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funds required for supporting them. Aware
as I am of the evils of constantly interfering
with plans whilst still in progress, before they
have been fairly tested, and their real effects
fully known, I am still of opinion that confer-
ring some discretionary power upon the districts
of regulating their contributions according to
their special wants, or their convictions of what
ought to be done, would be very desirable;
especially in smaller districts, where the want
of education for their children is most felt;
acting indeed in many instances as a direct
hindrance to their increase in wealth and popu-
lation; but where, at the same time, the funds
at the disposal of the board do not allow them
to undertake what practically amounts to the
whole expense of the schools. As it is, the
districts already formed, with those now con-
templated, will oblige the board to adopt an
insufficient scale of salaries, which will be only
in part made up, for, in some cases, by the
erection of comfortable dwellings for the mas-
ters, or by increasing the accommodations of
those they already occupy.

A disposition has been shown in some places
to have separate schools for the boys and girls.
This is one of the arrangements which have been
left to be determined by the local committees;
although in reality the decision in every instance
must depend upon the funds which the board
is able to supply for that purpose. Where,
therefore, the number of children is such as to
justify the board in voting the additional salary
to a schoolmistress, the less the consideration whether the
schools shall be upon the \"mixed\" or \"sepa-
rate\" system, is one for the exclusive consider-
ation of the district itself: but where this is
not the case, it is manifest that no grant can be
made to one school, which the board is not
prepared to make equally to all others under
similar circumstances. There are, however,
considerations and facts which go far to show
that in the majority of cases the benefits of the
\"separate\" system, are not so great as they
may at first appear; that they may be secured
without its adoption, and that it is not without
its disadvantages. It is indeed in all cases to
be wished that girls should learn many things
which only a female can teach; and wherever
it is possible to obtain the assistance of the
master\'s wife or daughter, corresponding in-
ducements should be held out to secure it;
but it does not appear at present possible to go
much beyond this, even if it were desirable
to do so. Mr. Stow, who has given much
attention to the subject, and whose oppor-
tunities of forming a judgment have been great,
is decidedly in favour of the mixed method. In
his \"Training System;\" he observes that \"the
point is not a mere negative question, but
fraught with important consequences. The
softening and humanizing effect of female

society on the male creation is well known. It
influences the fireside, the social circle, the
public meeting. It restrains rudeness and
impropriety of every kind; and while the men
are thus improved, the females are not less
benefited in their intellectual character. What
is true in regard to grown-up persons, is equally
so in respect of the young: and if men and
women ought to act properly towards each
other when they meet, and they must,
then children cannot be trained too early to
practise this virtue.\"

Every one is satisfied that boys are improved
by the presence of girls; a wholesome restraint
is evidently felt. It is not so apparent that
girls are improved by the presence of boys;
but we believe it is mutual, though not so
obvious. The youth of the Scottish peasantry
have been educated together; and upon the
whole, the Scots are the most moral people on
the face of the earth. In Dublin, the sepa-
ration of the sexes has been found positively
injurious; a larger number of girls turn out
badly who have been educated alone, than of
those who have been brought up otherwise.

In France the separation of the sexes in
youth is productive of fearful evils. It is stated
on the best authority, that of those girls edu-
cated in the schools of convents apart from
boys, a large majority go wrong. It is im-
possible to raise girls intellectually so high
without boys with them; and it is impossible
to raise boys morally so high without the
presence of girls. The girls morally elevate
the boys; the boys intellectually elevate the
girls. But more than this, girls brought up
with boys are more positively moral; as the
boys are more positively intellectual by the
softening influence of the female character.
When separated, neither sex has participated
in the improvement designed by Providence,
by boys and girls being born and brought up
in one family. Family training is the best
standard for school training, which should
imitate it as closely as possible. Up to
twelve years of age, nearly all lessons may be
given to both girls and boys in the same class
with mutual advantage. Beyond that age they
gradually and naturally diverge; but absolute
separation for any lengthened period is posi-
tively injurious.

In the model schools of the Glasgow Normal
Seminary, the most beneficial effects have re-
sulted from the more natural course. In
twenty-three years about 1,500 students have
passed through them, and not one case of im-
propriety has occurred. Only five marriages
have taken place among the students, two of
which were between parties previously ac-
quainted; so that hasty or imprudent mar-
riages are evidently not encouraged by the
plan. Thus far Mr. Stow, who states further,