THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 121 



cerning all matters pertaining thereto ; (3) the large sums of money 

 granted for educational purposes should be under the control of a 

 Minister of the Crown, who, in turn, is responsible to the people's 

 representatives ; (4) as the greater part of the management of our 

 educational affairs is in the hands of, or largely influenced by, the 

 teaching profession, and the people furnish large sums of money in 

 support thereof, what is more fitting, and more in accordance with 

 right and justice, than that the connecting link between the two 

 should be at the head of the Education Department, and at the 

 same time occupy a seat in the Government commensurate in im- 

 portance with the interests he represents. 



This may not be an ideal system, but it approaches as nearly 

 to it as any that has come within the range of my knowledge. The 

 principles which underlie it must commend themselves to every 

 well-wisher of popular education, for they are based upon truth and 

 justice. That phase of education embraced in the term " religious 

 instruction " (a vague and indefinite phrase), in my humble judg- 

 ment, does not come within the limits ot legislative enactments, but 

 belongs to the home and to the Church. Christian education is 

 one of the prerogatives of every true teacher ; for, by his walk, his 

 conversation and his daily life, he teaches lessons of greater import- 

 ance and more lasting value than any lessons he teaches in the pre- 

 scribed course of study. Teachers may do much in this respect, but 

 it must be left in their hands to seize the opportunities as they pre- 

 sent themselves, and impress on the minds of their pupils the great 

 truths of the Christian religion. 



We have glanced at the rise and progress of an educational 

 system whose cradle was the log school house of the hardy 

 pioneer, whose infancy was spent in the midst of that political and 

 sectarian turmoil which culminated in the Mackenzie rebellion, and 

 whose youth was nurtured and cared for by the judicious and far- 

 seeing intelligence of that thoughtful educational statesman. Dr. 

 Ryerson, until it. developed into early manhood and received an 

 honored place in the highest councils of the nation. That place it 

 holds to-day. In the person of a member of our own profession, 

 into whose hands its destinies have been placed, it is opening up 

 wider fields of usefulness, freeing itself from encumbrances that have 

 been left as legacies of the past, and girdling itself to meet the 



