pposite
provision in connection with the Roman Catholic Religion of Lower
Canada, must be obvious to every reflecting person.

To the school-visiting feature of the present system I attach great
importance as a means of ultimately concentrating in behalf of the
schools the influence and sympathies of all religious persuasions,
and the leading men of the country. The success of it, thus far,
has exceeded my most sanguine expectations; the visits of Clergy
alone during the last year being an average of more than five
visits for each Clergyman in Upper Canada. From such a beginning
what may not be anticipated in future years, when information shall
become more general, and an interest in the schools more generally
excited. And who can estimate the benefits, religiously, socially,
educationally, and even politically, of Ministers of various
religious persuasions meeting together at quarterly school
examinations, and other occasions, on common and patriotic ground,
and becoming interested and united in the great work of advancing
the education of the young.

The last feature of the new Bill on which I will remark, is that
which proscribes from the Schools all books containing
"controverted theological dogmas or doctrines." [Under a legal
provision containing these words, the Bible has been ruled out of
schools in the State of New York.] I doubt whether this provision
of the Act harmonizes with the Christian feelings of members of the
Government; but it is needless to enquire what were the intentions
which dictated this extraordinary provision, since construction of
an Act of Parliament depends upon the language of the Act itself,
and not upon the intentions of its framers. The effect of such a
provision is to exclude every kind of book containing religious
truth, even every version of the Holy Scriptures themselves; for
the Protestant version of them contains "theological doctrine"
controverted by the Roman Catholic; and the Douay version of them
contains "theological dogmas" controverted by the Protestant. The
"theological doctrine" of miracles in Paley's Evidences of
Christianity is "controverted" by the disciples of Hume. Several of
the "theological doctrines" in Paley's Moral Philosophy are also
"controverted;" and indeed there is not a single