and fifty thousand pounds sterling, to assist in
the construction of the line referred to. There was also a bill to
assist the St. Andrews and Quebec Railroad to the extent of fifty
thousand pounds, and a bonus or subvention to the Shediac line
amounting to upwards of eleven thousand dollars a mile, for which sum a
very good railway could be constructed at the present time. It may be
stated here that, although the company was formed and undertook to build
a railway to Shediac under the terms offered by the government, the
province had eventually to build the road at a cost of forty thousand
dollars a mile, or fully double what a similar road could be constructed
for now.

{KING'S COLLEGE}

One of the measures brought forward by the government at this session
was with reference to the schools of the province. The idea of taxing
the property of the county for the support of public schools had not
then found any general acceptance in New Brunswick; indeed, it was not
till the year 1872 that the measure embodying this principle was passed
by the legislature. The government school bill of 1851 provided that the
teachers were to be paid in money, or board and lodging, by the district
to the amount of ten pounds for six months, in addition to the
government allowance. This bill was a very slight improvement on the Act
then in force, and as the government left it to the House to deal with,
and did not press it as a government measure, it was not passed. A
private member, Mr. Gilbert, of Queens, at this session proposed to
convert King's College into an agricultural school, with a model farm
attached. King's College had been established by an Act passed in 1829,
and had received a large endowment from the province, but it never was a
popular institution because of its connection with a single Church. The
original charter of the college made the bishop of the diocese the
visitor, and required the president to be always a clergyman of the
Church of England; and, although this had been changed in 1845 by the
legislature, the number of students who attended it was always small,
and it was shown in the course of debate that it had failed to fulfil
the object for which it was created. The college council consisted of
fifteen members, of whom ten were Episcopalians; and the visitor, the
chancellor, the president, the principal, five out of seven of the
professors and teachers, and the two examiners were members of the same
Church. T