d, at an easy rate; that Trustees or Commissioners should be
appointed to manage the fund which the Government in its bounty may see
fit to appropriate to the end, to determine the number of Masters that
may be required, their respective salaries, and the number of children
they shall respectively teach _gratis_, to fix the rate at which Writing
and Arithmetic shall be taught on, and to have the power of removing the
Masters for incapacity or neglect of duty, and of promoting them
successively to the more lucrative situations for able and meritorious
conduct.

"I would barely hint, by way of a leading idea upon this subject, that
the salaries might perhaps extend from L20 to L60 per annum according to
the number of inhabitants in the Village, Town, or City in which the
Teacher should be placed, and that it might perhaps not improperly be a
condition that he who received a payment of L20, should be obliged to
teach English _gratis_ to _ten_ Canadian children, he who received L30
to fifteen children, and so on in proportion.

"The importance and extent of this subject demand, I am well aware, more
local information and better judgment than I have been able to apply to
it;--I presume only to suggest it as an object not unworthy of immediate
consideration to your Excellency's superior wisdom."

This appeal was submitted by the Governor-General to the Executive
Council of Lower Canada and was approved by that body. It was then
forwarded to the Colonial Office for further consideration. As a
result, on July 12th, 1800, the Duke of Portland, sent to the
Lieutenant-Governor a long despatch from which the following extracts
indicate that the Home Government sympathised with the Lord Bishop's
suggestion:--

"With respect to making a suitable provision for the education of youth
in Lower Canada, and more particularly for laying a foundation for
teaching the English tongue generally throughout the Province, I not
only fully coincide with the sentiments expressed by the Bishop of
Quebec and concurred in by the Executive Council on this point, but I am
of opinion that the proposed Free Schools for this purpose should be
established under the express condition of teaching the English language
_gratis_ to the children of His Majesty's subjects resident within the
district for which such schools are established, without any limitation
as to the number of such children.

"The Master should certainly be authorised to make a reasonabl