2 PART I.-EDUCATION AT THE PARIS EXHIBITION OF 1867. As it is interesting to know what subjects were placed in classes 89 and 90, Group X, and received prizes, I insert the following list : The Honourable J. W. Hoyt, American Education Commissioner to the Paris Exhibition, thus characterizes the objects exhibited in these two classes. He says :— "The objects themselves numbered many thousands, one entry-as that of a schoolhouse, for instance-often including many individual articles collectively shown by the nation, society, or individual making exhibition. The variety of objects was only less than their number, extending through the whole range appropriate to the work of education, and affording ground for a discussion of every educational theme, from the material appliances essential to the infant school, up through every grade of intermediate schools, general and special, to the scheme of the Royal Academy or University. In the Park were schoolhouses, with furniture, apparatus, and numberless appliances, together with several pavilions embracing a multitude of educational appliances used in Schools of agriculture and mechanical industry, and the no less numerous products of the handiwork of the artistic or scientific skill of the pupils. In the Palace were numerous halls, alcoves and attractive corners, filled with charts, maps, atlases, globes, orreries, slates, copy-books, contrivances to aid in teaching children to read, write, and calculate; text-books from the primer to the calculus and the classics; schemes and reports of the Educational Institutions of every grade and character; copies of annals published by Educational Societies, Institutions and States; the implements used in gymnastic exercises, and the appliances requisite to instruction in the arts of design, architecture, painting, and sculpture. Some of the halls embracing these, and countless other objects equally appropriate to the Educational Department, were very beautifully and effectively set off by portraits, busts, and statues of distinguished teachers and patrons of education in all countries, as well as by the inscription of the names and living words of such as, by their labours for the diffusion of knowledge among men, have made them immortal." This collection of Educational objects awakened the greatest interest among the Teachers in France. Mr. Hoyt (already quoted) says, "that over 12,000 of them visited the Exhibition, while, from parts of the world, zealous men and women came expressly to avail themselves of su principles, and suggestions, and sources of information as the Ex hibition afforded 2. THE VIENNA EXHIBITION OF 1873. The great success which attended the formal recognition of the subject of Education at the Paris Exhibition, induced the Austrian Imperial Commissioners to give, if possible, still greater prominence to it at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873. Owing to the enlightened foresight and zeal of the Director General, (Baron Schwarz-Senbora,) now Austrian minister at Washington, the educational features of that Exhibition were particularly good. On this point, General Eaton, the able United States Commissioner of Education, adds this strong testimony. The programme of the Department of Education at Vienna, produced upon my mind. a most forcible impression. The breadth of view, the all comprehending grasp of the subject, worked out with such perfection of detail, gave evilence that a mind of no ordinary calibre had originate this noble conception. It seemed to me as if the man that had worked out the programme of that vast Exposition had risen above the sphere in which we move, according to the ideal of a grand principle of vision, and had looked down upon Austria, full of love for every being in the entire population, man, woman, or child, and had recognised the necessities of that people and the process by which their interests would be elevated and harmonized, and by which the whole nation was to be lifted in rank among the kingdoms of the earth. It seemed to me that the author had brought to this conception, not only this great love for the people and original ability for arrangement, but the experience of the world. That is to say, he had successfully endeavoured to bring the experience of the world, which belonged to such an enterprise, down to the Exposition at Vienna, and had incorporated and expressed that experience there. It seemed the scheme of a great philanthropic statesmen, planning first for the advancement of his own people, but broad enough to include all the people of the world, who were freely invited to come to Vienna and see the great results of civilization. I can never forget the impression made upon me by that magnificent programme, which not even the grand results of the completed design, which it was my good fortune to behold, could obliterate from my memory." The main features of the Paris Educational Exhibit of 1867, were repeated at Vienna in 1873. The "Group XXVI, Education, Teaching, and Instruction," was divided into sections and sub-sections as follows: Section I.-Infant and Primary Schools. 1st. Sub-section-Exhibitions of various Governments. Kindergarten. National and Lower Middle Class Schools, Models, Plans and Material. Music and Singing. Natural Science and Physics. Drawing and Caligraphy. Section III.-Special Schools, Upper Technical Schools, and Higher University Instruction. Section IV-Accessory means of Education and of Instruction-Learned Societies-Societies for the spread of Instruction--Scientific Discoveries-Support and Moral Improvement of Agricultural Classes of Artizans. In regard to national representation in the Educational department of the Vienna Exhibition, Rev. Mr. Fussell, the British Educational Commissioner, in his report says: 'The chief European nations contributed largely to this Department of the Exhibition. Great Britain alone stood all but aloof *; and her absence was frequently referred to in language of friendly regret The United States of America was worthily represented. The contributions of British India possessed a peculiar interest, and those of some other countries were not undeserving of attention.† "Austria, Sweden and the United States exhibited school-rooms of full size, completely furnished and fitted for immediate occupation. The Educational buildings of Hungary, France, Bavaria, Saxony, Belgium, and Switzerland, were chiefly represented by the plans, drawings and models. The most remarkable model exhibited was one of an admirable establishment or depot recently created by the City of Paris, for issuing to its schools once a quarter-or in urgent cases more frequently-everything in the shape of Educational furniture, books, apparatus and materials, all off the most approved description, and in great part manufactured on the premises."+ The Hon. J. W. Hoyt, who was also American Education Commissioner to Austria (as he was to France in 1867), thus refers to the absence of an English Educational Exhibit at Vienna: "It is surprising that no effort was made by the British Government to insure a fair illustration of the means now in operation for the enlightenment of the too long neglected masses." Speaking of the British India exhibit, however, he says: "It is certainly remarkable that the far-off and less civilized British India should have quite surpassed the United Kingdom in a representation of education at Vietna. To do this required but little effort, however, and was certainly accomplished- the Indian Government sending more than four times as many contributions, and such as better represented the condition and progress of education." In order to make this summary of the educational features of the Vienna Exhibition the more complete for the purpose of comparison with those of the succeeding Exhibition at Philadelphia, I have availed myself of a condensed sketch on the subject, in General Eaton's Report for 1873. The criticisms in this sketch are chiefly taken from German sources, and are therefore the more valuable, as the German educationists are generally regarded as competent critics in all matters relating to schools and school administration. EDUCATIONAL EXHIBIT OF THE UNITED STATES AT VIENNA. In regard to the American Educational Exhibition, a writer in the Freie Pädagogische Blätter, of June 21st, 1873, says: "I have travelled a great deal and have seen many rural School-houses, have taught in several myself, but such a school-room as this I have never before seen anywhere. It is almost provoking to see how the Americans produce something so beautiful from such a cheap and simple material (wood), and then to remember how insufficient our School-houses are, which often are erected at a considerable expense. The Americans are very practical in the erection of their School-houses, and are masters in combining the beautiful with the useful. This school-room is calculated for forty-eight children; and how roomy, how airy! It does an old teacher's heart good to see this, and he sighs, 'Alas, if this were so everywhere!' * The only fault *So, at the Philadelphia Exbibition, Mr. Whiting, an English correspondent, and a writer of considerable repute, speaking of Ontario, says :-"Her school exhibit is not only better than of any state in this country, but it is the only thing which redeems the British School Exhibit, and I have written this home. + Mr. Fussell says:-"The specimens contributed from India were especially interesting, as serving to illustrate the character of the work accomplished by the native schools, and the appliances in use among them." This description of the Paris Depository applies to that for ast in Ontario there is no restriction as to the periods of supply. towar is the close of this Report. Ontario in almost every particular, only A sketch of this Depository will be given |