“No minister, as such, gives religious instruction in any of our public schools.  Ministers are commonly on the school committees, and when visiting the schools, as committees, exhort the children to good behaviour, and to a religious life.

“No cases are known of parents wishing their children to be excused from such religious instruction, except with the Catholics, who desire that their children be excused from the devotional exercises, especially from reading the Protestant version of the Bible.  Even this is very rare where the teacher himself reads the Scriptures in connexion with other devotional exercises.  It occurs most frequently where the children are required to use the Bible themselves, either in devotional exercises or in a reading lesson.  But those wishes are not often regarded, because the committee has a legal right to prescribe the Bible as a school-book, and to require all the pupils to comply with all the regulations of the school.  In some few instances, committees have thought it expedient to allow the Douay version to be used by Catholic children; but it amounts to nothing, as it is an abstract point started by the priests, for which parents care but little; besides, it is objected that the Douay version with its glosses is ‘a sectarian book,’ whereas the common English version without note or comment is not.”

Scholars desirous of entering the higher schools are generally required to pass through the lower, and bring therefrom certificates of capacity and conduct.  In the statute of the State, with reference to education, all professors, tutors, instructors, &c., are enjoined to impress upon the minds of those committed to their charge “the principles of piety, justice, a sacred regard to truth, and love of their country.”  Among the various subjects in connexion with education, in which instruction is given in these schools, it may be as well to mention one, which, I believe, is all but totally neglected in England.  By legislative enactment, section 2, “All school-teachers shall hereafter be examined in their knowledge of the elementary principles of physiology and hygiene, and their ability to give instructions in the same.”

The School Committee consists of two members from each of the twelve wards of the city, chosen annually, and assisted by the Mayor and President of the Common Council.  The average expense of each scholar at the primary schools is 25s. per annum, at the higher schools three guineas.  Under the foregoing system, 12,000 children are instructed annually at the primary schools, and 10,000 at the higher schools, which aggregate of 22,000 will give an attendance of nearly 70 per cent. upon all children between the ages of five and fifteen, to whom the avenues of knowledge, from the lisping letters of infancy to the highest branches of philosophy, are freely opened.