The Sun.
London, England, 1818-01-10 00:00:00

the attainment of their oVJect. 'And in the Acts
'of successive: years, we think that we can find a
proof of the good effects t esulting from this care in
the Provincial Legislature, 'and of the favourable
manner b which it has been received by the-in-
habitants of the 'Colony.
Th.ere appears to he something so judicious in
The System pursued by the Legislature of - this
• Province, that we wish we could -present our
Readers with an extended view of it,, but our
limits compel us to offer only a slight sketch of
• its more important features; hut even this we
trust will not be altogether unafteptable.
The fourth General Assembly of the Province
of Nova Scotia was convened in the year 178%5.
and chrly it's 111{,T Session it passed an Act,
the 1.;,h Geo. 111. 0.7•., founded on the ninth
section of the Statute, I.Jar. 1. c. 4., prohibit-
ing any person front setting up a Gramm4r School
within that Province, or " a school for the in-
struction of youth in reading, writing, and arith-
metic in the township of Halifax," until he had
been first examined as to his qualifications for the
instruction of children by the Minister of the
Town wherein he proposed to keep a school.—
And it also appointed Trustees to improve and
manage the allotments of four .hundred acres of
land which his Majesty had directed to be reserved
in each district for the use and .sOpport.or schools.
This Act is the first'which we notice in the Pro-
vincial Statute-book, and it i's.of tgreat import-
ance; for, as the education of children is an ob-
ject of the utmost solicitude, so it islboSt neces-
s4ry in all places, but mote partictdarly in an in-
fqnt Community,
:to prevent improper persons
assuming the functions of a School-master. If
men in other professions are restrained froth en-
tering into them without previous examination,
or until a stated period has passed, we conceive it
to be equally necessary that the important and
spectable duties of a School-master should not he
exercised by any man as inclinatibn or opportu-
nity suggests, without regard to, his qualifications
for the office.

A public Grammar School was next established
in the Town of HaMast, and endowed by the Le-
gislature. A Master was appointed with a salary
of one hundred pounds a year, to be paid from the
duties. of Excise, and fifty pounds were added for
ari Usher, to be provided by the Master when the
number of Scholars should e:iceed. thirty. The
Legislature, at the same time, voted the sum of
fifteen hundrea pounds towards the expence of
erecting a proper and convenient building for the
school ; and the Governor of the ProvioQe was
empowered to Appoint five Trustees and Directors
who should be incorporated and enabled to hold
lands, and receive donations for the. use'of it, and
who were twice in every year. to visit the school,
and publicly to examine the scholars. •
The•endowinent of this school, in our opinion,
reflects the highest credit upon the Legislature of
Nova Scotia. Every man Who is a7quainted with
the state' of learning in .England, knowS it is
chiefly to the Public Schools which the wisdom
and p;ety of our ancestors founded, that this toun-
' try is indebted for her exalted rank in the Repub-
lic of Letters. It has been certainly e question.
of considerable doubt in .the minds of several
eminent and great men, how far Public Education
is desirable. It is not our intention to discu-s
the point ; but we may be pardoned if we take
the liberty to observe, that the experience of many
ages has developed so much, to recommend it, that
we think evety parent fully justified in adopting it
for his children ; and that as to the objection of
its bad effect upon the morals of a boy, we can say
from our personal knowledge that some of the most
amiable, virtuous, and pleasing men of our ac-
quaintance were educated in time Palk Schools,
whilst we have known many who have en-
tered into life, or gone to the University from
a private School, or a private Tutor, fall an easy
prey to the allnremeins of vice, and- become the
most dissipated characters, and chiefly by the
want Of that acquaintance with the world which
is acquired •in a Public School. If we were dis-
posed to pursue this subject, we might adduce in
favour of Public Education, the example of the
most able and learned of its opponents in latter
times, who sent all his sons. to Eton and Wism-
chester Schools, differing, certainly, vet y mate-
rially in the principles upon which they are con-
ducted, but the result at both has beets most flat-
tering to the hopes of a father ; for the eldest son
has become a distinguished ornament of the sa-
cred profession of which he is a member, and the
others are likely to follow in the same steps.
To return, however, to the Grammar School
at Haiitax, its success, and the advantages de-
rived front its establishment, may well be inferred,
when we find the Legislature of the Province in
18.11 passing an Act for the foundation ofSchools
on similar principles in -all the other bi'stricts of
the Colony. This' Act is. much fuller: :and more
explanatory than the former. It beginS with re-
citing, that " time education of youth is of the
" utmost importance to society, and that public
" attention to that object had produced beneficial-
" 'effects ;" and then it empowers the Governors
of the Province for the time being, with the ad-
vice of his Majesty's Council, to -appoint three
Trustees and Directors in each District and
County of the Colony, for establishing Grammar
Schools therein. The Trustees are first directed
by this Act to procure places for the scites of
buildings suited for the Selaords, and are enabled
to receive donations for their erection, and the
endowment of the Schools, and to purchase and
hold lands for the same. They are also autho-
rised to engage." a Master and Ushers, or Tutors,
" duly qualified according to Law,"—to make.
Bye-Laws, and to enforce the observance of them
by moskrate fines and expulsions or other public
censures, and to fix the rates of tuition in each
School. The scholars are directed to be taught
English Gram Mar, the Latin and Greek Lan-
guages, Orthography, the Use of the Globes, and
the practical branches of Mathematicks, or such
other useful learning as May h• judged necessary
and the Trustees are empowered to nominate and
send to each of these Schools, eight poor Orphan-
Children, whose parents or guardians. cannot af-
ford to pay for their educatiOn, to be instructed iii
all the branches of Learning which are there taught,
and this number of FREg SCUOLARS is always to be
kept fihlcd up. The Act also grants to the Trustees