blishments, not only all over
the States, but in every country of the Old World, selecting from each
those features which seemed to produce the most comfort, the best
instruction, and the greatest harmony. The result of his inquiries I
subjoin from his own pen:--

"Our system of public elementary instruction is eclectic, and is, to a
considerable extent, derived from four sources. The conclusions at
which the present head of the department arrived during his
observations and investigations of 1845, were, firstly: That the
machinery, or law part of the system, in the State of New York, was
the best upon the whole, appearing, however, defective in the
intricacy of some of its details, in the absence of an efficient
provision for the visitation and inspection of schools, the
examination of teachers, religious instruction, and uniform text-books
for the schools. Secondly. That the principle of supporting schools in
the State of Massachusetts was the best, supporting them all according
to property, and opening them to all without distinction; but that the
application of this principle should not be made by the requirements
of state or provincial statute, but at the discretion and by the
action, from year to year, of the inhabitants in each school
municipality--thus avoiding the objection which might be made against
an uniform coercive law on this point, and the possible indifference
which might in some instances be induced by the provisions of such a
law--independent of local choice and action. Thirdly: That the series
of elementary text-books, prepared by experienced teachers, and
revised and published under the sanction of the National Board of
Education in Ireland, were, as a whole, the best adapted to schools in
Upper Canada--having long been tested, having been translated into
several languages of the continent of Europe, and having been
introduced more extensively than any other series of text-books into
the schools of England and Scotland. Fourthly: That the system of
normal-school training of teachers, and the principles and modes of
teaching which were found to exist in Germany, and which have been
largely introduced into other countries, were incomparably the
best--the system which makes school-teaching a profession, which, at
every stage, and in every branch of knowledge, teaches things and not
merely words, which unfolds and illustrates the principl