the rest was reserved for our return. The next morning waked us at Fredericton, the capital of the Province, eighty miles above the city of St. John. We found here a small city regularly built upon an alluvial plain in a bend of the river. The day brought rain, but was still diligently spent in looking at the Governor's house and grounds, the Parliament House, the barracks and troops, —a recent importation to be in readiness in case of war, — the University Hall, at a distance, it was now vacation, the schools of the city, and the Cathedral of the "Lord Bishop of Fredericton," one of the best specimens of ecclesiastical architecture in the old Anglican style, to be found on the continent. After the rain was over, two of the ladies of our party varied the entertainment of the day by crossing the river, even here three-quarters of a mile wide, to an Indian village; and, after sating their curiosity there, by inducing a young Indian to row them back in a birch-bark canoe. Meanwhile, I talked upon the state of our nation with a man whom I accidentally met, and who said that Mr. would be so glad to converse with me, for they two were the only ones in their circle of acquaintance who sympathized with the North in our great struggle; and even he asked me whether it would not have been better for us to have let the South go off peaceably! Music by the regimental band,-whose possession, we learned, was a bone of contention between the cities of Fredericton and St. John, -enlivened the evening. The next day, the steamer "Antelope" returned us safe to St. John.

In all this, of course, we could not forget "the shop." No man who is truly interested in his business, ever really leaves it behind him. It goes with him wherever he goes. It is the "Old Man of the Mountain," that cannot be shaken off from the back. We had no wish to shake it off. We were greatly interested, during our stay in New Brunswick, in observing and studying the educational system of the Province. It has much efficiency, while it is as unlike our own as it seems possible for two systems to be that have the same end in view. But we ought not, perhaps, to enter upon a statement of it, without commencing a new chapter; while we reserve our return to "the States," as the Province men taught us to call our country, for still another.

C.

SYSTEM OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION IN NEW

BRUNSWICK.

THE Province has a Board of Education, consisting of the Governor of the Province, (his title is Lieutenant Governor,) of his Executive Council, or Ministry, and of the Chief Superintendent of Schools, who is appointed by the Governor in Council. The business belonging to the Board is chiefly transacted by the Superintendent and his Assistant, or Clerk, as the other members of the Board are mainly engrossed by politics and the special duties of their several offices. They are statesmen or politicians; and are members of the Board simply ex officio. This is the rather unfortunate, because the powers and duties of the Board are extensive and minute, to a degree which has, so far as we are aware, no parallel in the United States. The Board have charge of a Training, or Normal School at St. John, and appoint four Inspectors of Schools for the Province.

The

That we may understand better the features and working of the system, let us trace the history of a New Brunswick teacher. first step in his course must be to obtain a license from the Board of Education. Without this, he cannot be recognized as a public school teacher. To obtain this license, it is necessary, in ordinary cases, that he should attend the Training School one term, or twelve weeks. In this School, very severe confinement for the overworked instructors, of whom there are only three for the charge of both the Training and the connected Model School, a Master, a Male Assistant, and a Female Assistant, there are in each year four terms of twelve weeks each; and few pupils attend more than a single term. Considering the vital importance of this School in the educational system of the Province, it is remarkable that no building has ever been erected for it, or proper library or apparatus obtained for it. We found it in miserable quarters in the basement of a church, some classes occupying a private school-room a little way off, and we saw the Principal, who seemed little akin to his material surroundings, using for illustration instruments that were his private property. We found between forty and fifty pupils in the Training School, the average number at this season being greater than at any other..

The candidate for admission is examined, on the first day of the term, in spelling, reading, writing, grammar, geography, and arithmetic. Of the one hundred and sixty-two candidates in 1861, one hundred and thirty-seven were admitted, and twenty-five rejected. Admitted, our candidate engages, and usually with much earnestness, in a rapid review or prosecution of a long list of school studies, that he may be prepared to pass an examination for licensure. If he wishes a First Class license, the amount of the work to be performed in eleven weeks seems absolutely impossible. Yet, in some way, it is performed; and our candidate takes also some part in the instruction of the classes in the Model School. The expenses of attending the Training School are very light, as the pupils pay no tuition, and may receive for twelve weeks a liberal allowance for board.

The examination for licenses occurs the last week of the term, and occupies from four to six days. It is conducted by examiners appointed by the Board of Education. The pupils for the term are joined on this occasion by a few from previous terms who attend for re-examination, and through special privilege, by a very others. The licenses are of three classes for each sex, and are awarded according to the results of the examination, and the report of the Master of the Training School respecting the deportment, scholarship, and didactic skill of the candidates. Those who receive these licenses are termed, in the law, Male and Female Teachers of the First Class, of the Second Class, etc. Male teachers of the Third Class must be qualified to teach spelling, reading, writting, and arithmetic; those of the Second Class, these studies, and also English grammar, geography, history, and book-keeping; those of the First Class, the above, and also geometry, mensuration, land-surveying, navigation, and algebra. Female teachers of the Third Class must be qualified to teach spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, and common needle-work; those of the Second Class, these, and also, English grammar and geography; those of the First Class, the same, with the addition of history. All these studies are pursued in the Training School during the eleven weeks, and also, according to the last Report, Intellectual Philosophy, Physiology, and Agricultural Chemistry. During the last year, one hundred and thirty-two candidates were examined, viz.:

forty-three males and eighty-nine females. Of these, forty males obtained licences, viz.: thirteen of the First Class, sixteen of the Second, eleven of the Third: and eighty-four females, viz.: thirtyeight of the First Class, thirty-one of the Second, and fifteen of the Third. Of these, fourteen were advanced to a higher rank than they had before held, upon re-examination. Without attendance upon the school, only licenses of the Third Class can be obtained, and these through an arrangement which is regarded as simply provisional. During the last year, eighteen such licenses were granted.

The individual whose course we have been following, has now received, we will suppose, his license from the Board of Education. His next work is to procure a school.

The Counties of the Province are divided into parishes, usually of large territorial extent. In each parish, three School Trustees are appointed annually, either through the election of the inhabitants, or more frequently, we are informed, by the Government through the Court of Sessions. These Trustees divide the parishes into convenient school districts, and have the general charge of the schools that are kept in them. The law requires the election, in each district, of a committee of three to take charge of the school building, furniture, apparatus, etc.; but this provision is more frequently neglected. The teacher who wishes a school usually goes into one of these districts, in which he learns that there is a vacancy. His subsequent mode of procedure is described by the School Inspector for the county of York, -containing Fredericton the capital of the Province, in a report made in 1858.*

"A teacher's engagement is generally formed by the candidate

At this time, minute statements were required from the Inspectors of all the Counties, respecting the prevalent methods of engaging and paying teachers, etc. That there has since been no important change, appears from the Report of the Chief Superintendent, made this present year:

"The practice is still common, for the teacher to choose the people, and not the people the teacher. Hearing of a vacancy, the teacher waits upon some of the parents in the district, receives the promise of a certain pay for a certain number of scholars, obtains the sanction of the Trustees, and forthwith opens the school. One almost invariable result of this practice is, that only a portion of the children ever enter the school at all. One man holds aloof, because he was at consulted; some, because the teacher is a woman who cannot teach certain branches thought to be necessary; others, because he is a man, and costs too much. Then follow bickerings and wranglings, which probably end in the opening of a second school in some other part of the district. In such circumcumstances either a large school, or a good school, is out of the question. With the certain prospect of a decreasing salary before him, the teacher becomes discouraged, complaints more or less correct of carelessness begin to be heard, the school falls off, and the term which began with few scholars, will end with less."

calling on a few of those most likely to send children to the school. If encouraged, an agreement is drawn up, and the candidate goes from house to house and solicits subscriptions; some sign their names; others, being perhaps in the fields, and where writing materials are not to be had, authorize the candidate to put down their names. It is quite a common practice for parents who have several children to sign or agree to pay a specified sum on condition of being allowed to send their children to the school in such numbers and at such times as they may find convenient."

Sometimes two or three teachers are carrying round papers in a district at the same time. At other times, a resident of the district who is interested in having a school or in befriending a teacher, obtains the subscription; and again the inhabitants may meet for consultation, and agreement how much each will subscribe. But in the latter cases, as in the first, the subscription is regarded as an individual agreement between the subscribers and the teacher. If the teacher is satisfied with the subscription, he carries the agreement, with his license, to the Trustees of the parish, from whom he obtains a written permission to open the school.

At the appointed time, he proceeds to his work. The manner in which this is performed is too various to admit description. And what shall be said of the school houses and their furniture, of the irregular attendance of the pupils, of boarding round, andneighborhood quarrels? There has been great improvement in the school accommodations of the Province within a few years, and during the last year more than fifty new school-houses were erected. But, of the 801 public schools kept in the Province in the winter of 1860-61, only 539 were provided with public school-houses, and only 282 of these had committees to look after them. Seventyfive of the schools were still kept in log houses. In 287 of the schools, there were no blackboards. An especial cause of the irregularity of attendance is the habit among parents of subscribing for half, or a third perhaps, of the actual number of their children, and of sending first one child, and afterwards another in his place, and then the first again, or, it may be, yet another, and sometimes all together, so as to make up the stipulated aggregate of attendance. Our friend's school receives a few official visits during the year. The School Trustees are required to examine all the schools under