and inculcates the best habits of learning and mental development, in a given time; and time and proper habits are worth more than money, both to pupils and their parents. Trustees who pay a Teacher fairly and punctually, and treat him properly, will seldom want a good Teacher. To employ an incompetent person, because he offers his incompetent services for a small sum, is a waste of money, and a mockery and injury of the youth of the neighbourhood. We entirely concur with the National Board of Education in Ireland, in the following estimate of the qualities of a good Teacher :

"A Teacher should be a person of Christian sentiment, of calm temper, and discretion; he should be imbued with the spirit of peace, of obedience to the law, and of loyalty to his Sovereign; he should not only possess the art of communicating knowledge, but be capable of moulding the mind of youth, and of giving to the power, which education confers, a useful direction. These are the qualities for which Patrons [or Trustees] of Schools, when making choice of a Teacher, should anxiously look.”

4. Trustees will always find it the best economy to have a commodious School-house, kept comfortable, and properly furnished. It is as difficult for pupils to learn, as it is for the master to teach, in an unfurnished and comfortless school-house.

5. In the selection of Books to be used in the school, from the general list authorized according to law, the Trustees should see that but one series of Reading books, one Arithmetic, or one for the beginners and another for the more advanced pupils, one Geography, &c. should be used in any one school, in order that the scholars may be classified in the several branches which they are studying. Heterogeneous school books (however good each book may be in itself) render classification impossible, increase the labour and waste the time of the Teacher, and retard the progress of the pupils. But the Teacher and pupils labour at the greatest disadvantage, when they are compelled to use books which are as various as the scholars' names.

SECTION 3.-Duties of Teachers.

The sixteenth section of the School Act prescribes, in explicit and comprehensive terms, the duties of Teachers; and no Teacher can legally claim his salary who disregards the requirements of the law. Among other things, the Act requires each Teacher to "maintain proper order and discipline in his school, according to the forms and regulations which shall be provided according to law." The law makes it the duty of the Chief Superintendent of Schools to provide the forms; and the Council of Public Instruction prescribe the following regulations for the guidance of Teachers in the conduct and discipline of their schools.

It shall be the duty of each Teacher of a Common School ;

1. To receive courteously the Visitors appointed by law, and to afford them every facility for inspecting the books used, and to examine into

the state of the school; to have the Visitors' book open, that the Visitors may, if they choose, enter remarks in it. The frequency of visits to the school by intelligent persons, animates the pupils, and greatly aids the faithful Teacher.

2. To keep the Registers accurately and neatly, according to the prescribed forms; which is the more important under the present School Act, as the 31st section of it authorizes the distribution of the local school fund according to the average attendance of pupils attending each school.

3. To classify the children according to the books used; to study those books himself; and to teach according to the improved method recommended in their prefaces.

4. To observe himself, and to impress upon the minds of the pupils, the great rule of regularity and order,

—A TIME AND A PLACE FOR EVERYTHING,

AND EVERYTHING IN ITS PROPER TIME AND PLACE.

5. To promote, both by precept and example, CLEANLINESS, NEATNESS, and DECENCY. To effect this, the Teacher should set an exaample of cleanliness and neatness in his own person, aud in the state and general appearance of the school. He should also satisfy himself, by personal inspection every morning, that the children have had their hands and faces washed, their hair combed, and clothes cleaned and, when necessary, mended. The school apartments, too, should be swept and dusted every evening.

6. To pay the strictest attention to the morals and general conduct of his pupils, and to omit no opportunity of inculcating the principles of TRUTH AND HONESTY; the duties of respect to superiors, and obedience to all persons placed in authority over them.

7. To evince a regard for the improvement and general welfare of his pupils, to treat them with kindness combined with firmness; and to aim at governing them by their affections and reason, rather than by harshness and severity.

8. To cultivate kindly and affectionate feelings among his pupils; to discountenance quarrelling, cruelty to animals, and every approach to

vice.

Section 4.-Duties of Visitors.

1. The thirty-second section of the Act provides that all Clergymen recognized by law of whatever denomination, Judges, Members of the Legislature, Magistrates, Members of County Councils, and Aldermen, shall be School Visitors; and the thirty-third section of the Act prescribes their lawful duties.

2. The parties thus authorized to act as Visitors, have it in their power to exert an immense influence in elevating the character and

promoting the efficiency of the schools, by identifying themselves with them, by visiting them, encouraging the pupils, aiding and counselling Teachers, and impressing upon parents their interests and duties in the education of their offspring. In visiting schools, however, Visitors should, in no instance, speak disparagingly of the instructions or management of the Teacher in the presence of the pupils; but if they think it necessary to give any advice to the Teacher, they should do it privately. They are also desired to communicate to the local or Chief Superintendent any thing which they shall think important to the interests of any school visited by them. The law recommends Visitors, "especially to attend the Quarterly Examinations of the Schools." It is hoped that all Visitors will feel it both a duty and a privilege to aid, on such occasions, by their presence and influence. While it is competent to a Visitor to engage in any exercises which shall not be objected to by the authorities of the school, it is expected that no Visitor will introduce, on any such occasion, any thing calculated to wound or give offence to the feelings of any class of his fellow Christians.

3. The local Superintendents are School Visitors, by virtue of their office, and their comprehensive duties, as such, are stated with sufficient minuteness in the 3rd clause of the 31st section of the School Act. While each local Superintendent makes the careful inquiries and examinations required by law, and gives privately to the Teacher and Trustees such advice as he may deem expedient, and such counsel and encouragement to the Pupils, as circumstances may suggest, he will exhibit a courteous and conciliatory conduct towards all persons with whom he is to communicate, and pursue such a line of conduct as will tend to uphold the just influence and authority, both of Trustees and Teachers.

4. Too strong a recommendation cannot be given to the establishment of Circulating Libraries in the various Townships, and School Sections. A Township Association, with an auxiliary in each School Section, might, by means of a comparatively small sum, supply popular and useful reading for the young people of a whole Township. It is submitted to the serious attention of all School Visitors, as well as Trustees, and other friends of the diffusion of useful knowledge.

SECTION 5. Constitution and Government of Schools in respect to Religious and Moral Instruction.

As Christianity is the basis of our whole system of Elementary Education, that principle should pervade it throughout. Where it cannot be carried out in mixed Schools to the satisfaction of both Roman Catholics and Protestants, the law provides for the establishment of separate Schools! And the Common School Act, fourteenth section, securing individua. rights as well as recognizing Christianity, provides, "That in any Model or Common School established under this Act, no child shall be required

to read or study in or from any religious book, or to join in any exercise of devotion or religion, which shall be objected to by his or her parents or guardians: Provided always, that within this limitation, pupils shall be allowed to receive such religious instruction as their parents or guardians shall desire, according to the general regulations which shall be provided according to law."

In the section of the Act thus quoted. the principle of religious instruction in the schools is recognized, the restriction within which it is to be given is stated, and the exclusive right of each parent and guardian on the subject is secured, without any interposition from Trustees, Superintendents, or the Government itself.

The Common School being a day, and not a boarding school, rules arising from domestic relations and duties are not required: and as the pupils are under the care of their parents and guardians on Sabbaths, no regulations are called for in respect to their attendance at public worship.

In regard to the nature and extent of the daily religious exercises of the School, and the special religious instruction given to pupils, the COUNCIL OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION FOR UPPER CANADA makes the following Regulations and Recommendations:

1. The public religious exercises of each school shall be a matter of mutual voluntary arrangement between the Trustees and Teacher; and it shall be a matter of mutual voluntary arrangement between the Teacher and the parent or guardian of each pupil, as to whether he shall hear such pupil recite from the Scriptures, or Catechism, or other summary of religious doctrine and duty of the persuasion of such parent or guardian. Such recitations, however, are not to interfere with the regular exercises of the school.

2. But the principles of religion and morality should be inculcated upon all the pupils of the school. What the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland state as existing in schools under their charge, should characterize the instruction given in each school in Upper Canada. The Commissioners state that in the National Schools the importance of religion is constantly impressed upon the minds of children, through the works calculated to promote good principles and fill the heart with love for religion, but which are so compiled as not to clash with the doctrines of any particular class of Christians." In each school the Teacher should exert his best endeavours, both by example and precept, to impress upon the minds of all children and youth committed to his care and instruction, the principles of piety, justice, and a sacred regard to truth, love to their country, humanity and universal benevolence, sobriety, industry, frugality, chastity, moderation and temperance, and those other virtues which are the ornament of society and on which a free constitution of government is founded; and it is the duty of each Teacher to endeavour to lead his pupils, as their ages and capacities will admit, into a clear understanding of the tendency of the above mentioned virtues, in order to preserve and perfect the blessings of law and liberty, as well as to promote their future happiness, and also to point out to them the evil tendency of the opposite vices. By Order of the Council of Public Instruction for Upper Canada. J. GEORGE HODGINS,

EDUCATION OFFICE, Toronto. Adopted the 5th day of August, 1850.

Recording Clerk.

C. P. I.

LIST ON SCHOOL BOOKS.

"Published under the direction of the Commissioners of National Education in Ireland"--prepared by practical and experienced Masters--and recommended by the Council of Public Instruction for Upper Canada, to be used in Canadian Schools; together with the maximum retail prices at which those Books will be sold, by parties re-printing or importing them. (The Council of Public Instruction has also recommended Lennie's English Grammar, and sanctioned the use of Kirkham's English Grammar and Morse's Geography.)