The system of public instruction in Upper Canada is engrafted upon the municipal institutions of the Province, to which an organisation very complete in its details, and admirably adapted to develop the resources, confirm the credit, and promote the moral and social interests of a young country, was imparted by an Act passed in 1849.  The law by which the common schools are regulated was enacted in 1850, and it embraces all the modifications and improvements suggested by experience in the provisions of the several school Acts passed subsequently to 1841, when the important principle of granting money to each county on condition that an equal amount were raised within it by local assessment, was first introduced into the statute-book.

[Sidenote:  Local superintendence.]

The development of individual self-reliance and local exertion, under the superintendence of a central authority exercising an influence almost exclusively moral, is the ruling principle of the system.  Accordingly, it rests with the freeholders and householders of each school section to decide whether they will support their school by voluntary subscription, by rate bill for each pupil attending the school (which must not, however, exceed 1_s_. per month), or by rates on property.  The trustees elected by the same freeholders and householders are required to determine the amount to be raised within their respective school sections for all school purposes whatsoever, to hire teachers from among persons holding legal certificates of qualification, and to agree with them as to salary.  On the local superintendents appointed by the county councils is devolved the duty of apportioning the legislative grant among the school sections within the county, of inspecting the schools, and reporting upon them to the chief superintendent.  The county boards of public instruction, composed of the local superintendent or superintendents, and the trustees of the county grammar school, examine candidates for the office of teacher, and give certificates of qualification which are valid for the county; the chief superintendent giving certificates to normal school pupils which are valid for the Province; while the chief superintendent, who holds his appointment from the Crown, aided in specified cases by the Council of Public Instruction, has under his especial charge the normal and model schools, besides exercising a general control over the whole system..

The question of religious instruction as connected with the common school system, presented even more than ordinary difficulty in a community where there is so much diversity of opinion on religious subjects, and where all denominations are in the eye of the law on a footing of entire equality.  It is laid down as a fundamental principle, that as the common schools are not boarding but day schools, and as the pupils are under the care of their parents or guardians during the Sunday, and a considerable