hy individual who had made the proposition, and
bought and had in his house the materials for finishing the building,
told us that the inhabitants of the district would not find the boards,
and, in consequence of that, the erection of the schoolhouse had not
been gone on with. A gentleman now present (I will not mention names, as
the chairman might blush) offered to give them the boards from a
neighbouring mill if they would go and fetch them, but even this they
would not do. Although everything was to be had without money, there was
no one who felt interest enough in the education of their children to
go and bring them to the spot--and to this day the frame stands, as it
then did, a melancholy monument of the dreadful apathy which is
sometimes to be found even in this comparatively intelligent county."

Mr. Wilmot lived long enough to see a free school system in force in his
native province, although he had no share in bringing this result about.
Yet that his views on this subject were sound and far in advance of his
time is shown by a speech which he made at the time of the opening of
the first exhibition in the province in 1852. He said:

"It is unpardonable that any child should grow up in our country without
the benefit of, at least, a common-school education. It is the right of
the child. It is the duty not only of the parent but of the people; the
property of the country should educate the country. All are interested
in the diffusion of that intelligence which conserves the peace and
promotes the well-being of society. The rich man is interested in
proportion to his riches, and should contribute most to the maintenance
of schools. Though God has given me no child of my own to educate, I
feel concerned for the education of the children of those who do possess
them. I feel concerned in what so intimately touches the best interests
of our common country. I want to hear the tax collector for schools
calling at my door. I want the children of the poor in the remote
settlements to receive the advantages now almost confined to their more
fortunate brethren and sisters of the towns. I know full well that God
has practised no partiality in the distribution of the noblest of his
gifts--the intellect; I know that in many a retired hamlet of our
province--amid many a painful scene of poverty and toil--there may be
found young minds ardent and ingenious and as worthy of cultivation as
those of the pampered children of our cit