An Act respecting Industrial Schools.

An Act to Amend and Consolidate the Public School Law.

An Act to amend and Consolidate the Laws respecting the Council of Public Instruction, and respecting High Schools.

The Lieutenant-Governor was then pleased to deliver the following speech, in which he said:

You have done a good service to every part of the Province by your revision, improvement and consolidation of the Laws, (which had for many years been accumulating for the Regulation and management of our Public and High Schools,-on the efficiency of which the future condition of our Province so essentially depends.

APPENDIX TO VOLUME TWENTY-FIVE.

SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE OTTAWA COLLEGIATE INSTITUTE, 1843-1894.

BY JOHN THORBURN, ESQUIRE, M.A., LL.D., FORMERLY ITS HEAD MASTER, BUT NOW LIBRARIAN OF THE GOVERNMENT GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA.

DOCTOR THORBURN TO THE HISTORIOGRAPHER OF THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT.

I received your kind note of the 21st instant, and in compliance with your sugges tion, I am sending you a brief sketch of the Ottawa Collegiate Institute.

When the District of Dalhousie, now the County of Carleton, was separated in 1842 from the Bathurst District, the then Bytown Grammar School was commenced in May, 1843. At that time, the appointment of Head Masters to Grammar Schools was made by the Governor-in-Council. Prior to the erection of the Collegiate Institute Building in 1874, the School may be said to have had a peripatetic existence, moving about from one Building to another, none of them being at all suitable for School purposes. There were five of such Buildings occupied between 1843 and 1874, when the Classes were removed to the new Building. The present site of the Collegiate Institute was secured in 1872, and on June 4th, 1874, the Governor-General, Lord Dufferin, laid the Corner Stone, on which occasion Addresses were presented to His Excellency by the Trustees of the Institute, by the Pupils of the Public Schools, and by the Pupils of the Collegiate Institute. This last one was in Latin, of which the following is a copy: Pace ua, Vir Illustrissime:—

·-

Nos discipuli Ottawaensis Academica Scholæ animis libentissimis et maxima voluntate salutem dicimus.

Pergratum nobis fecisti, quod, a cura tua regni et altis laboribus cessans, ad hoc festum solemne nostrum venisti, ut primum lapidem hujus academici ædeficii pro doctrina et educatione juvenum instituti ponas.

In rem tuam erat, ut in juvenilibus annis, more majorum tuorum, animus tuus insigni fonte literarum aleretur, et postea, annis volventibus, ductus delectatione, tam audiendi quam videndi novas res in altis regionibus Septentrionum onustus tuorum itinerum ad multas exteras nationes opimis fructibus domum incolumis redires.

Iste præclarus cultus artis literarumque, qui vitam tuam adornat, nos certiores facit, ut studia, quæ ad humanitatem et bonos mores pertinent, quæ in majus triumphos scientiæ provehunt, et itaque, adjumenta gerendi vitæ opera dant, ea benigne æstimes.

Hæc schola, permultos annos, artes, præceptaque morum doceat, lumina scientæ et lietrarum diffundat, et fons sempiternus inviolatæ fidei veritatisque natis postmodo multis sit.

Ne te diutius sermone nostro detineamus, oramus ut, amico et benigno animo, hæc dicta accipias, et magna multaque bona tibi et conjugi tuæ pulchræ præclaræque

precamur.

Nunc dicendum est.

Valeatis tuque tuique.

GEORGIUS M. GREENE, Pro Condicipulis Suis.

His Excellency in reply to the Latin Address presented to him, on behalf of the Pupils of the Collegiate Institute, read the following, also in Latin:

Alumni, Ottawaensis Academica Schola:

Dies notandos mihi candissimis calendis istos semper puto in quibus vitamdare, et amico vultu aspicere in instituta disciplinæ litterisque dedita mihi occurrat.

Viatores nunc estis per semitas arduas angustiasque, ut mature in jucundissima lataque scientiæ prata veniatis. Labores, crede mihi, me cognoscente, magno præmio compensati erunt, præmia potestatis scire, hoc est potestatem habere.

Hoc saxo quadrato posito, tam certa sedes ad præclarum ædificum struendum, spectantes mementote Ciceronis verborum-"Senectus fundamentis adolescentiæ constituta est."

Restat ut vobis gratias referam, propter amica verba erga meipsum conjugemque. Vobis vestris que multam salutem dico, multos annos famæ notissimos prædico.

Master Bradley, a Pupil of the Public School, of eleven years of age, read the following Address with remarkable clearness and propriety:

May it please Your Excellency:

Having been invited by the Directors of the Collegiate Institute, of which you have just laid the foundation stone, to be present on this occasion, it was thought that Your Excellency would not be displeased if we ventured to present you with a short Address, and accordingly 45 Boys and 31 Girls tried their hands at it. Out of these 76 attempts the following remarks have been selected, and the Address therefore embodies just what the Pupils of the Public Schools themselves thought to say to Your Excllency. In the first place we desire to thank Your Excellency for the great interest you take in the education of the young, and we remember with gratitude the good advice you gave us at our Annual Exhibition, last Christmas, when Your Excellency and the Countess of Dufferin were so kind as to honour the Meeting with your presence. As a proof that Your Excellency's instructions were attentively received, it may not be improper to say that that Speech was referred to as a cause of great encouragement. We have tried to follow your good counsel, and many of us are now looking forward to the time when we shall be sufficiently advanced in our studies to enter the Collegiate Institute. It is our hope that like the Public Schools, it will be free to all the children who may be qualified to enter it, and if it shall be so, it cannot fail to be of the greatest advantage to Ottawa and the County generally.

We desire to say that we value our great privileges, and that we hope to prove our gratitude by cherishing a loyal attachment to our noble Queen, whom we have all so much reason to reverence and love.

As Your Excellency is the first Governor-General, so far as we know, who has honoured the Public Schools by his countenance, we desire to thank you for having set the example, and we beg to assure Your Excellency that we shall esteem it a very great honour if you should again countenance our anniversaries. These remarks are offered to Your Excellency with sincere good wishes for your health and happiness, and for the health and happiness of Her Ladyship the Countess of Dufferin, whose goodness in accompanying Your Excellency at our Christmas Meeting, we shall never forget.

His Excellency very kindly inquired the Boy's name, and then said:-Master Bradley, I beg to thank you for the admirable Address that you have presented me with, from your Schoolfellows, both Girls and Boys, and I must say that they have

done very wisely in choosing you, who can read with such propriety and with such feeling, and with a diction so pure and classical; and the School which you represent could not have devised a better method of convincing those who stand around me of the admirable way of the conduct of that Institution. Such a satisfactory specimen of your efforts is the best proof of the excellence of your training. You will have the kindness to return, on my behalf, to your Schoolfellows my best thanks; and I can assure you that Lady Dufferin will very much appreciate the very kind expressions in which you have been kind enough to allude to Her Excellency.

Of the new Building, Mr. W. Chesterton is the Architect. On being invited by the Board of Trustees to lay the corner stone, the following Address was presented to His Excellency :

TO HIS EXCELLENCY EARL DUFFERIN

May it please Your Excellency :

The Board of Trustees of the Collegiate Institute of the City of Ottawa, aware of the great interest that Your Excellency takes in all matters that tend to the welfare of Canada, and especially of its educational institutions, having respectfully prayed Your Excellency to lay the foundation stone of this Building, which, when completed, will be devoted to the purpose of teaching the higher branches of a classical, scientific, and English Education, and Your Excellency having graciously consented to comply with this prayer, now expresses to Your Excellency its sincere satisfaction for the encouragement Your Excellency this day gives to its endeavours to establish in Ottawa a Collegiate Institute worthy of the Capital of the Dominion.

The Board wishes further to convey to Your Excellency its constant desire for the welfare of Your Excellency and the Countess of Dufferin, and its hope that Canada. under the fostering care of Your Excellency, as the Representative of its Gracious Sovereign, will advance in intellectual culture, as it has heretofore advanced in material prosperity.

OTTAWA, June 4th, 1874.

To this Address His Excellency replied,

JOHN P. FEATHERSTON, Chairman.

Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen:-I have already on so many occasions had the opportunity of expressing to the public of Canada the deep interest I take in all these Institutions, and the confirmed conviction that I entertain that there is nothing more calculated to promote the prosperity of the Country than establishments of this kind, founded on pure and sound principles, that it will be unnecessary for me to repeat those observations, or to give you any fresh assurance of my sentiments in this regard, but I do not wish to let this opportunity pass without expressing my supreme satisfaction for the very satisfactory account with which I have been favoured. Of the circumstances which have led to the foundation of this Institution,-of the prosperous condition in which it is at its commencement, and of the promising future which lies before it. And I can assure you that so soon as the object which you have in view is in progress, when the walls of this Hall are raised, I shall consider it one of my chief privileges to come and visit the School. I may also be forgiven if I take this opportunity of expressing the personal gratification I feel in congratulating those who are interested in the success of this Institution upon its possession in the Head Master, (Doctor Thorburn), of a Person so admirably qualified to secure the prosperity of the School and conduct it on proper principles. He was one of the first Persons with whom I became acquainted on arriving in Ottawa, and I must say that I esteem it as a great privilege that I should have had opportunities of maintaining my intercourse with him, and conversing on many classical subjects. I also have the pleasure of knowing one of his Assistants, whom I am perfectly justified in considering a great acquisition to the teaching staff of the Institute. I trust that in future years it may be my good fortune to extend my acquaintance to the other Gentlemen who assist him. I may also be permitted to say that it is my intention to give a silver and a bronze Medal to be

annually competed for by the Pupils on conditions that can be settled between the Head Master and myself. I need only say further that it must be a source of pride and gratification to every inhabitant of Canada to know that there are Institutions of this kind, founded on such principles, and administered with such sound judgment, established on such satisfactory conditions in almost every City and centre in the Dominion. It affords the strongest evidence that for the future the young of Canada will have the means of obtaining an education and the development of their natural intelligence, and which will also inculcate the principles of virtue and morality as well as literary wisdom, by which the civilization of the world is maintained.

A silver Trowel was then presented to His Excellency, and the Corner Stone having been lowered to its bed of mortar, he declared it duly laid The Reverend D. M. Gordon then offered prayer for the prosperity of the Institute, and the protection of those engaged in the work, and the ceremony was brought to a close after three hearty cheers, called for by the Mayor, had been given for the Queen, and three for His Excellency and the Countess of Dufferin. The band of the Foot Guards played "God save the Queen," and His Excellency drove off amid cheers.

Some years previously, in 1865, the following Address was presented to the then Governor-General, Lord Lorne, by the Master and Pupils of the Collegiate Institute, and to whom he made an appropriate and suitable reply:

TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR JOHN DOUGLAS SUTHERLAND CAMPBELL, K.T., K.C.M.G., P.C., MARQUIS OF LORNE, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA.

May it please Your Excellency:—

We, the Head Master, Masters and Pupils of the Ottawa Collegiate Institute beg to convey to Your Excellency and to your august Consort our respectful greetings, and the assurance of our sincere thanks for the great honour which this auspicious occasion brings us.

While others are engaged in the various avocations of life, in developing the material prosperity of this young Dominion, by gathering the fruits of the soil, and by fostering and extending trade and commerce, it is our province in the quiet seclusion of the Class Room, with its daily round of duties, to lay the foundations of those intellectual and moral qualities without which no Nation can be great and prosperous.

Coming, as Your Excellency has done, from a Land which has for many centuries enjoyed the benefits of cultured Instructors, and of the best educational appliances. and having yourself given ample proofs of the same training and ripe scholarship obtained in her time-honoured Institutions of Learning, Your Excellency can the better understand and appreciate the advantages that the study of our own literature, and that of the great masters of Greece and Rome can confer upon the youth of this Country.

Enjoying, as we do, in full measure the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and sharing in the glories and achievements of the British Empire, we hail with loyal satisfaction the presence among us, of a Royal Daughter of England, as a pledge of the interest felt in this Country by our beloved Queen, and we trust and pray that, in coming years, Canada may remain inseparably united to the Mother land.

In conclusion we desire to renew our assurance of devoted loyalty to our Most Gracious Sovereign, and of cordial welcome to Your Excellency and to Her Royal Highness the Princess Louise.

Signed on behalf of the Masters by J. THORBURN, M.A., Head Master.
Signed on behalf of the Pupils by A. B. HUDSON and MARY MUSSON.

On January 30th, 1893, the Collegiate Institute Building was destroyed by fire, and the Classes were accommodated in the Normal School, and in one of the Public Schools until the Building was ready for occupation in December, 1893. A new Wing was added to the Building in 1902.

In 1865, when the Grammar Schools of the Province were classified by the Reverend Professor Young, who was then Inspector of Grammar Schools, there were only four of these Schools placed in the first, or highest, class, and the Ottawa Grammar School was one of them. Professor Young informed the Chairman of the Board that there was only one School west of Toronto, as thoroughly efficient as the Ottawa one, and that was the Galt School.

Besides numerous Scholarships, Medals and others honours carried off by the Pupils of this School at one, or other, of our Canadian Universities, two of the five English Gilchrist Scholarships, offered for competition in Canada, were won by Ottawa Boys, S. W. Hunton in 1877, and Fred. W. Jarvis in 1879.

The first Trustees of the School in 1843 were the Reverend S. S. Strang, Chairman, the Reverend Father Phelan, (afterwards Bishop Phelan), the Reverend J. Cruikshanks, Mr. Joseph Coombs, and Mr. J. B. Lyon-Fellows.

The Chairmen of the Board of Trustees since 1843, were the Reverend Doctor Strang, Doctor Hamnett Hill, Messieurs Edward McGillivray, J. P. Featherston, George Hay, the Honourable Francis Clemow, John Thorburn, M.A., LL.D. The Head Masters since 1843, were the Reverend Doctor Thomas Wardrope, the Reverend Doctor Thomas, the Reverend John Robb, M.A., ex-Judge William Aird Ross, Timothy Millar, M.A., the Reverend W. I. Borthwick, John Thorburn, M.A., LL.D., who held office for nearly twenty years, and John McMillan, B.A.

In 1874, the Board of Grammar School Trustees, feeling the want of more suitable accommodations, decided to erect a permanent home for the School, the corner stone of which was laid by Governor-General Lord Dufferin, as already detailed.

In the Winter of 1892, this Building was destroyed by fire, but steps were taken in November, 1893, to rebuild a new home for the School, which was opened for the reception of Pupils in February, 1894, when the occasion was graced by the presence of Governor-General and Lady Aberdeen, and a large assemblage of interested visitors.

OTTAWA, March, 1895.

JOHN THORBURN.