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MOUSE OF ASSEWBLY.

Tuvasoay, April 24. MORNING SITTING, Carmgouic Scuoo. Petition.

Mr. Was.an presented a Petition from ime Roman Catholic Inhabitants of Char- hottetown, setting forth the claims and condition ef tWo Schools established un- dee the auspices of the Catholic Chureh ef thie place, and .praying that the Act fer the encouragement of Education may be 80 amended as to bring these Schvols within ite provieions, and thus entitle them to Legisli‘ive support.

Mr. Wieran, having cead the Petition i@ his place, said he would beg ieave to offer a few observations in support of it. He could not supose that the prayer of the petiiioners would be rejected by the House; for their cliiins were in every point of view just and reasonable. By a provision of the exicting Act for the en- fouragement of Education, Legislative sid was, he believed, confined ta two schools in Chario:tetiwn; one for boys and the other fer girls: and the propriety of extending it tu the -so which received Hy Was not determined by the superior qualifications and + iciency of the teach-

ers; bur bs tince of their being the ‘irs: ‘or This,.in Ais Opinion, was r Upon very erro. acous principle: ity confining begialative aid to the first twe teachers whe applic’ for it, itimight very easily heppen that the assistance afforded by n would be enjoyed by individuals of quali- Seations bare’ sufficient to entitle them ta the allawance: whilst, perhaps, one or

mere teaches, male of (pale, of vastly e@perior abilit: neh more extensive edacational aiiaismente, and woch greater skill in the act of tution, whe might not bave opened echoals until aftertwo had eecured leg silative aid, would be alto- gether excluded from any participation in tae public bounty granted for the encour. agement of Educaion; and owing tothe vesuAciency of voluntary support, might be obliged to abandon their undertaking, ead their alinost invaluable services be heat to the public. It might also happen wat, ecting upon this principle, legislative sid would de denied to schools, upon the meintensace of which a large and poor dase of the coimmunity were dependent fer the education of their children; whilst a wae extended to schools, the benefits of @hich were exner.enced by comparatively few. Legislative aid ought aot, in hie epinior, to be depenrlent upon the super- Seia) area or the extent of a district, but apon the amount end necessities of popu- retion. The hon. member then proceeded te eet forth the peculiar claims of the @ahools, on behalf of which legislative eid was prayed for by the Petition. He

-etated thatthe Schools had been estab-

hohed by private bounty amongst the Ca- feolics, for the purpose of affording edu- sation to the poorer classes. The tuition fees were very low, and were only exact- ed froin those who could afford to pay veern: but the generality.of the scholars were taught gratis. Last summer there were 86 boys in daily attendance, but ae tee winter set in, the nuciber wae reduced ta 51; the reduction being caused solely by the poverty of the parents, who had it sot in their power to clothe them in such @ way a3 would protect them frorm the in- elemency of the weather. The falling ef, at the same time, in the girle’ echool, was searly in the same proportion, end for precisely the same reason—the insbility ef the parents to afford comfortable or euScient clothing to their children. The master who, until the close of the las: vear, bad the charge of the boys’ school, wee an experienced nud yery efficient

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teacher, Dut owing io the falling off in the number of the scholars, and the in- suiiciency of bis remuneration, he was obliged to give it up, and take refuge be- hind a merchant’s counter. The salary of the present Master, who has been late- ly engaged, was not yet fixed, as the Trustees of the School were waiting for leyislative action with reference to the School. The salary of the Mistress was £25 or £308 year; and for this the Trus- tees were responsible to her. She isa young lady of very high educational at- tainmenta and of great ability as an in- structress of youth; and, were she prompily encouraged, wouid be capable of readering great and lasting benefits to tue community, He (the hon. member) had attended an exatnmation of the school

.| last winter, and couid truly gay that he

had aever been more delighted with any similar exhibition im his life; children, of from #X or seven to fourteen years of age, had answered questions in history, geo- graphy, and natural philosophy, in such a inapnes 24 might not only have made children of a larger growta blush for their ignorance, but would actually have been no discredit (o students in a University. He did sot suppost the Petition merely because it proceeded from that body of Christians of which he was a member, or because the aid for which it prayed was tor ihe support of Schools belonging to, or-under the superintendence and foster. ing care of that body; for he would with equal zeal have supposted the claims of. any other class of Christains, having for their Object the same laudable and chari-

fable design—the diffusion of right know-

ledge among the childien of the poor. ne Schvols in favour of which he sought tw mterest the» House, were, it wae true, eatablished and supported by Catholics ; but the eystem of education wae that of the District Schools of the Island, the vovks used in them sere those recom- mended by the Board of Education; and the schools were free to children of all religious denominations. Mush was of- ten urged ta favour of the rights of proper- ty; and the legitimate rights of property he would never seek to infringe ; but there were other riyhts which ought to be held equally sacred, of which, however, but lutie was said, and, in favour of which; but very little wae urged—he meant the | rights of iabour and industry. it was to: the labours of honest industry among the puer and humble, that the acquisition of wealth and property by the few was main- ly attributable; and long, unjustiy, and unwizely hid the rights of the operative and productive classes been overlooked or denied, aud especially with regard to education. Happily, however, the time was at length arrived when the justice and wisdom of acknowledging these rights was becoming manifest to the legislatiee and governing powers of near-' ly every civilized country inthe world;' and here,in Prince Edward feland, be-‘ fore long, he hoped to see established such @ system of general education as would, without distinction, meet the de-. mande of the colony. Meauwhile, fully! convinced of the justice of the prayer of: the Petition, and relying upon the wisdom and liberality ‘of the House, he would move that the Petition be received and jnid upon the Table with a view to its being takéa up when the House should be in a Cotnimittee of supply.

Hon. Mt, Taoxnron said that he fully concurred in aii that had been said in support of the prayer of the Petition by jie hon. member who had presented it; although he differed rather widely from him touching the principles of which he (Mr. Whelan) seemed to think that legis- lative aid ought te be extended to Schools.

4 Af his (Mr. W's) views were to do acted

N—HAVING TO ADVISE THE PUBLIC—MAY SPEAK FREEL”—Mitton’s Euripipes,

CHARLOTTETOWN, MAY 12, 1851.

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Vol. 2: No. 5.

upon with respect to Charlottetown, the number of schools therein to which it would be necessary to extend the educa- tional bounty would be so nunerons, tha: they would in a manner, swamp the schoale in the country. however, that the claims of the @atho'ic charity schools in Charlettetown, which were certainly (as the hon. member who had presented the petition had said,) just and reasonable, and which he was well disposed to sustain to the best of his ability, should not have been preferred at an earher period of the se:sion,—for the House having aiready degermined merely to re-enact, for one year, the present Act for the encouragement of Education, it appeared to him th t the claims set forth in the Petition, and eloquently advacat- ed by the hon. metiber who had presented it, to a proviaton beiny made in that Act, to entitle those Catholic Schools in Char- lottetown, in which the child-en of s larye and deserving, althouvh poor and humble class were to-be educated gratis, could not pow receive that consideration to which they were so well entitled. No aid could at present, he thought, be ex- tended to them under that Act; buat should such a measure for the promotion of general education be brought in and matured next session, as that to which the House stood almost pledyed, these schools, as well ag others, would be en- titled tothe full benefits of the measure, Meanwhile the Petition being received, and laid upon the Treble, the claims of ‘the parties petitioning, might be consid- ered when the House should be in com- inittee of supply.

The petition was then ordered to be laid upon the Table.

Touesvar, April 15. DEBATE ON THE CIVIL LIST BILL, CONDENSED BY KEPORTER.

On motion of Mr. Cores, the House went into committee on the Civil List Bill,— Mr. Warburton in the chair.

Satagy or tae Citer Justice — The chatrman having read the first enact- ing clause of the Bill, intended to fix the

amount of the annual Salary of the pre-

sent Chief Justice, Mr. Coles moved that it should be £700, and the hon. Sol. Ge- neral that it should be £900, Mr. Pope said he had uniformly aud on principle, voted fora larger salary, and would do so again, if he could see any prospect of ite being carried ; but, as there was none, he would not oppose the motion for the smal- ler one.

Mr. Fraser said the House, Inet year, went as far as consistency would allow them and certainly quite far enough for, the resources of the country. Should; honorable members review the report of: the committee eppointed in 1842, when the Chief Justice wanted an Assistant, it would be found that upon the examina- tion which then toak place, the amount offered here last year would remunerate him full well; and was greater than

4 Judges in Great Britain received in pro-

portion to the services they performed ; and was atleast double the amount ofthe individual salaries enjoyed by the Judves in.the United States. Besides, observed the hon. mémber, it was only expediency which had induced the House to offer the

He regretted. 4

same amount this year; tor in justice, the Iinperial Government ought to defray part of his expenses, as he was their re- tired pensioner before he came to this Island. But (continued the honorable inember) we only get justice, at second hand here; and as we are Dota strong colony, we have to put up with it, other- wise, the public money will be taken out of the chest, a8 was done last year, with- ot our consent, to pay that functionary,

a9 well as other odicera ecutrary te Law,

Hon, Sou. Generat observed, in sup- porting the rights of the Chief Justice w the larger salary, that his salary frow the Imperial Government had been £105(, and with the £100 allowed him from the eglony, fir travelling expenses it had been £1150 Islund currency; but when the Civil List of this colony ceased tobe paid by the Imperial Government, his salary was reduced to £700 currency, an aniount sufficiently low, # any just re gard were to be pxid tothe length of time which he had filled his office and the efficient manner in which he had dis- charged his important duties—duties suf ficiently onerous at all times, in his case peculiarly go from his having had to sus- tain alone, and very lately, the whole re- sponsibility of his office. Her Majesty's trovernmemt influenced by his own repre- sentation of his case, had recommended the higher amount of salary ; and when, in connection with the weigtit and jusijee of his claims, his years were considered, and the prebable duration of his life taken into aecount, it wonld appear, he thought, not enly just to allow him the higher salary, but even fir from unwise un the score of economy: for there could not be a great deal of difference at his advanced age, between £900 a year for fe without a bonne, and £700 a year, with a bonus of £500, which was to be viven as a compensation for the reduction of his salary.

Mr. Corrs charged the Hon. Soliciter Genera! with baving changed his views with respect to the question of the Chief Juatice’s salary: and said that he demanded only £700 a year for that , functionary when the House were dia- posed to allow £600. the also accused the Rov. and learned member of inconsis- tency, in requiring the House to respect the recommendation of the Imperial Gov- enment in one instance, when he himself had run so directly cuuntercte their re- commendation touching the introduciior

| of Respon-ible Government, although the

latter recommendation, which he con—- temned and withstood, was closely united with that to which he wished the House to bow. A salary of £700 a year to the Chief Justice was in his opinion, quite ea much a8 the Colony could afford to pay. The Chief Justice had fetmerly expres» ed himeelf satisfied with the proposed ar- rangemént with respect to hiesalary ; bat as the megociation was abruptly broken ff, he (Mr. Coles) did not allude to the fact from any wish to make it appear that he (the Chief Sustice) was bound by it. But he might be allowed to say that the Chief Justice had wisely regulated hie style of living since, so as to accord with the contemplated redaction of his solar and therefore, being prepared for diminution of his income, it would not take him by surprise to catise him any in- convenience. A salnry of £700 a year, with the bonus of £500, was quite ae much ae the country could afford; and he hoped the Chief Justice would fing iz sufficient. The habit of living beyond their means had not been unusual with the officials in this colony, enjoying:

al and ample salaries; and it really ap- peared in some instances, that the grentes the salary, the greater was the temptation to live beyond it. It wae time to endea- vour to put a stop to such extravagance ; the practice of which evidently led, not only tothe ruin and discredit of those who indulged in it, but tothe very seriove loss and injury of parties at whose ex- pense it wae pureved,

The question being put on Mr. Corzs’s motion that the salary be £700, it was carried.

Mr. Coiss then moved, Gat the selary of the Chief Juatice’s succenece im office