I had some difficulty in finding the Pownal School, though I had seen it once before, situate as it is, in the garret of an outbuilding in a back yard. Having found the entrance to the yard, one is obliged to make the best of his way over an ash heap towards an outside flight of steps which leads to the entrance of the building in the second story. Upon gaining this entrance and ascending the inside stairs to the garret aforesaid,'l found Seven children cowering around a stove with little or no fire in it, and qua rrelling very loudly, not seeming to heed the Master at the other end of the garrett, who was equally loud in asking ”What‘s that?” Though the day (December 4th) was not very cold, the schoolroom was quite chilly. Upon inspecting the register, I found twenty— seven pupils marked present for the day, whera s there were only eleven present The attainments of the few present were very low indeed ..... In one school, on two different occasions, I had to threaten to call in the police on account of insubordination.”

However, there are a few bright spots in Mr. McPhail‘s Reports, one of which is an account of the inStruction given a deaf mute: r .

"At the King Square School a deaf mute, William Cartmill, age 13 years, attends. When I saw him there twelve months ago, he was beginning to take lessons in the alphabet. Now he is reading the

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text, and in arithmetic is able to work sums in simple addition. He learns the pronunciation of words from the Teacher's lips by sight, that is, by observing the shape of the organs of speech while in motion. He fails in pronouncing correctly the sounds produced by those organs which cannot be seen. Miss Lawson’s method of teaching this deaf mute bears a very strong resemblance to the system practiced at the Boston School for deaf mutes, if it is not indeed identical with it. It is called the German system. If Miss Lawson were duly encouraged in her disinterested and benevolent labors, a foundation might thus be laid of a school

for deaf mutes in this Island. That such a school is needed is evident from the fact that by the last Census there were seventy deaf mutes on this Island."

So much, then, for conditions in the public schools of Charlottetown about ninety years ago.

,The Protestant bodies in Charlottetown at that time were: Church Of England, Kirk of Scotland, Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces, Bible Christian Church, Baptist Church, and Wesleyan

Methodist Church.

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