The object of Mr. Chadwick's paper is to establish that in came to hand, but I have reason to believe that additional statistics ordinary public schools, too much time is devoted to book of this kind would oftener show a larger than a smaller requirement. instruction, too little to the physical training of the pupil; that the They will enable every one to judge for himself with sufficient mind is overworked-the body insufficiently exercised; that book-accuracy, whether the strain to which they subject the mind, is or work is generally prolonged much beyond the capacity of the pupil, is not, compatible with the highest degree of healthy endurance. to the injury alike of his physical and mental powers. He further asserts that it is demonstrable, nay that it has been demonstrated by actual experiment, that by employing in the physical training of the pupils, more particularly in systematic military and naval drill, a portion of the time, now uselessly or hurtfully misspent on books, incalculable benefits, physical, moral, intellectual and economical, will result to the persons taught, and, as a matter of course, also to

the nation.

The startling novelty of Mr. Chadwick's views, and the very magnitude of the benefits which he claimed as certain to follow from the general adoption of the plan of Education which he had inaugurated, had a tendency to make most people incredulous of the project, if not to reject it altogether as Utopian. The high reputation, however, of Mr. Chadwick, who had been for upwards of a quarter of a century an earnest and able laborer in the cause of social reforms, especially in matters connected with popular Education, would have amply sufficed with all thoughtful men to secure a respectful consideration for any opinion, however strange or paradoxical, which had received the sanction of his advocacy. But Mr. Chadwick did not rest satisfied with mere opinions or arguments in support of his views. He gave hard, unanswerable facts-facts sustained by the concurrent testimony of the most intelligent and experienced school teachers and of some of the most able military men in Great Britain.

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+

Mr. Chadwick's theories gave rise, as might be expected, to no little discussion in England. France and Germany, and other European countries, took up the question, and on this continent too, especially among our practical neighbors in the States, Mr. Chadwick's views attracted not a little attention. Here, and there too, but particularly in England, the system was put to the true test, that of actual experiment. And it may be asserted, beyond controversy, that all the discussions which have taken place upon the merits of Mr. Chadwick's system, all the experience of its working, wherever it has been fairly tried, have alike served to establish more and more its infinite superiority over the old regime. We shall now proceed to point out some of the evils, so far at least as over mental work is concerned, of the system of education usually followed in our public schools, and we shall then explain the half-time system more in detail, noting the sort of physical training-military and naval drill-which Mr. Chadwick advocates; and lastly, the enormous benefits to the individual and the nation which may be expected to flow from the general adoption of the new system; under the last head will be described, at some length, the important bearing of the proposed reformation in our school system upon one of the great questions of the day in Canada,-the question, namely, of our national defences.

Evening Study.-"In connection with this matter of out-ofschool study, it must be considered that much of it is pursued in the evening, often until a late hour,-a practice more pernicious to the health, in youth or adult, than any other description of mental exercise. The brain is in no condition for sleep immediately after such occupation. The mind is swarming with verbs and fractions and triangles, and a tedious hour or two must pass away before it falls into a restless, scarcely refreshing slumber. Jaded and dispirited it enters upon the duties of the day with little of that buoyancy which comes only from 'nature's sweet restorer.'

sional vacation.

"Thus it is that in all our cities and populous villages, the tender mind is kept in a state of the highest activity and effort, six or eight hours a day, for several years in succession, with only such intervals of rest as are furnished by the weekly holiday, and the occaSunday can hardly be admitted among these intervals, for that day has also its special school, with its lessons and rewards. In other words it is subjected to an amount of taskwork which, estimated merely by the time it requires, is greater than what may be considered a proper allowance to a cultivated

adult mind." *

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Physical Evils Experienced.-But beside these evils to the mental health of children, resulting from the strain upon their mental powers, there is the physical evil resulting from the prolonged and unnatural physical restraint and sedentary confinement of children. We have high authority for stating that the enforced stillness of growing boys or girls in a school-room, however well warmed and ventilated, for five or six hours in the day, is a violation of the primary laws of physiology. The restlessness and inattention of the unfortunate little victims of our modern systein, after a few hours schooling, their irrepressible eagerness to escape from their restraint, notwithstanding all the artifices of the teacher to interest them, might of themselves warn us that we are doing violence to nature. "The chief question," writes Dr. Schreiber, of Leipsic, is, "how are our children brought up? Is it according to the laws of nature? The answer is no, or we should not see so many children who were rosy and healthy before going to school, become pale and bloodless after attending school." Another writer says: "Nature commands children to play and romp, just as she does young colts and lambs. Pen them up in school, fetter their limbs, shut them out from God's sunshine and vivifying breezes, and what do we make them? Their physical integrity is certainly impaired, but is not their intellectual, nay, is not their moral integrity also affected by their unnatural and artificial system ?" In their zeal for the mind, our modern educationists would seem to have altogether lost sight of the body. They forget that for the perfect man we must have the "mens sana in corpore sano;" they consider not that intimate "consent between mind and body," by virtue of which the former must suffer, if the latter is neglected.

In our modern system of education the physical training of children has, for the most part, been left altogether to nature or to accident. The evil effects of the system have, therefore, shewn themselves, as might have been anticipated, more among girls than boys; because the former are less likely than the latter to seek for themselves those out-door sports and amusements which counteract, to some extent, the injurious effect of excessive mental labor and bodily confinement.

Present routine of Education at the Schools.-First, then, let us consider briefly the routine of education at present pursued in the majority of our public schools, and examine what are its effects upon the mental and bodily health of those who are subjected to it. We shall here quote the words of a recent able writer in the States, who has discussed this subject with reference to the school system of the Union. His remarks, however, are as applicable to the school system of Canada as to that of the United States :"Six hours a day, for the most part, is the allotted school time Proof of the Evil.-But it may be alleged that we have exaggerin this part of the country. Occasionally we find it five, and as ated the evil effects of our present school system on the mental and often probably seven. The rooms, with some exceptions, are badly physical health of the children attending school; we may be chalwarmed and badly ventilated, the thermometer ranging, in winter, lenged to produce proof of our assertion. Innumerable instances from 55 to 80, and the air contaminated by the respiration of one are adduced of persons who gave gone through the ordeal without or two hundred pairs of lungs, and the impurities that arise from a any appreciable impairment of their mental or bodily health, and leaky, over-heated stove or furnace. The time not devoted to hence the inference is somewhat hastily drawn that the system is study is occupied in recitations, or exercises that require a consid-innocent of the evils which we have laid at its door. erable degree of mental activity. To accomplish all the tasks, the On this point it will suffice to cite the opinion of Dr. Ray, who, regular school hours are seldom sufficient, and more or less time from his well-known ability and large experience in mental diseases, must be given to study out of school. It may be a single hour; it is peculiarly competent to speak with authority upon the subject: may be two, three or four. The time will be determined by the "The manner in which the evil (resulting from excessive mental amount of the tasks; by the ambition, capacity or excessive anxiety application in schools) is manifested, is not very uniform, but howof the pupil. With quick-witted children, who have no very strong ever various the results, they agree in the one essential element of desire to excel, and those who have neither desire nor capacity to a disturbed or diminished nervous energy. It rarely comes immeexcel, it is short. On the contrary, with the sluggish, but consci-diately in the shape of insanity, for that is not a disease of childentious intellects, with the ambitious who strive for distinction, hood or early youth. It impairs the power of concentrating the and the morbidly sensitive and timid, it is long." aculties, and of mastering difficult problems, every attempt thereat The author from whom I have quoted then gives several examples producing confusion and distress. It banishes the hope and buoyof the lessons learned in a day in several public schools taken at ancy natural to youth, and puts in their place anxiety, gloom, and random, and adds :— apprehension. It diminishes the conservative power of the animal "These may be considered as average examples of the amount of economy to such a degree, that attacks of disease, which otherwise work now put upon the youthful brain. They are the first that would have passed off safely, destroy life almost before danger is

anticipated. Every intelligent physician understands that, other things being equal, the chances of recovery are far less in the studious, highly intellectual child than in one of an opposite description. Among the more obvious, and immediate effects upon the nervous system, are unaccountable restlessness, disturbed and deficient sleep, loss of appetite, epilepsy, cholera, and especially a kind of irritability and exhaustion, which leads the van of a host of other ills, bodily and mental, that seriously impair the efficiency and comfort of the individual.

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"I have said that insanity is rarely an immediate effect of hard study at school. When a person becomes insane, people look around for the cause of his affection, and fix upon the most recent event apparently capable of producing it. Post hoc propter hoc, is the common philosophy on such occasions. But if the whole mental history of the patient were clearly unfolded to our view we should often find, I apprehend at a much more early period, some agency far more potent in causing the evil, than the misfortune, or the passion, or the bereavement, or the disappointment which attracts the common attention. Among these remoter agencies in the production of mental disease, I doubt if any one, except hereditary defects, is more common at the present time, than excessive application of the mind when young. The immediate mischief may have seemed slight, or have readily disappeared after a total separation from books and studies, aided, perhaps, by change of scene; but the brain is left in a condition of peculiar impressibility which renders it morbidly sensitive to every adverse influence.”

schools for book instruction; and, 2nd, Systematic physical train-
ing of the children; including in that training for the male portion
of the school population, naval or military drill, or both.
The extent to which the time usually devoted in schools to book-
instruction may be advantageously reduced is a question of detail
which cannot probably be conclusively established until the half-
time system has been submitted for a few more years to the test of
actual experience. Mr. Chadwick, indeed, asserts, and the testi-
mony of the able and intelligent witnesses examined by him, fully
bear out the assertion, that the ordinary school hours may be
reduced one-half, without, in the slightest degree diminishing the
amount of book-instruction acquired by the pupil in a given time.
Limit of a pupil's attention.-Without, however, attempting, here,
to fix with mathematical nicety the precise number of hours during
which book-instruction may be profitably carried on in schools: it
may, at least, be laid down as an axiom that such instruction ceases
to be profitable, and should, therefore, be given up, when the pupil
is no longer able to give his entire attention to what is taught.
The instant the pupil becomes fatigued and tired, the instant he
loses the power of bright voluntary attention (as one of the witnesses
aptly calls it), it is time to stop the lesson. Everything done after
that is either unprofitable or hurtful, or both. If a boy makes an
extraordinary effort to keep his attention fixed on the subject
before him, when his capacity of voluntary attention is exhausted,
the mental effort is injurious. If, on the other hand, the boy
merely makes believe that he is attending to his lesson when his
thoughts are on his marbles or his tops, he is acquiring a dishonest
mental habit, too likely to cling to him through life, of looking at a
book without thinking of what he is reading, a habit of dawdling
over work; a habit the very opposite to that which is so invaluable
thinking of it and nothing else for the time, in obedience to the
in real life, that of doing earnestly the business of the moment; of
teaching of the golden maxim "whatever thy hand findeth to do,
do it with thy might." *

The failure of Clever Boys-Is it not in consequence of this
unduly severe mental toil together with the absence of proper phy-moral habit, that of pretending to do what he is not doing; a fatal
sical training, that we find that many a boy of high promise, the
delight of his parents, the dux of his school, is found to "unbeseem
the promise of his youth" and turn out a very common place, if
not a dull and heavy man? Is not this the reason why so many
intellectual and interesting children are like medlars rotten before
being ripe, and does it not supply us with the true answer to Dr.
Johnson's query ; "What becomes of all those prodigies?"

Ancient and Modern System.-Before leaving this part of my subject it may not be out of place to note very briefly the great and characteristic difference in this particular between the modern system of education, and that which obtained among some of the leading nations of antiquity. It is curious and instructive to mark the different degrees of importance assigned to the physical part of

education in the ancient and the modern world.

"Among the Persians we are told, "the entire education of the youth from their fifth to their twentieth years was confined to three things: riding, shooting with the bow, and speaking the truth." Here physical education is the chief, almost the only element, and mental education is not even mentioned. This is just such a system of education as we might expect to find among a people removed only a few degrees from the savage state. Advancing to times of civilization we come to the Greeks and Romans. Both these nations recognized, as we all know, the necessity and importance of mental education; and it formed, accordingly, an essential part of their system of education. But still physical training was by no means neglected; on the contrary, it was regarded as an essential if not the most important part of the training of the youth. The very names, indeed, of the Greek and Roman schoolsGymnasia and ludi-indicate places intended primarily for physical exercise.

Looking at the Greek and Roman plan of education we, with our modern views as to the paramount importance of intellectual culture, may feel inclined to impeach it as giving too much importance to physical training, to the disparagement or neglect of mental cultivation. But when we call over the bright muster-roll of poets, statesmen, orators, and historians which both of these nations produced, we must pause before we condemn the system of education which can point to such splendid results.

Mr. Chadwick refers with satisfaction to the fact that the authorities of the venerable University of Oxford have recently recognized the necessity of systematised bodily training in connection with the mental labor of the University, and expresses the hope that we may have from the university an example of the revival of a really classical education, an education founded on the precepts of Plato, Aristotle and Galen, which divided the public education into three parts, of which one was for mental training in the schools, one for bodily training in the gymnasium, and the third tuition in accomplishments as music," &c.

First remedy for the Evil.-Having dwelt so fully upon the grounds upon which Mr. Chadwick, and other educational reformers following in his track, have impeached the modern system of education, it is almost unnecessary to say that the remedies for the evil of which they complain are two-fold.

1st, ▲ reduction to the proper limits of the time set apart in

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Instruction through the Senses.-This is not the place to enforce the truths, which are now happily beginning to be at least dimly recognized that children should be made to learn as much as possible by and through their senses, by their own powers of observation: that when it is possible they should be made to study natural objects, the things themselves, rather than the signs of thingswords: that the senses themselves, as well as the reasoning powers, should be carefully cultivated: and that the right education of our senses, especially of the eye, not only contributes much to our comfort and enjoyment in life, but, in the case of the working classes, adds very materially to their usefulness and efficiency, and consequently to their value as workmen.

Mistaken views of Education.-I cannot, however, refrain from alluding, in passing, to the very narrow and mistaken view which many persons take of education. Physical education they wholly ignore, and of intellectual education they take a very one-sided view. With them intellectual education means nothing more than imparting to the child a certain amount of knowledge, and they gauge the value of education by the quantity of information acquired in a given time. Whereas the aim and object of education should be, as the word itself might teach us, to secure the healthy growth and development of the whole man-of all his powers and faculties, physical, moral, and intellectual. The value even of the intellectual training which a boy receives at school or college is not to be tested solely or chiefly by the amount of knowledge he has acquired, the number of dates or facts he may have learned; but rather by the mental discipline he has undergone, the mental power and force he has acquired, the intellectual tastes and habits he has formed; not by the information he has stored up, but by his thirst for information, his power of grasping facts, his faculty of judging rightly; not in fact, by what he has done, but what he has the power and the will to do; not by what he is in esse but what he is in posse. The mistake to which I have referred, as to the objects of education has led to the "cramming" or forcing system which is the bane of modern education. We insist that everybody shall know everything. As one of our most delightful modern Essayists writes:-"We may in sober seriousness apply to the present age the remark which Sydney Smith, in the fulness of his wisdom and his fun, applied to the master of the Pantologies at CambridgeThe advocates Science is our forte; omniscience is our foible.' for this universal knowledge forget that the mind, as Montaigne says, must be forged rather than furnished-fed rather than filled. They forget that of the mental pabulum which we are forced to take at school, none is of any real uze to us, but that portion (and

The official regulations for other public schools of Upper Canada do not prescribe the number of school hours, but it is expressly provided that they "shall not exceed six." They may be three, four, or five, at the discretion of the trustees.-ED. J. of Edu.

Evidence in favour of the plan suggested.—The paper which was submitted by Mr. Chadwick to the commissioners contains the evidence of a number of intelligent witnesses, principally school teachers and military men, most of whom speak as to the results produced in schools, where the half-time system, accompanied by military and naval drill, had actually been tried. That evidence Mr. Chadwick triumphantly appeals to as establishing conclusively the great value of military drill, whether regarded with reference to: 1st, The present welfare of the individual pupil; or, 2nd, The Sir Francis Bond Head gives his opinion on the moral value of As to the first head he holds that the evidence shews that the new ing, but magic little words of command-Eyes right!' 'Eyes drill in very characteristic and forcible language: "The dull soundsystem is attended with the following sanitary, moral, and econom-left!' and 'Stand at ease!' 'Attention!' &c., instil into the minds ical benefits to the individual pupil. We quote Mr. Chadwick's of a lot of little boys, the elements, not of war, but of peace.

1806.]

FOR UPPER CANADA.

disposed to dispute. Many, however, may feel inclined to ridicule
On this point one of
the idea of "naval drill" in inland schools.
Her Majesty's School Inspectors, Mr. Tuffnel, cites the opinion of
the late Recorder of Doncaster-Dr. Hall :-
"When I first saw," wrote Dr. Hall, "the contrivance (a ship
rigged with masts and ropes at a school) at Mettray, in France, I
could not refrain from intimating a doubt as to its practical utility.
But I found that I was quite mistaken. In France the experiment
was tried at the suggestion of the Minister of the Marine himself,
and the youths so exercised are received on board ship as sailors,
not as lads. At Ruysselade the success is still more striking. In
the course of last year, the second of the experiment, no fewer than
sixty-four colonists (youths educated at the institution) entered the
mercantile marine and the military marine, and their conduct has
been so superior that the establishment is overwhelmed with appli-
The success of the naval drill, wher-
cations from ship-owners."*
ever it has been tried in English schools, has, as might have been
expected, been quite as satisfactory as in France.
Gain to the Productive Energy.-The gain to the productive
energy of the country, resulting from the drill system, is a subject
In an opening
of which the importance cannot be overrated.
address delivered by Mr. Chadwick before the British Association
for the Advancement of Science, in 1862, he returns to this topic,
In that address he shews
and discusses it in considerable detail.
conclusively the immensely superior efficiency of educated labor
over uneducated labor, of those educated under his system over
"On the practical testi-
those brought up under the old routine.
mony," he says, "of such men as the distinguished members of
this association, large employers of labor, Mr. W. Fairburn and
Mr. Whitworth, it is established that for all ordinary civil labor,
four partially trained or drilled men are as efficient as five who are
undrilled. In other words, considering the educated child as an
investment made by the State, for a trifling expense of about one
pound per head, the productive power of that investment may, by
physical training, be augmented by one-fifth for the whole period
of working ability. Some distinguished authorities," he adds,
"consider that he understates the gain of productive power when
he put it down as one-fifth, and assert that it is practicable to give
to three men by this system the working-power of five." Now,
what does this mean? It means that we can, by a change of our
mode of education, add as much to the productive energies of the
nation as if we had added one-fifth, if not two-fifths, to the number
of the working classes, and this "without the expense of educating
the additional one-fifth, feeding, clothing, housing them or admin-
istering their public affairs."

School Drill and Natural Defence: Upper Canada.-We now proceed to say a very few words upon the last topic which we propose to discuss in connection with this subject, namely: the bearing of the half-time system with military drill on the question of our

national defence.

From the Reports of the Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, it appears that the number of boys attending the Common Schools in that part of the Province was, in 1860, in round numbers, 172,000; in 1861 the number was 178,000; in 1862, 185,000; in 1863, 192,000; in 1864, 198,000; and in 1865, 204,000.

The number of boys attending the Common Schools in Lower Canada, for 1860, is not stated in the Report of the Superintendent for Lower Canada. The total number of pupils, however, is given, and assuming the proportion between boys and girls to be about the same as in Upper Canada, the number of boys attending schools that year may be put down at about 80,000. The total number of boys, therefore, in Upper and Lower Canada, attending school in 1860, would be about 250,000 or a quarter of a million.

In the number of The Athenæum for December 31st, 1864, there is an

interesting account of the results of the "half-time" system in the chil-
dren's establishment at Limehouse in England:
"The school is conducted on what is called half-time," a system
much recommended, and found to work extremely well. Mr. Moseley,
the intelligent and earnest superintendent, gave it as his decided testi-
mony, that the children came to their lesson-books brighter and fresher
and give more close and efficient attention when they are on half-time.
The children are in school on alternate days, half of them being in the
school, and the others employed in industrial occupations. The chil-
dren are not occupied more than eighteen hours in the week in close
book-instruction, the other portion of their time being employed in
industrial training.

"The addition of physical training is a wonderful improvement in the
system of education. The influence of the drill gives the boys self-
respect; they become smart, active, clean-limbed, adroit; they acquire
the control over their own limbs. Systematized drill gives the boys,
early, an initiation into the virtues of duty, order, obedience to com-
mand, self restraint, punctuality, patience, no small addition to the
value of a man's heritage in himself! Cheerfulness and prompt obedience
seemed the characteristics of the children, both boys and girls."

Assuming, however, one-fifth of this number to be, from physical
or other causes, incapable of drill, and this is, doubtless, an over-
estimate, there would still remain 200,000 boys undergoing drill in
our common schools-if the system was universally carried out.
At the end of ten or twelve years from the first inauguration
of such a system in Canada we should have, probably, half a million
of youths who had undergone a regular course of drill; a very large
proportion of whom would be capable of bearing arms, and, should
the emergency arise, could be readily converted into good and
serviceable soldiers. Our common schools would thus be made the
nurseries of our militia.*

Our duty in this matter.-It is not very long since the heart of
our people was stirred at the near prospect of a struggle between
the Mother Country and the States. That struggle has been for
the present happily averted; but who shall say for how long? It
is to be hoped that if the danger which then threatened us should
And, assuredly, we shall
unprepared to meet it as we then were.
hereafter actually come upon us we may not be found as hopelessly
not be unprepared for such an emergency, if, we shall have pre-
viously established military drill as part of the ordinary instruction
given in all our public schools.

It has been wisely said by one of our ablest statesmen, referring If to the recent threatened difficulties with our neighbours: "That it is the first point of patriotism with us to create an enthusiastic attachment among all orders of men for our Constitution." this be the first point of patriotism, I should say that the second is to give all orders of men in our State the skill and ability necessary to enable them to stand forth confidently in the hour of danger in defence of their altars and their homes.

It is to be remembered, too, that within the last few years the position of Canada, both as regards the Mother Country and the States, is entirely changed. To England we had been in the habit of looking with confidence for protection from every danger, and from the States we thought there was no danger to be apprehended. Now, on the contrary, we have received warning from England that we must take measures to protect ourselves, and, at the same It is this peculiar crisis in our colonial history which gives time, we have received warning from our neighbors that we need to do so. to the question of our national defences such paramount interest at the present moment. In the energy and zeal with which, on the recent occasion to which we have referred, men of all ranks, from one end of the Province to the other, responded to the call to enrol themselves for the defence of the country, we have an earnest and wisdom of our statesmen to foster and encourage this spirit of a proof of the spirit which animates the people. It will be the patriotism, and to turn it to the best account.

What our Neighbours are doing.-Our neighbours across the lines have not been slow to perceive that the best way of promoting the growth of patriotism and a love of military life among their citizens is by following out the Chadwick system, and making military drill part of the ordinary business of their schools. The system has in fact been in practical operation for the last two or three years in many schools and colleges in the Union. The Governors of the States of New York and Massachusetts have, in their addresses to the State Legislatures, called attention to the subject as one of momentous importance. Educational reformers have advocated it, and measures have been introduced (if they have not been actually "Fas est et ab passed) into the Legislatures of certain States, to make military drill compulsory on all boys above ten years of age attending the schools which receive aid from the public purse. A senator in Massahoste doceri." We have learned from our neighbors many a lesson, which had far better been left unlearned; let us learn from them, in this at least, one good and useful lesson. chusetts lately, giving his views on the importance of military studies in colleges, says: "Let the drill be regular and compulsory, cise now in vogue, and our colleges would be vastly improved in taking the place of the very irregular and inefficient physical exertheir educational form, and the commonwealth would, in a short time, have a numerous body of intelligent men, well skilled in the military science and art, who will become teachers in our lower grades of schools, and be competent, when the alarm is sounded, to lead our citizen soldiers in the field."

What is doing in the Canadian Schools. In view then of the present crisis of our national history, it is satisfactory to know that in order." In both sections of the Province the able Superintendents Canada some steps are being taken towards "putting our house in of Education have, of their own accord, established military drill in a large number of the grammar and common schools throughout the country. In the Journal of Education for Upper Canada, many

So true is the * Drill when thoroughly acquired in youth, would, like swimming, riding, or skating, remain a permanent acquisition. maxim:

"Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem testa din,"

admirable articles on the subject of military drill in schools have Drilling and volunteering have, for the last two years, been the from time to time been published. The Chief Superintendent of order of the day in Canada, and most men under fifty and some Education in Upper Canada*, informs me, that eighteen grammar | over that age have been initiated in the "goose-step," and learned schools reported military drill as part of their course of training in the mysteries of "forming fours." If from our drill experience we 1863, and he also states, what is perhaps even more important, that have learned nothing more, we must have at least learned this during the last six months of 1863, the students in the Normal lesson: that soldiers are not made in a day, and that to expect to School have formed themselves into a drill association, which he make an efficient militia by drilling men, taken from the plough or adds will doubtless contribute much to the general introduction of from the workshop, for three or four weeks in the year is simply military drill into the Common Schools of Upper Canada. absurd.

An English statesman once designated the militia as depositories of panic. And the great Dryden describes the militia of his day in far from flattering terms, as

"Mouths without arms, maintained at vast expense,
In peace a charge, in war a weak defence."

In connection with the movement may be mentioned the encouraging fact, that the companies which have been formed in the schools and colleges, both in Upper and Lower Canada, are amongst the most proficient in the Province, and that they have received high encomiums on several occasions from the military officers who have inspected them. This is, indeed, only what might have been anticipated. Colonel Wily, of the Adjutant General's Department If we desire to have in Canada a militia the opposite of this; a (himself an experienced soldier), on whose authority the preceding militia which will cost us little; one of which we may feel proud in statement is made, has long earnestly advocated the introduction peace, and upon which we may rely with confidence in time of war; of military drill into schools, and he cites, as a proof of the prac-a militia in a word which will recal the memories, and be ready to tical results of the system, the admitted superiority of the militia repeat the deeds of our ancestors in 1812; we must see that our of the Channel Islands, particularly of the Island of Jersey, of sons, while at school, learn thoroughly their military drill. There which he is a native.† let us instruct them in the first rudiments of the arts of war as well as peace. There let us teach them to regard it as their pride as well as their duty to be ready, aye ready, to stand forth, when the need comes, to do or die for their country. There let us imbue them with that high and noble patriotism, that spirit of intelligence make them good men, good citizens, and good soldiers, the ornaand self-reliance which, aided by physical health and strength, will ment at once, and best defence of their country.*

I have much pleasure in quoting the following extract from the Annual Report of the Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, for the year 1863, published since the date of my paper. Under the head of "Military drill in schools" the Superintendent writes: "The Board of Common School Trustees in the City of Toronto, have, with praiseworthy intelligence and public spirit, introduced a regular system of military drill among the senior male pupils of their schools; the Board of Trustees in Port Hope have done the same. The system of military drill can be easily introduced into the schools of all the cities, towns and villages in Upper Canada, and perhaps in some of the larger rural schools; and the military training of teachers in the Normal School, together with the large number of persons who are being taught and certificated in the Government Military School, afford great facilities for making military drill a part of the instruction given in the grammar and common schools referred to.

2. SCHOOL DRILL AN AID TO VOLUNTEERING.

A SHORT ADDRESS, BY REV. J. S. HOWSON, PRINCIPAL OF THE
COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION, LIVERPOOL.

The permanence of the Volunteer movement depends largely upon arrangements with which the Schoolmaster has little concern. "In the neighboring States this subject is engaging the anxious atten- But it can hardly be doubted that the systematic practice of drill tion of the governments and legislatures; and military drill is likely to in our large Schools will subserve this great national cause in a very become a part of the system of education in all the public schools of real though unpretending manner. It was said by Colonel Wiltheir cities and towns. The Legislature of Massachusetts, at its last braham, on the occasion of distributing prizes, that "the introsession, passed a resolution directing the State Board of Education' to duction of drill into our public schools promises to form a valuable take into consideration the subject of introducing an organization of element of perseverance in the Volunteer movement," by enabling scholars, above the age of twelve years, for military drill and discipline.' boys "at an age when every manly exercise is a pleasure, to get The Board appointed a Committee (of which the governor of the State through that part of drill which, in after life, becomes more difficult was chairman) to investigate the subject, and to enquire into the result and irksome, and which probably deters many from joining the of an experiment which has been tried for two or three years in one ranks of the Volunteers." There may, therefore, be some advanof the towns of the State-the town of Brooklin. The result of the

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enquiry is thus stated-The boys in the older class can already be tage in briefly describing the arrangements which have been adopted selected from their playmates by the improvement of their forms. Habits in a case where the practice of School Drill has been successfully of prompt, instant, and unconditional obedience are also more success-maintained. In many schools the introduction of drill is very fully inculcated by this system of instruction than by any other with recent. With us it has been a part of our regular system for many which we are acquainted. A perfect knowledge of the duties of the years. soldier can be taught to the boys during the time of their attendance at School Drill, enlivened by the Volunteer movement, is a help the public schools, thus obviating the necessity of this acquisition after towards the solution of an important problem which presses on the time of the pupil has become more valuable. A proper system of schools situated in large towns: viz., how to make sure there of military instruction in the schools of our commonwealth would furnish physical education and good employment of holiday time. It is, us with the most perfect militia in the world; and we have little doubt indeed, most important that Drill should not be substituted for that the good sense of the people will soon arrange such a system in all Cricket and Football. But in schools, where the pupils are drawn the schools of the State."" daily from homes scattered widely over a large population, it is not always possible for all to be present at these games on a holiday

The Committee adds the following remarks, which are as applicable to Upper Canada as they are to Massachusetts :-

"The public schools are maintained at the public expense, in order to prepare youth for the duties of citizenship. One of these duties is to aid in the defence of the Government whenever and however assailed. Surely, then, there is no incongruity, no want of reason, in introducing into the schools such studies and modes of discipline as shall prepare for the discharge of this equally with the other duties which the citizen owes to the State.

"But can this be done without detriment to progress in other branches? Can it be done without loss of time? The Committee is satisfied that it can, and that thereby a large amount of practical knowledge and discipline in military affairs may be attained, and, at the same time, a very great saving of time and labor be effected, which, under a system of adult training, would be withdrawn from the productive industry of the country."

Under the admirable militia organization which has for centuries obtained there, every boy, between the age of fourteen and sixteen, is compelled to attend drill once a week, commodious drill sheds, and competent drill instructors being provided for the purpose. Into the details of the admirable and most economical militia organization of the Island of Jersey it would be out of place to enter here. I may, however, observe that those who are charged with the responsible task of organizing our militia might possibly find it not unprofitable to enquire into the working of a system which has produced, at a very trifling cost, a militia probably unequalled in the world. And it will probably be found that the great secret of the success of that system lies in the early military drill of every boy upon the island.

afternoon.

On the other hand, all have the benefit of the Drill. Where green fields are distant, some compensating provision for health and bodily energy is doubly important. And this should be added further, that this exercise is not exclusive, but associates together the older and younger pupils in cheerful combination.

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Some persons have feared lest this interest in military exercises should excite in our boys a passion for military life. I am inclined to think it is likely to produce precisely the contrary effect. The

the Service Militia of Canada were opened, about the date of this paper, Schools for the military instruction of candidates for commissions in April, 1864, in Quebec and Toronto. These schools have been most successful, and by the end of the year upwards of two hundred and fifty persons had obtained first class certificates. In connection with these schools there are two points which the year's experience of their working has, I think, conclusively established and to which I wish to call attention in corroboration of the general arguments advanced in the present paper:

1st. That, as a general rule, the boys have mastered the drill more easily and more thoroughly than the men.

2nd That the six or eight weeks' tuition in the drill-shed has served, in a way quite unexpected by the parents, not only to brighten and sharpen the boys' wits, but even to make them, in many cases more docile, useful and agreeable at home.

† Report on the state of the Militia for 1864, p. 8.