns resulting from small plications subordinate to more important synclinal and anticlinal forms, the axes of which appear to run nearly north and south.Some of these axes have now been traced up the Rouge, a tributary of the Ottawa, for a distance of fifty miles in a straight line.Although the Laurentian series has hitherto been considered azoic, a search for fossils in them has not been neglected.Such search is naturally connected with great difficulties.Any organic remains which may have been entombed in these limestones, wonld, if they retained their calcareous character, be almost certainly obliterated by crystalization, and it would only be through their replacement by a different mineral substance that there would be a chance of some of the forms being preserved.No such instances had been observed on the investigations of the Rouge and its vicinity, but from another locality in the Laurentian formation, Mr.John McMullin, one of the explorers of the Geological Survey had obtained specimens well worthy of attention.They consisted of parallel or apparently concentric layers resembling those of the coral Stromatocerium, except that they anastomoze at various parts, the layers consist of crystaline pyroxene, while the interstices are filled with crystalized carbonate of lime.These specimens had recalled to recollection others which had been obtained from Dr.Wilson of Perth some years ago, and had not then been regarded with sufficient attention.In these similar forms are composed of green serpentine, concretionary while the interstices are filled with white dolomite.If it be supposed that both are the result of mere unaided arrangement, it would seem strange that identical forms should result from such different minerals in places so far apart.If the specimens had been obtained from the altered rocks of the Lower Silurian series, there would have been little hesitation in pronouncing them to be fossils.The resemblance of these forms to Stromatocerium from the Birdseye limestone, when the coral has been replaced by concretionary slica is very striking.In the pyroxenic specimens, the pyroxene and the carbonate of lime being both white, the forms although weathered into strong relief on the surface, are not perceptible in fresh fractures until the fragments are subjected to an acid, the application of which shows the structure running throughout the mass.Several specimens of these supposed fossils were exhibited to the Section.—Canadian Naturalist.EDUCATION.School days of Eminent Men in CJreat-Britain.By John Timbs, F.S.A.(Continued from, our last.) LXX.FLOGGING IN SCHOOLS.In the Middle Ages, we read of, besides stationary, itinerant schoolmasters, and teachers of reading.In the woodcuts of a work printed by Caxton, the schoolmaster holds a rod in his hand, and the boy kneels before him.The practice of flogging is sometimes engraved upon the seals of public schools : thus, the seal ot St.OJave’s School, dated 1576, represents the Master sitting in a high-backed chair at his desk, on which is a book, and the rod is conspicuously displayed to the terror of five scholars standing before him.Dr.Busby, who was 50 years head-master ot Westminster School, is said to have boasted his rod to be the sieve to prove good scholars ; but his severity is traditional.The practice ot Hogging in Winchester is illustrated upon the walls of the great School, as already described.LXXI.WESTMINSTER COLLEGE SCHOOL FOUNDED.It is one of the unfading glories of ancient Westminster that it has been a seal of learning since the time when it xvas a “ thorny island,” and at least eight centuries since was rebuilt the Abbey Church “ to the honour of God and St.Peter.” The queen of the Confessor is related to have played with a Westminster scholar in grammar, verses, and logic, as she met him in his way from the monastery school to the palace, as related by the chronicler with all the circumstantial minuteness of the account of a royal visit of yesterday.Equally direct is the evidence that from the latter part of the reign of Edward III., down to the dissolution of the Abbey, a salary was paid to a schoolmaster, styled “ Magister Scholarium pro eruditione puerorum grammaticorum,” who was distinguished from the peri on who taught the children of the choir to sing.The earliest school was thus an appurtenance of the monastery ; and is included in the draft (in the archives of the Chapter,) of the new establishment for the See of Westminster.During the reign of Queen Mary, Cardinal Pole appears to have suffered the school to languish wholly unsupported.Her successor enforced the right of election to studentships, restored the revenues, and the foundation of an Upper and Lower Master and forty scholars, and gave the present statutes, whence Elizabeth has received the honourable title of Foundress.This Queen added an important statute to regulate the mode of election of novitiates into St.Peter’s College.Evelyn, has recorded one of these examinations.Dean Goodman was the next benefactor, in obtaining a perpetual grant of his prebend of Chiswick, to be a place of refuge for the members of the Chapter and College whenever pestilence might be desolating Westminster.During this Deanship, the scholars were lodged in one spacious chamber, their commons were regulated, and the apartments of the Masters received an increase ot comfort and accommodation.Among the earliest grants is a perpetual annuity of twenty marks, made in 1594, by Cecil, Lord High Treasurer, to be presented as gifts to scholars elected to either of the Universities.Before the middle of the reign of Elizabeth, the rudiments of the Greek language were taught to boys at Westminster School ; and Harrison, in his preface to Holinshed, about 1586, states that the boys of the three great collegiate schools (Winchester, Eton, and Westminster,) were “ well entered in the knowledge of the Latin and Greek tongues and rules of versifying.” Once more evil days fell upon the rising school.The abbey was desecrated, and the families of the scholars were threatened or assailed by the horrors of the Great Rebellion, when Parliament, having for about four years exercised power over the School through a Committee, in 1649 assumed a protectorate, entrusting the management of the School to a government of fifty members established in the Deanery.The fee or inheritance of many of the Abbey estates was sold; old rents only being reserved to the College.This control lasted until the Restoration in 1660 ; since which period the scholars have been maintained by the common 142 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION revenues of the Collegiate Church, at a cost of about 1200J.a-year.The Queen’s Scholars wear caps and gowns ; and there are four Brshop s Boys educated free, who wear purple gowns, and have i.annually amongst them.Besides this foundation, a great number ot sons of the nobility and gentry are educated here.Of the Queen s Scholars an examination takes place in Rogation week, -hen/our are elected to Trinity College, Cambridge, and four to Chnstchurch, Oxford ; scholarships of about 602.a-year.The scholars from the fourth, fifth, and Shell Forms « stand out ” in Latin, Greek, and grammatical questionings, on the Wednesday before Ascension Day, in the presence of the Head Master, who presides as umpire, when the successful competitors being chosen to fill the vacancies, “ the Captain of the Election ” is chaired round Dean’s L ard, or the school court.On Rogation Tuesday, a dinner is given to the electors, and all persons connected with the School, by the Dean and Chapter ; and any old Westminster scholar ot sufficient rank or standing is entitled to attend it.After dinner, epigrams are spoken by a large proportion of the Queen’s scholars.There are several funds available to needy scholars ; and the whole foundation and school is managed by the Dean and Chapter of Westminster.The school buildings are in part ancient.You enter the School court from the Broad Sanctuary, through an archway in a block of houses of mediaeval architecture.The porch of the School is stated to have been designed by Inigo Jones.On the north front is the racket-court, formed against part of the west wall of the dormitory.The venerable School itselt, once the dormitory of the monks, ranges behind the eastern cloister of the Abbey.It is a long and spacious building, with a semicircular recess at one end, the Head Master’s table standing in front of it ; four tiers of forms, one above the other, are ranged along the eastern and western walls ; and the room has a massive open-timber roof of chesnut.The Upper and Lower Schools are divided by a bar, which formerly bore a curtain : over this bar on Shrove Tuesday, at eleven o’clock, the College cook, attended by a verger, having made his obeisance to the Masters, proceeds to toss a pancake into the Upper School, once a warning to proceed to dinner in the Hall.The School is fraught with pious memories.Here “ that sweet singer of the Temple, George Herbert,” was reared ; and that love of choral music, which was his heaven upon earth,” was, no doubt, implanted here, while he went up to pray in the glorious Abbey.And it was here that South, in his loyal childhood, reader of the Latin prayers for the morning, publicly prayed ior Charles 1.by name, “ but an hour or two at most before his sacred head was struck off.” Nor can we forget among the ushers, the melody of whose Latin poems had led him to be called “ Sweet Vinny Bourne ; ” or the mastership of Busby, who boasted his rod to be the sieve to prove good scholars, and walked with covered head before Charles II.; then humbly at the gate assured his Majesty that it was necessary for his dignity before his boys to be the greatest man there, even though a king were present.How successfully, too, is Busby commemorated in the whole-length portrait of the great schoolmaster standing beside his favourite pupil, Spratt.Upon the walls are inscribed many great names ; and in the library is preserved part of the form on which Dryden once sat, and on which his autograph is cut.In the Census Alumnorum, or list of foundation scholars, are Bishops Overall and Ravis, translators of the Bible ; Hakluyt, collector of Voyages ; Gunter, inventor of the Scale ; « Master George Herbert ; ” the poets Cowley and Dryden ; South ; Locke ; Bishops Atterbury, Spratt, and Pearce ; the poet Prior, and Stepney the statesman ; Rowe and “ Sweet Vinny Bourne,” the poets ; Churchill, the satirist; Warren Hastings; Everard Home, surgeon; Dr.Drury, of Harrow School, &c.Among the other eminent persons educated here are Lord Burleigh ; Ben Jonson ; Nat Lee ; Sir Christopher Wren; Jasper Mayne, the poet; Barton Booth, the actor; Black-more, Browne, Dyer, Hammond, Aaron Hill, Cowper, and Sonthey, the poets ; Horne Tooke ; Gibbon, the historian ; Cumberland, the dramatist; Colman the Younger; Sir Francis Burdett ; Harcourt, Archbishop of York ; the Marquis of Lansdowne ; Lord John Russell ; the Marquis of Anglesey ; Sir John Cam Hobhouse (Lord Broughton) ; George Bidder, of calculating fame, now the eminent civil engineer.Among the eminent Masters are Camden, ‘‘ the Pausanias of England,” who had Ben Jonson for a scholar ; and Dr.Busby, who had Dryden, and who, out of the bench of bishops, taught sixteen.The College Hall, originally the Abbot’s refectory, was built by Abbot Litlington, temp.Edward III.: the floor is paved with chequered Turkish marble ; at the south end is a musician’s gallery, now used as a pantry, and behind are butteries and hatches ; at the north side, upon a dais, is the high table ; those below, of chesnut-wood, are said to have been formed out of the wreck of the Armada.The roof-timbers spring from carved corbels, with angels bearing shields of the Confessor’s and Abbot’s arms ; and a small louvre rises above the central hearth, upon which in winter a wood and charcoal fire used to bum until the year 1850.(1) The Library is a modern Italian room, and contains several memorials of the attachment of (c Westminsters.” The old dormitory, built in 1380, was the granary of the monastery ; and was replaced by the present dormitory in 1722, from the designs of the Earl of Burlington : its walls are thickly inscribed with names.Here Latin plays are represented upon the second Thursday in December, and the Monday before and after that day.These performances superseded the old Mysteries and Moralities in the reign of Queen Mary, when the boy actors were chiefly the acolytes, who served at mass.Warton mentions that this “ liberal exercise is yet preserved, and in the spirit of true classical purity, at the College of Westminster.” Garrick designed scenery for these pieces ; but the modern dresses formerly used were not exchanged for Greek costume until 1839.The plays acted of late years have been the Andria, Phormio, Eunuchus, and Adelphi, of Terence, with Latin prologue and epilogue pleasantly reflecting in their humour events of the day.Two new scenes were drawn for the theatre, in 1857, by Professor Cockerell, R.A.Boating is a favourite recreation of the Westminsters, who have often contested the championship of the Thames with Eton.On May 4, 1837, the Wesuninsters won a match at Eton; when, by desire of William IV., the victors visited Windsor Castle, and were there received by the good-natured king.(7b be continued.) Suggestive Hints towards Improved Secular Instruction.by the Rev.Richard Dawes, A.M.(Continued from our last.) V.NATURAL HISTORY.The subject of Natural History, both of plants and animals, so far as they differ from each other in external form, in habits, etc., may be turned to very good account, and made the means of a great deal of useful instruction in our elementary schools.“ All this, it has been observed, children are capable of understanding—it consists in attending to the objects with which Nature presents us, in considering them with care, and admiring their different beauties, but without searching out their causes, which belong to a higher department of knowledge : for children have eyes and do not want curiosity : they ask questions, and love to be informed, and here we need only awaken and keep up in them the desire for learning and knowing, which is natural to mankind.” The children here are in the habit, as the spring and summer advance, of bringing to the school plants and flowers when they first come out—small twigs of the different trees of the parish, as the foliage begins to expand—aquatic and other plants ; all these, so far as a knowledge ot them can be had from the organs of vision, with a little ol the mind and of common sense to help it, are made vehicles of instruction.For instance, the names of the different parts of a flower, from its root upwards, and the functions which each part performs—the nature of the root, whether bulbous, fibrous, or tap-rooted—the uniformity in number of the petals, stamen, pistil, etc.,—running through the same class of plants ;—difference in the shape of leaves —some are notched and some are plain—some rough, others smooth ; some oval, some round ; some bright green, others dark—the underside of the leaf differing in colour from the upper, etc.: the different kinds of soil on which they find the wild plants—showing that the soil on which any particular plant is generally found, is most likely one best suited to its habits—that some plants, and pointing out which (this they ought to know from their own observation), are only found in shady places ; while oihers will not grow at all in the shade ; that, when a flower or leaf withers, it is from the juices (1) Fires continued to be made on a hearth in the middle of the hall called the reredos, in many college halls in Oxford and Cambridge, until about the year 1820. FOR LOWER CANADA.143 making their escape into the atmosphere, and the plant, being separated from its roots, cannot get a fresh supply ; how aquatic plants, differing in structure from those on dry land in their air-cells, are calculated to float.Then again, the small twigs of the different trees or shrubs they may bring, the oak, and the elm, and the beech—place a little twig of each side by side—how many differences in external appearance —in the leaf, the bark, the texture of the wood—the bark of the oak used for tanning, and the difference in time in the leaf coming out, and in its fall—the value of each as timber.The acacia and the laurel—beauty of the leaves, how uniformly the leaflets of the acacia are set on, one opposite another,—how regularly in some plants the leaves are placed directly opposite to one another, others, again, alternating on opposite sides of the stem ; point out the framework of the leaves, how the skeletons of them differ—to observe this in decayed leaves.Another morning they bring different twigs of the pine tribe—the larch, the Scotch fir, spruce, or silver fir—pointing out their threadlike leaves—that the larch is deciduous, the others not, etc.In this way they become acquainted with all the trees in the parish.That when a tree is cut down, the number of concentric rings on the face of a section of the stem marks the number of years’ growth ; that when they observe one ring smaller than another, it would denote a small growth for that year, and might have been caused by some peculiarity in the season, etc., such as a hard winter.The great age of some trees, particularly yew.These kind of observations should be made with the plants before their eyes, otherwise they have but little effect: the teacher would then tell them to sit down and describe a leaf, a twig, etc., of any of them ; or some take one, some another, which is better, as this does away with the temptation to get hints from each other.Again, calling their attention to some of the more striking differences in animals in their outward appearance and habits—the migrating of birds and their return, getting them to observe it ; difference in the teeth and in the articulation of the jaw, in animals of prey and of those which ruminate, the jaw of the latter being capable of a rotatory motion, which enables them to grind, the other not, and having long tearing teeth ; the air-cells in the bones of birds so beautifully adapted to the purposes of flight—the feathering of water-birds—the down on their breasts—the peculiarity of their feet, and how differing from the feet of those that roost, etc.But more particularly will a teacher interest his school in this department by making observations of this kind and comparisons, etc., among the birds they are in the habit of seeing, such as the cuckoo, swallow, tom-tit, skylark, woodpecker, jay, or ducks and geese.In this way they become observers of the external world with which they are in contact ; it adds both to their happiness and to their usefulness, inasmuch as all these things have a practical bearing on social life.These are thy glorious works, Parent of good— Almighty ! Thine this universal frame, Thus wond’rous fair : Thyself how wond’rous then, Unspeakable ! who sitt’st above the heavens— To us invisible, or dimly seen In these thy lowest works ; yet these declare Thy goodness beyond thought, and power divine.—Milton.VI.ARITHMETIC.Arithmetic should be made an exercise of the mind, and not merely an application of rules got by heart ; in fact, it ought to be taught on a sort of common-sense principle, beginning with very simple things, and leading the children on, step by step.It is difficult to fix on their minds ideas of abstract numbers, and therefore, at first, the numerals 1, 2, 3, etc., should be connected with visible objects ; such as books, boys, girls, etc., and thus they should be made to understand that a number, when applied to things or objects, means a collection of units of that thing or object, but that the same kind of units must run throughout ; that in a class of children each child is a unit, and that, when we speak of a hundred children in a school, we speak of a hundred units, each of which is a child ; but that we must have units of the same kind, or we could not class them all together ; that we might say a hundred children when half are boys and half are girls, because the word child means either boy or girl, and in that sense either of them is a unit ; but we could not say one hundred boys or one hundred girls, when there are fifty of each sort ; the unit, of boys or girls, not running through the school, but only half way ; we might say a hundred head of cattle, when half were sheep and half were cows, but we could not say one hundred sheep or one hundred cows.In the same way the sportsman says a hundred head of game, meaning by that hares, rabbits, etc., but in all a hundred separate heads of animals.It will helu very much to facilitate the future steps, if the teacher can get the children to form correct ideas as to the local value of each figure, and this may be done by altering the position of the same figures, so as to make them represent different numbers ; as 56, that is, five tens and six units ; 65 would be six tens and five units ; 678 is six hundreds, seven tens, and eight units,—876, etc.: thatO has no value in itself, but being placed on the right hand of a figure makes its value ten times as great as it was, because it shifts the first figure from the unit’s to the ten’s place, and so on ; as 6 by placing 0 on the right hand becomes 60, and so on, and from this to infer that by placing a 0 on the right-hand side of any number, you multiply it by ten.This is to be a sort of induction or conclusion they are to arrive at, as a general rule drawn from testing it by particular instances.In the same way he would point out that any other figure placed on the right hand of a number multiplies that number by ten, inasmuch as it advances each figure one place to the left, and at the same time increases the number by the number of digits it contains ; two figures by 100, etc.; thus 95, placing 6 on the right hand, becomes 956, or 900 + 50 + 6 ; placing 65, becomes 9,565, or 9,000 + 500 + 60 + 5.That 5, 6, etc., are always so many units, but the unit of value rises in a tenfold proportion every place the figure is advanced to the left.When they know a little of numeration, the teacher should write on the black-board, and make them thoroughly understand writing down numbers in the following way: 69, or 6(3 + 9; 756, or 700 + 50 + 6 ; 1050, or 1000 + 0 hundreds +50 + 0 units, making them say seven hundreds, five tens, six units ; one thousand, no hundreds, five tens, no units : this they ought to be exercised in until they know what they are about.In exercising them as a class by the repeated addition or subtraction of the same number, it may be made more of a mental exercise by checking them every now and then, testing what has been done ; for instance, adding by sevens, until they have come up to 63 ; stop there, and ask the boy whose turn is next, whether they are correct as far as they have gone; perhaps he says, Yes.Why?because 63,7 = 9, or seven added nine times to itself gives 63 ; and the probability is they are right, and one would generally conclude so ; but here the teacher will point out to them—there may be an error of seven, or any multiple of seven, and in that case the result would still be divisible by seven, and at the same time wrong : tell them to reckon the boys, and if nine, the proof is complete.Again, supposing them to have gone on adding by sevens until the sum is 77 : ask, right or wrong ; the boy will answer right, because 77/7 = 11 ; then go on a little further, and a boy says, for instance, 99 : divide, there is a remainder of one ; it was right at 77 when the eleventh boy answered, therefore the error must be with the last three boys.They should always be practised in asking such questions as : How many divisors has the number 12 above unity?—how many 15 ?thus 12 = 2 x 3 x 2, or 15 = 5 x 3, splitting the number into its factors : that all even number sare divisible by 2, and that no odd number is.This seems simple, but if constantly repeated has a good effect.3 may be written 1 + 1 + 1, or 3 4 “ 2 + 2 5 « 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1, or 5 6 “ 2 + 2 + 2, or 3 + 3 9 “ in separate units, or 3 + 3 + 3 ; that a class of nine children may be made to stand out as units, but they cannot be made to stand out in twos without a remainder—in sets of three, but not of four.•Thus showing them that up to 20, a class containing an even number of children may be made into more sets without a remainder, than a class containing an odd number; it is well to illustrate this practically, either by parcelling out a class, or a number of small pieces of wood, thus carrying conviction both to the eye and to the mind.There is no exercise which has a better piactical effect than pointing out all the factors into which numbers up to a hundred, for instance, can be broken, such as— 24 = 2 x 12, or 3 X 8, 3 X 2 x 4, or 3 x 2 x 2 x 2.This subject of the number of divisors without a remainder, would lead the teacher to speak of the subdivisions of a coinage, from which he would show that a coin value twenty shillings would be much more convenient than one of twenty-one shillings, as admitting of more divisions without a remainder, and therefore ot more subcoins without fractions. 144 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION Having made them well acquainted with the first four rules, they must then be made to understand the coinage, the measures of space, time, and volume.1 To get a correct idea of the comparative length of an inch, afoot, a yard, etc., and how many times the shorter measure is contained in the longer, the common carpenter’s two-foot rule is of great service—show them by actual measurement on the floor what is meant by two, three, four yards, etc., as far as the dimensions of the school will permit.The motions of the hands on the face of the clock should be pointed out what space ot time is meant by a minute, an hour, and a year all wrords in use as measures of time—the same as to measures of volume.Many of the labouring class in agricultural districts, even when grown up to manhood, cannot read the clock face.When the children understand these things, it will be found most useful to practise them in little arithmetical calculations connected with their own domestic consumption, or applying personally to themselves, such as ^3 b v 3 Supposing each person in a family consume 16^1bs.of sugar in a year, consider each of you how many your own family consists of, and make out how much sugar you would use in one year.How much would it cost your father at 5\d.per pound, and how much would be saved if at 4\d.per pound ?This village consists of 1,120 people, how much would the whole village consume at the same rate?How much the county, population 355,004 ?v v Each boy adapting the first question to the number of his family, varies it without trouble to the teacher, and thus no temptation is offered to any one to rely on his neighbour.In arithmetical calculations they can easily catch a result from others; this the teacher should in every way discourage, or he wifi very soon find that two or three of the sharper boys in a class know something about it, the rest nothing.Tell them to rely upon themselves, and ask questions if they are at a loss.In this way a great variety of questions connected with sugar, coffee, their clothing, such as a bill of what they buy at the village shop, groceries, etc.—a washing bill, etc., may be set ; and when told to do a question or two of this kind in an evening at home, it will very often be found to have been a matter of great inteiest and amusement to the whole family.In teaching them arithmetic, such simple questions as the following occasionally asked will, by degrees, lead them to form correct ideas of fractional quantities.How many pence in a shilling?Twelve.Then what part of a shilling is a penny ?One twelfth.Then make them write it 1/12 on their slates.How many twopences in a shilling—threepences, etc.?Then what part is twopence, threepence, etc.?1/6, etc.Again, how many shillings in a pound ?Then what part of a pound is one, two, three.nineteen shillings?1/20, 2/20, 3/20, and so on to 19/20, 20/20 or a whole.In the same way with measures of space, thus leading them by gentle degrees to see that in numerical fractions what is called the denominator denotes the number of equal parts into which a whole is divided, and the numerator the number of parts taken.CTo be continued.) OFFICIAL NOTICES.APPOINTMENTS : LAVAL NORMAL SCHOOL.His Excellency, the Governor General in Council, was pleased, on the 3rd instant, to appoint Mr.Napoléon Laçasse ordinary professor in the Laval Normal School, vice Mr.Joseph Emile de Penouillet, deceased.SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS AND SCHOOL TRUSTEES.His Excellency, the Governor General, has been pleased to make the following appointments of School Commissioners and School Trustees.County of Rimouski.—St.Simon : Mr.Louis Jean.“ “ —Métis : Messrs.Vital Dumas and Fabien Talbert.County of Pontiac.—Chichester : Messrs.Bryan Golden and John Pou.pare.County of Quebec.—St.Colomban de Sillery : Mr.John Sharpies." “ —St.Colomban de Sillery : (dissidents, Trustees.) The Rev.Armine W.Mountain, Messrs.William Rhodes and Michael Stevenson.County of Shefford.—Granby: Mr.Dominique Senécal, trustee.County of Laprairie—St.Isidore : Mr.Antoine Doyon.County of Temiscouata.—St.Antonin : The Rev.Jacob Côté, Messrs.J.B.Rossignol, Michel Charron dit Laferrière, Zéphirin Léveillé, Honoré Bélanger and George April, Secretary Treasurer.annexation to school municipality.His Excellency, the Governor General in Council, was pleased, on the 9th instant^ to annex to the School Municipality of Rivière-Ouelle, in the county of Kamouraska, that portion of the lands belonging to Messrs.Clément Lévêque, François Ouellet, François Gagnon, Eusèbe Gagnon, Pierre Dubé, Barthélemi Thibault, Vincent Ouellet and Joseph Pelletier, which portion of said lands now forms part of the Municipality of St.pacome, in the said county of Kamouraska.DONATIONS TO THE LIBRARY OP THE DEPARTMENT.The Superintendent acknowledges, with many thanks, the receipt of the following donations to the Library of the Department.From Messrs.Ivison and Phinney, Booksellers, New York : Sander's Analysis of English Words, 1 vol.in-8 ; Robinson’s Mathematical Series, 1 vol.in-8.From Messrs.Sanborn, Bazin and Ellsworth, Booksellers, Boston : The Progressive First Reader, 1 vol.in-18 ; The Progressive Second Reader, 1 vol.in-18 ; The Progressive Third Reader, 1 vol.in-8 ; The Progressive Fourth Reader, 1 vol.in-8; The Progressive Fifth Reader, 1 vol.in-8 ; The Progressive Speaker and Common School Reader, 1 vol.in-8 ; The Progressive Primer, 1 vol.in-18; The Progressive Speller, 1 vol.in-12.SITUATION AS TEACHER WANTED.Mr.John Guthrie, is desirous of obtaining a situation as teacher.Applications to be addressed to the Education Office.JOURNAL OF EDUCATION.MONTREAL, (LOWER CANADA) SEPTEMBER, 1859.NECROLOGY.If the whole country has learnt with unmingled sorrow, and a feeling of awe caused by the suddenness of the accident and the high position of the victim, the death of the interesting and beloved son of His Excellency, the Governor General ; the fact of his being a young man and a student of the most promising talents and dispositions will, if possible, excite still greater sympathies in the bosoms of our readers.We copy below, from the Ere Nouvelle of Three Rivers, the narrative of the sad accident and we believe that the facts themselves, appalling as they are, require no comment on our part.It would be useless to attempt to soothe the feelings of a father and of a mother under so great a bereavement.He alone who once changed the order of nature to recall to life the only son of a widow, showing thereby that such a loss entitled those who suffer it, to heaven’s espe-cial grace and support, He alone, can give consolation to those whose affliction is beyond all human relief.John Head, only son of the Right Honorable Sir Edmund Walker Head, of Hermitage, County of Kent, and FOR LOWER CANADA.145 of Anna Maria, daughter of the late Rev.Philip Yorke, grand son of the first Earl of Hardwicke, was born on the 6th of March, 1840.He came to Canada with his father, in 1855, and was after two years residence amongst us, sent to Europe where he studied, at Heidelberg, a celebrated German University, during two years.He had returned to this country, in the Anglo Saxon, a few days previous to the accident, and accompanied his father and mother with a large and distinguished party on an excursion to the St.Maurice, which up to the fatal moment had proved a most delightful trip.He was a young man of the most amiable manners, full of love for science and in every way doing justice to the motto of his family : “ Study quiet.” The citizens of Three Rivers and those of Quebec have shown due marks of respect to the remains of the unfortunate young man ; and the press of this country and of the United States, have already testified their sympathies for his distinguished and bereaved family.The funeral will take place, at Quebec, Friday next.The following is from the Ere Nouvelle : It is with deep grief and pain that we are compelled to chronicle the dreadful accident which occurred at the Grande Mère, River Saint Maurice, yesterday morning.His Excellency the Governor General, Lady Head, Miss Head, Mr.John Head, with a distinguished party, left Three Rivers on Tuesday morning last to visit the River St.Maurice as far as the Piles Falls.The trip was entirely successful until yesterday morning, when Mr.John Head, son of His Excellency, was unfortunately drowned while bathing in the immediate vicinity of the Falls of the “ Grande Mère.” The circumstances, as gleaned from our mayor, Mr.Turcotte, who was present, are briefly these : About half-past 7 yesterday morning the Hon.J.Browne, son of the Earl of Ken-mare, accompanied by Mr.Head, left the camp to take their usual morning bath.When they reached the 6pot where Mr.Browne had bathed the preceding morning, he observed that he had forgotten his towel.He returned in search of it, leaving Mr.Head to prepare for the bath.Before the former returned Mr.Head took the water and was immediately perceived by the voyageurs, who were on a hill close by, to struggle on his back in the water.They rushed in alarm to the spot, but the unfortunate young man had disappeared.Auguste Bellemare, one of the voyageurs, dashed into the water and dived sixteen feet deep, but without success.Louis Decoteau, another voyageur, also dived, but with the same result.Boats and canoes were brought, a pole was planted, and Bellemare, who in the meantime had taken off his clothes, descended to the bottom by aid of the pole.On reaching the bed of the river he had to walk on the bottom for some seconds before he succeeded in finding the body.When found, he took it under one arm, and with the other climbed to the surface, bringing the body with him.These acts of daring courage were performed whithin 100 feet of the Falls of La Grande Mère, and in a place where the least faux pas would have led them over the falls.The body was but 12 minutes in the water, yet although every appliance and effort were used to revive it, from 8 o’clock till 12, it was without success.Thus we have to record the most unfortunate calamity that has ever occurred in this district.A shade of deep gloom is cast over our community by this sad event.When so lately his Excellency and suite were received with unbounded enthusiasm by our citizens, when we cordially hailed his presence among us, little did we dream in our joy that cheers of welcome would so soon give way to a funeral dirge.Words cannot express the feeling of profound sorrow, which this untoward accident has produced in our midst.We can merely express our deep sympathy with His Excellency and iamily in their bereavement, until the citizens of Three Rivers shall express their sorow in a different form.The body was brought down this morning in care of Capt.Retal-lack, M.S., and His Excellency, family and suite immediately followed in canoes.They embarked in the steamer Advance which was in waiting at the mouth of the St.Maurice, and they proceeded direct to Spencer Wood, Quebec.The English Language In Lower Canada.A statement has been recently made by the Toronto Leader to the effect that the English language was almost excluded from the French Colleges and Schools in this part of the country.We deem it necessary to contradict that statement.In every college in Lower Canada the English language is taught and in some of them most efficiently.It is taught in a most successful manner in the convents and in the academies of young ladies, and were the learned editor of the Leader to attend the public examinations at these institutions, he would be at a loss to distinguish the French from the English pupils.According to the report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction for Lower Canada for 1858, which is now printing, the number of French pupils in the Colleges and Academies learning the English language is 7968 ; that of the English pupils learning French is 1765.Besides this there is hardly a Model School, in the French parishes in Lower-Canada, where English is not studied with more or less success ; it is taught in many elementary schools ; and there is every where a very strong disposition on the part of the parents to have it taught; The total number of French children who are learning to read and write the English language cannot be less than 40,000.We have no exact figures by which we could judge of the number of children learning French in Upper Canada ; but we have every reason to believe that it bears a much smaller proportion to the total number of pupils than in England and in the most enlightened parts of the United States.Even in Lower Canada it is but very recently that the French language has been taught effectually in the higher English educational institutions.It is to be noted also that with two or three exceptions, all the French Canadian members of Parliament understand English ; most of them can speak it and some among them have frequently addressed the house in ihat language with great fluency and correctness.No Upper Canadian ever addressed the house in French, if we except the speakers, who, on two or three occasions, returned thanks in both languages.We do not pretend to say that the French Canadians are nol as firmly attached to the language ol their forefathers, as the English are to the Anglo-Saxon idiom ; hot we wish, as far as it lies in our power, to repel the charge oi their being blindly and irreconcilably opposed to the use of a language, so highly serviceable, and which they are neither unable nor unwilling to master.Ninth Conference of the Association of Teachers in connection with the Jacques-Cartier Normal School, held Friday, 26th August, 1859.Present : The Hon.P.J.O.Chauveau ; Messrs, the School Inspectors F.X.Valade and C.H.Leroux ; Messrs.D.Boudrias, president ; F.X.Hètu, secretary ; P.Jardin, treasurer; Messrs.A.Dalaire, J.C.Guilbaut, A.J.Giroux, L.Grondin, P.Delaney, J.£.Labonté, E.Simays, Councillors ; and Messrs.U.E.Archambault, M.Emard, P.H.St.Hilaire, R.Martineau, F.X.Desplaines, H.Martineau, T.Amyrault, P.P.Anger, H.Perrin, A.Coutu, P.M.Hamelin, L.G.Destroismaisons, J.O.Parent, teachers.The President having opened the conference and read the minutes of the last sitting, it was unanimously resolved that special mention should be made in the next report of a lecture delivered by Mr., Emard at the preceding conference, entitled : “ The advantages which the profession of teacher possesses compared with the other liberal professions,” the subject having been treated in a masterly manner, by the above named gentleman.Messrs.P.Jardin et P.H.St.Hilaire were then requested to give a lecture, at the next conference.Mr.P.P.Anger wa6 invited to discuss, at the next conference, the question: “ Whether it would be more advantageous to commence the scholastic year on the first of May or on the first of July.” The members, alter having paid their subscriptions, named the following officers : President, M.A.Dalaire; Vice-President, F.X.Hêtu ; Secretary, E.Simays ; Treasurer, M.Boudrias ; Councillors, Messrs.L.Grondin, M.Emard, J.C.Guübauli, P.Jardin, F.X.Desplaines, P.P.Anger, and P.H.St.Hilaire.The Honorable the Superintendent complimented the retiring president on the zeal with which he had discharged his duties.Mr.Dalaire, also, in taking the chair, in a neat address, paid merited praise to his able predecessor.The Superintendent then addressed the members, and gave them some advice with regard to the means of properly executing the 18th article of the Constitution.Mr.J.E.Labonté read a dissertation “ on the good results which the teaching of agriculture in our schools will produce.” The 146 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION Superintendent strongly recommended this subject to the teachers’ attention, and hoped that the course of lectures on agriculture, delivered by Mr.Ossaye, would be well attended.Mr.Inspector Valade considered it to be a duty of the teacher to study agriculture and to be able to impart, at least, elementary notions of it to his scholars.The followttig subject was then discussed : “ How should prizes be distributed to pupils at public examinations?” This question was ably debated, and the importance of giving prizes to those alone who merited them, was strongly insisted upon by Mr.U.E.Archambault, Principal of the Catholic Commercial Academy of Montreal.Thanks having been voted to the Superintendent, to the officers ot the Society, and to the gentlemen of the press, the conference adjourned to meet at 9 o’clock A.M., on the last Friday of January next.Tlie Institute of the Deaf and Dumb.It is with pleasure we translate the following article from the Minerve : “ This Institution, situated at the Coteau St.Louis, in the parish of Montreal, is under the direction of the Clerks of the Order of St.Viator, and is presided over by His Lordship Bishop Bourget.Within a mile of the city, on the prolongation of St.Lawrence street, it thus enjoys the healthful air of the country, proverbial for its purity in that part, and the conveniences of the town, which the much frequented macadamized road renders easy of access at all seasons.Indeed, since the building of the Church of VEnfant Jésus, on the land of the Institution, the catholic population has tripled its numbers in that locality.The buildings having been recently enlarged, can now accomodate 60 to 75 boarders.The extensive courts and gardens afford fine promenade grounds, so essential to the physical development of the unfortunate inmates.“ To respond to the liberal and Christian views of His Lordship the Bishop of Montreal, the Order of St.Viator resolved to make sacrifices even beyond its means, so as to render successful this eminently Christian and catholic good work.“ Now to this effect, it suffices for us to tell Canadians who love their country and above all their religion, that there are in Canada, nearly 1,400 Deaf and Dumb of the two sexes, to whom the existence of God is unknown ; that these unfortunate beings are members of poor families ; that up to this period, while every effort has been ma deto promote, in this country, the education of those possessing the gift of speech, little or nothing had been done for that class so sparingly blessed by nature, and yet so worthy of the sympathy of the compassionate and of the friends of intellectual progress “ The course of studies lasts from five to six years, and embraces the English and the French language, religious instruction, arithmetic, geography, history, &e.« The price of admission is $7 per month, paid quarterly in advance.“ Bed and bedding, washing, books and doctors’ fees, form extra charges, payable by the parents.« Every object belonging to the pupils should have their name or, at least, their initials.“ The school reopens, after the summer vacations, on the 15th September.“ Those who were so good as to give us the preceding information, have requested us to ask our confreres of the press to copy it.« We, on our part, are happy to make known an institution, which, were it more appreciated by the parents of these unfortunate beino-s, would render an immense service to our country.When charity or adequate private means, enables the parent to place his unfortunate offspring in such an asylum, it is truly an impiety to deprive them of such an advantage for the sordid purpose of profiting by their manual labor, and thus leave these unfortunate beings whose misery calls so loudly for our pity on a level with beasts of burden.” Notice»* of Books and Publications.Garneaü.—Histoire du Canada depuis sa découverte jusqu’à nos jours, par F X.Garneau, troisième édition, 3 volumes in-8.Lamoureux, Québec.F This third edition of the best History of Canada, yet published, requires no praise at our hands.We shall only say that no man is more deserving of the consideration and liberal encouragement of all Canadians than Mr.Garneau, who has made the greatest pecuniary sacrifices to publish three successive editions of this great work, and who has almost consumed his health in the labors attending such an undertaking Like most men who, in this country , give themselves to writing our historian has had to follow, as a matter of necessity, some other occupation as a livelihood, and it was only by devoting to his most difficult task, hours that other men give to sleep and to recreation, that he has been enabled to overcome the many difficulties in his way.The first edition was noticed at full length in the Revue des Deux Mondes, le Correspondant, Brownson's Review, Putnam's, and other leading French and American periodicals.The object of the new edition is chiefly to supply the deficiencies which existed in our history at a time when the information contained in many documents since discovered or published was not available.Among those are chiefly the collection published at Albany, under the auspices of the Government of the State of New-York, and under the care of Dr.O'Callaghan ; the valuable collection of manuscripts which the library of Parliament has procured from Paris ; the documents contained in the two last volumes of Mr.Christie’s History of Lower Canada, and those found in Paris and in Québec, by Mr.Ferland and Mr.Faribault.As may be seen by our advertizing columns, Mr.Lovell proposes to publish an English edition of Mr.Garneau’s work, if a sufficient number of subscribers can be obtained.This high minded and enterprising publisher also proposes to undertake an English edition of the Missions of the Jesuits.Mémoires et documents publiés par la Société Historique de Montréal, seconde livraison, 58 p.in-8.Duvernay.frères, Montréal, The second number of the Transactions of the Historical Society of Montreal contains two articles, one by Sir L.H.Lafontaine, Baronet, Chief Justice of Lower Canada, on the Family of Lauzon, and the other by Mr.R.Bellemare, on the Vice-Rois and Lieutenants-Généraux of the Kings of France in America.This publication ought to be in the hands of all who take an interest in the early history of America.Borthwick.—Cyclopoedia of History and Geography, beiDg a Dictionary of Historical and Geographical antonomasias, origin of sects, peculiar etymologies and remarkable facts in History and Geography, by J.Douglas Borthwick, of the High School Department of McGill College, 251 pages in-12.R.& A.Miller.This is an excellent little hand book of the curiosities of history aud geography, and does great credit to the ingenuity and patience of its compiler.We clip from this book the following verses and curious anagrams on the Sovereigns of England.Kings of England—poetically arranged.First, William the Norman, then William his son ; Henry, Stephen, and Henry, then Richard and John.Next, Henry the third, Edwards, one, two, and three ; And again, after Richard, three Henrys we see.Two Edwards, third Richard, if rightly I guess ; Two Henrys, sixth Edward, Queen Mary, Queen Bess ; Then Jamie the Scotchman, then Charles whom they slew, Yet received, after Cromwell, another Charles too.Next Jamie the second ascended the throne ; Then William and Mary together came on : Then Anne, Georges four, and fourth William all passed, And Victoria came—may she long be the last.Stuart Line of Kings—(The most unfortunate in history.) Some of its vicissitudes are—James I., King of Scotland, was assassinated ; James II.was killed by the splinter of a cannon which burst near him at the siege of Roxburgh ; James III.was killed in battle, while endeavoring to crush a rebellion of his subjects ; James IV.fell at the battle of Flodden-field ; James V.died of grief for the loss of a fine army ; Mary, Queen of Scotland, was beheaded ; Charles I., King of England and Scotland, shared the same fate ; Charles II.wandered many years as an exile ; James II., of England and Scotland, was compelled to abdicate the throne ; the two pretenders son and grandson of James II., after experiencing innumerable hardships in their fruitless atteraps to recover the crown, were proclaimed as traitors, and a price of 40,000 pounds set upon their heads.The following are anagrams upon certain individuals of this line :— 1.Charles James Stuart.“ Claims Arthur’s Seat.”—(A hill at Edinburgh, which renders this very remarkable.) 2.James Stuart.“ A Just Master.” 3.Maria Steuarda Scolorum Regina.“ Trusavi Regnis, morte amara cado.” “ Thrust by force from my kingdom, I fall by a bitter death.” 4.Maria Stevada.“ Veritas Armata.” “ Armed Truth.” Bell.— British-Canadian Centennium.1759-1859.— General James Wolfe, his life and death : a lecture delivered in the Mechanic’s Institute, Montreal, on Tuesday, September 13th 1859—being the anniversary day of the battle of Quebec, fought a century before, in which Britain lost a hero and won a province, byAndrew Bell, 52 pages in 8o., Lovell, Montreal.This interesting lecture is followed by a supplement containing selected passages from thirteen unpublished letters of Wolfe found by Mr.Buchanan of Glasgow in an antique military-chest, where they had remained more than half a century uncared for.The author of the article on the first page of our present issue is indebted to this pamphlet for much of the information it contains. FOR LOWER CANADA.147 MONTHLY SUMMARY.EDUCATIONAL INTELLIGENCE.—The annual distribution of prizes at Upper Canada College, Toronto took place at the close of the term, in the College Hall, which was soon crowded with a large number of the parents of the pupils, and with others desirous of witnessing so pleasing a scene.The Principal began by stating that Upper Canada College had now entered upon the 30th year of its existence ; that though it could not boast the antiquity of the grand old foundation of England, it yet in its 30 years was coeval with Canada’s childhood, and that if estimated by material progress, these few years were equal to many centuries in older countries.He then showed that much of this material progress was due to intelligence and education, and claimed for Upper Canada College a very large share in the work, inasmuch as it had annually sent out large numbers to discharge their duties to their country in the different learned professions, and in the various walks of mercantile life.He stated that on the College roll were not less than 3,000 names, numbering amongst them many who had distinguished themselves in the pulpit, at the bar, in the universities, in the profession of medicine, and the glorious profession of arms ; that it was difficult to estimate and hardly possible to over-estimate what the effect of these 3,000 individuals—3,000 mentally, morally and religiously trained intelligences, forming so many centres of action—must have been on the future of our young country, scattered far and wide as they were over the length and breadth of Canada ; that the effects must have been enormous and, that whatever they were, Upper Canada College claimed them fairly as her own.The Principal having thus shown that Upper Canada College had been doing a great work in the land—a work which its sons would be proud to recognize—stated that a great work was still beingdone, and that for the last few years not less than fifty had been sent forth annually, more or less well educated to do their duty in the station of life unto which it has pleased God to call them.The prizes were then distributed with appropriate commendatory notices of each boy as he received his prize.In the course of these observations the Principal took occasion, amongst many other subjects, to remark on the successful working of the College boarding-house, the improvement in the educational system effected by the appointment of an English classical master, the very satisfactory state of the French classes of the College, and the greatly increased number of the boys, which has averaged 300 for the past year.At the close of the delivery of the prizes and honors, the names of the successful candidates for exhibitions were given out ; and the proceedings terminated with the announcement that the College year was ended, and that Thursday, 8th September, was the day for re-assembling after the long vacation.—The first annual examination of the pupils trained in the Model Grammar School for Upper Canada took place on the 27th and 28th July, under the direction of the several masters.The students evinced considerable proficiency in the various branches of study, not the least important feature in which is the physical education imparted to them by their veteran instructor in gymnastics, drilling, and fencing, Captain Goodwin.At about half past three o’clock the numerous visitbrs assembled in the Theatre, where the annual recitations took place, and the prizes were distributed.Among those present were the Governor General and Lady Head, Mr.Chief Justice Draper, Mr.Justice Burns, Mr.Justice Richards, and several members of the Council of Public Instruction, &c.The recitations were the first in order.These were followed by several original compositions, which were read by their youthful authors, and favourably received by the auditory.Rev.Dr.Ryerson, Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, then addressed the assemblage, giving a brief history of the Model and Normal Schools, and setting forth in connection with these the position occupied by the Model Grammar School.The pupils in this latter school were, he said, limited to one hundred—being three from each of thirty counties and cities in Upper Canada.The Model Grammar School had been in operation only a few months, and the pupils trained in it thus far had been selected from various parts of the country, as also from several schools.The organization of the Model Grammar School might be imperfect ; but if they should have the happiness of His Excellency’s presence at any future similar occasion, he was quite satisfied that the school would exhibit a marked improvement.All that now remained to complete the system of public instruction in this Province was the establishment of a school of art and drawing, for which they already possessed the necessary models.It would then remain for the people themselves to take advantage of the means which the Government had placed at their disposal for the education of their children.As far as their own experience went, the Model Grammar School had already exerted a salutary influence upon the other grammar schools of the country.The masters of most of these schools had spent a considerable period-at the Model Grammar School, and this examination had been held one month later in order to afford them an opportunity of visiting the school during the summer vacation and of witnessing the several exercises for themselves.In order to make the school as efficient as possible, he (Dr.Ryerson) had sought in Europe for a Rector who was acquainted not only with the Scotch and English systems of education, but also with the German method of school government, and who had united with these acquirements, all that was accomplished in Oxford and thorough in Dublin.Besides the Rector, they had likewise obtained from the institutions he had named two other masters, each of whom he was happy to believe had fully come up to their wishes and expectations.(Hear, hear.) And he (Dr Ryerson) anticipated from the operations of this school the greatest advantages to that branch of the system of public instruction which laid the foundation of correct mental discipline, and connected us with past ages.(Applause.) The Rector (Mr.Cockbum, M.A.) in presenting His Excellency a list of the boys who had taken prizes, remarked that the paper contained the names of several youths who, besides winning honours in special branches, had obtained prizes for general scholarship and good conduct.The advantages resulting from this system was that they gave a wide and general direction to the minds of the pupils, instead of leading them to confine their studies to one particular branch of education.Sir Edmund presented the several prizes, accompanying each gift with a few words of encouragement, after which His Excellency rose and said —Dr.Ryerson,—It has afforded me much satisfaction on this occasion to receive from you the explanations which you have just given of the objects of this branch of the institution in which we are now assembled.For myself, I believe that the Model and Grammar School is far from being the least important feature in our system of public instruction.The common schools are of course the foundation of that system ; and as this Province advances—as it grows in importance, and as its people increase in knowledge—in the same proportion will they become attached to literature and to that higher education of which the Model Grammar School is the basis.I have not had an opportunity of visiting this building—this new building—until to-day.I am very glad to see the progress which has been made, and to know that the recent addition to this institution has afforded sufficient accommodation for the different branches of education hitherto unproviaed for.I congratulate you most sincerely on the position which this institution has assumed.I learn with pleasure the number of the pupils, and I feel confident, Sir, that under your guidance, as superintendent of the whole, and under the able conduct of your masters whom you have referred to in your speech, the Model Grammar School, and the Normal School in connection with it, will form the basis of a system of public instruction throughout the whole of this portion of the Province which will prove a blessing to the people, and cause the country to assume hereafter its proper place among the nations of the earth.(Applause.) Without education it can never take its proper place among the nations —without education and without literature it can never be on a level with other peoples, either on this continent or in the old world.I take this public opportunity of thanking you, Sir, for your exertions in this behalf, in addition to all you have already done in the cause of public instruction in Upper Canada.It will ever be a source of pleasure to me either by my presence, or in any other manner, to aid the efforts which you have hitherto so successfully made for the advancement of the cause of education.(Applause.) Rev.Dr.Jennings then closed the proceedings with the benediction.—The annual examination of the pupils of Queen’s College Grammar School, Kingston, took place on the 14th July at the school house in William street.The pupils in the Classics, Mathematics, and French, were examined in the presence of the Senatus and Trustees of Queen’s College and other scientific and professional gentlemen.The examination was conducted by Mr.Robert Campbell, M.A., the efficient Head Master, assisted by Mr.Alexander Campbell, Second Master, and Mr.D.Caron, French Master.In conducting the examination the masters acquitted themselves in a most creditable manner, evincing much tact in their mode of tuition and thorough acquaintance with the diverse range of studies pursued by their classes.Among the subjects in which the senior class was examined was punctuation, an auxiliary to correct reading and writing, to which, generally, little attention is paid in the schools.The boys were questioned closely with regard to the names and uses of the different characters used in printed books and newspapers, and in every instance gave satisfactory answers.In grammar, geography, and “ familiar science,” the lads showed uncommon cleverness, and many parents present must have felt a glow of pride at the fair promise of their sons some day-being distinguished for their learning and talent.At the close of the examination by request, the Rev.Dr.Machar addressed the pupils in an impressive manner, congratulating them on their proficiency, and urging them to continue diligent in the pursuit of wisdom and instruction.He noticed with particular approbation the award of two prizes for good conduct, one in each class, and he impressed upon them all, with all their scholastic acquisitions, to endeavor by all and every means to aim at being good as well as learned.The same gentleman concluded the proceedings of the evening by an appropriate prayer, when all retired to their homes.—Chronicle ami News.— Many distinguished strangers have of late visited the leading educational establishments of Montreal ; the Colleges, the Academy of Villa-Maria, and the Jacques-Cartier Normal School, have recently been honored by the visit of His Grace Mgr.Valdivieso, Archbishop of Santiago (Chili), of his Vicar General, Mr.Raphael Prado, and by that of Dr.J.de Rachmaninow, professor in the Imperial University of Kiew (Russia) who is travelling in America, by order of the Russian Government to collect information on educational subjects.His Grace, Mgr.Blanchet Archbishop of Oregon-City, a native of the county of Bellcchasse, has also visited the several educational institutions of Lower Canada and has expressed his delight with the progress which has been made since he left the country, twenty-two years ago.It is worthy of notice that the 148 JOURNAL OF EDUCATION bishops of four distant dioceses are natives of Lower-Canada ; Mgr Norbert Blanchet, Archbishop of Oregon-City, Mgr.Blanchet, (brother to the former,) Bishop of Nesqualy ; Mgr.Demers, Bishop of Vancouver, and Mgr.Taché, Bishop of St.Boniface, (Red River settlement.) The Archbishop, in returning to the shores of the Pacific, besides several priests, takes with him no less than eighteen teachers, for the three first named dioceses ; the greater part of them belong to the order of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary and to that of St.Anne.Among the former are two sisters who studied, at the Salle d’Asile of Montreal, the French Infant School system, which is now fully carried out in thav institution, and which it is intended to introduce in the remote countries they are going to.— The distribution of prizes to the successful candidates at a competition open to all the pupils of the Colleges of the French University took place, in Paris, the day previous to the great festival, made in honor of the army of Italy.Mr.Rouland announcedj on that occasion, the abandonment by the government of the system introduced by his predecessor, Mr.Fortoul, which was called bifurcation.This system consisted in dividing, at a certain period, the course of studies in the college into two parts, one called scientific, and the other literary.The pupil according to his inclination and the calling which he intended to follow, had, when arrived at the stated period, to choose either the scientific or the literary department.Mr.Fortoul’s system was however in his opinion and in that of his friends supposed to be so framed as to meet these objections.It was ably discussed in the educational and scientific reviews, and appeared to answer some of the many new educational views put forth by modern theorists.Its rejection alter so short a trial shows how guarded we must be against innovations.Notwithstanding the all absorbing excitement which had been created by the preparations for the triumphal entry of the army, the literary solemnity of the University attracted even a larger share of public attention than usual.When Mr.Rouland, in his address to the students, called upon them to give cheers in honor of the army, a most formidable explosion of juvenile enthusiasm is said to have followed.In the same ; manner when the conquerors of science and literature were proclaimed, the public seemed by the vigor of their plaudits to put them on the same level with the heroic legions covered with glory at Magenta and at Solferino.The names of the successful students are published with that of their native place, and there is hardly a nation in the world which is not represented in that great institution.The Colleges of Paris tram pupils coming from almost every country, who are received thereat the most liberal terms and treated with especial consideration and kindness.advertisements.NEW HISTORY OF CANADA.The members of the Bookselling Trade, and the public of Canada in general, are respectfully informed that it is intended to publish, by subscription, a New History op Canada (founded on that of Mr.F.Garnead), as soon as an encouraging number of Subscribers can be obtained.The recent appearance of a third and much improved edition ot L Histoire do Canada, by Mr.Garnead, has given rise to a wish, expressed to Mr.Lovell by several of his friends and commercial connections, that he would undertake to publish a counterpart, in English th® abo™ work-the best Canadian History extant-with sucn modificat ons as would make it acceptable to the entirety of our people, whether of British or French origin.Accordingly, responding to theJ^eBth s expressed, Mr.Lovell has engaged the services o Mr.AndrewBell member of the Glasgow Archaeologicalj Society,.also of the Canadian Institute, Montreal : author of “ Men and Things in America ,’ H‘st°£ ical Sketches of Feudalism, British and Continental , Lives of t Illustrious”; “New Annals of Old Scotland,’ and other works—a gentleman of great literary experience—as translator, compiler, and fditor of what he proposes to entitle “ The New and Comprehensive History of Canada,’’ from the foundation of the Colony till the year !840,—to be based on the third and latest edition of L’Histoire du Canada if Mr.Gabseau.Furthermore, Mr.Lovell having made.application to the latter for his sanction to the proposed work ,s ^aPranslation that his special approbation has been obtained ; so that the translation of his labours now proposed (with modifications ^/ ^p^ch vemion said,) becomes the only authorised reproduction of the Trench version of the work.„ , Tt is nronosed that the “ Comprehensive History of Canada shall form three handsome volumes, in demy octavo, and be printed in a superior stylefonpaper of the best qualify.Each volume will comprise from 400 to 500 pages.Price §1:50, or $4:50 for the whole.Gentlemen taking an interest in the early history of the Colony, are now respectfully called on to furnish, for the Editor’s use, any unpublished or little-known historical, antiquarian, or other rare materials as they may have lying by them.The donors of all such may be assured that special acknowledgment will be made in the work of every favour thus obtained.It is hoped that the Publisher may be enabled to bring out the work, complete, early in the Fall of 1860.Subscription Lists will be found at the Book-stores in Montreal, Toronto, Quebec, Kingston, Ottawa, Hamilton, London, &c., and at the Offices of the Publisher, in St.Nicholas St., Montreal ; also at Ste.Anne Street, Quebec.JOHN LOVELL.Canada Directory Office, > Montreal, September, 1859.$ NARRATIVES OF THE JESUIT FATHERS.Last year the French reading part of the Canadian people were edified and delighted by the publication of the original Narratives of the Jesuit Fathers, who were the pioneers of religion and its attendant civilization in Canada.This work, important as it is to the French Canadian, is not less so to the English-speaking part of the population of North America.All inhabitants of this great continent, especially all Canadians, will assign it an honored place on the shelves which bear the stirring narratives of the first English and Dutch adventurers.It is fit, therefore, to make its reverend authors speak with an English tongue.The early history of Canada is at this moment attracting much attention.The French Government has made large and precious contributions of historical matter to our Provincial Library, both manuscript and printed, relating chiefly to Canada, its settlement and wars , the Government of the United States has been ever zealous in collecting documents relating to the acts and sufferings of their hardy and adventurous founders : and the encouragements which our own Government could afford in aid of enterprises of the same character, has always been promptly and effeotually granted.The publication of authentic and interesting historical records has been favored and promoted by all enlightened governments and literary bodies ; because they supply either the best evidence of the truth of history, or the best materials for its composition.It has even been as^ jrted that the chronicles and private memoirs of contemporaries are of higher value than the polished periods of Hume and Mézeray.The Narratives now sought to be presented to the public are of great value to all classes.To the religionist, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, they afford precious evidence of the zeal of those servants ot his Holy Religion who devoted themselves to its propagation among the heathen, and went forward through many a fiery trial, to find too often at last "the crown of martyrdom.The ethnologist will hnd in them faithful descriptions of a race now much degenerated and rapidly approaching to extinction, written amongst them as they lived and moved, hunted and fought, married and died, received baptism or ferociously murdered the men who sought to bestow it on them.Ordinary readers, from the intelligent scholar to the untaught peasant, will peruse with interest an account of men who trod the soil on which they now move —who were the lords of the forest and the river, now smiling with the rich harvest or glittering with the vessels of commerce,—and will learn with some emotion that they live and sleep in security on the sell-same spot which has been often drenched with the blood shed in warfare or massacre.The publication of so voluminous a work will depend entirely upon the support received from the public.The first volume has been translated by one of the best translators in the Province : and it will be put to press as soon as a sufficient number of subscribers is obtained to defray the cost of translation and publishing.The work will make 3 Volumes, Royal 8vo., of about 750 pages each, n Long Primer Type.Subscription Lists will be found at the Book-itores in Montreal, Toronto, Quebec, Kingston, Ottawa, Hamilton Lon-lon &c., and at the Offices of the publisher, in St.Nicholas Street, Unn’froal : also at Ste.Anne Street, Quebec.Price in paper covers per volume, $2:75, or for the set, $8:25 « half-calf per volume, $3:50, •' $10:50 Canada Directory Office, > Montreal, September, 1859.) JOHN LOVELL, Publisher.Senegal, Danhsl & Co., Steam Printing XitabMment, 4, St.Vincent St.