No. 49.

PAPERS FOR THE SCHOOLMASTER.

MARCH 1, 1855.

Introduction.

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In opening a new year we cannot forbear to thank our readers for the interest which they have manifested in our work. That work was undertaken with none of the ordinary motives in which periodicals originate. It was not the motive of personal gain, class-advocacy, 01 or any of the forms of antagonism which usually call into play the energies of men. The state of education was, confessedly, at a low 14 ebb. Public opinion, according to our views, was utterly at fault, whether in respect of the end and aim of real education, or of the qualifications, mental and moral, of the educator. The Government of the country had put their hand to the wheel, but the machinery depended for its efficiency and even movement upon the voluntary exertions of the public. Under these circumstances, we hoped that a voice, witnessing for the great work of the people's education, however feeble in itself, might be influential from its very solitariness. The task was eventually undertaken in the belief that the circulation of 500 copies per month might repay the labour of its execution, until as a volume the "Papers" might take their place as a text-book upon the shelves of the schoolmaster-softening his disappointments, refreshing his spirits, awakening his dormant energy, and invigorating his faith in his mission. Its rapid rise to a circulation of 4000 a-month gave proof that a certain want had been felt, and from that moment we have not seen it to be just to the cause we have at heart to suspend the publication of our monthly circulating duodecimal. It is true that, since we were born, not only has the cause progressed with rapid strides, but kindred serials have come to light; yet if our existence has given rise to others, and if they have been productive of usefulness, we should be thankful, and place it to the account of our efforts, even though they may have interfered with the still more rapid circulation of our own.

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