The provision of this bill embodied the basis of our present system. It introduced the principle of free schools, leaving the adoption of that principle to the option of each school section. Subsequent changes and modifications were embodied in the Act of 1870, which abolished the office of township superintendent, introduced the county inspectorate, and made free schools compulsory. This Act may be said to be the last touch of the "Master Hand." In order to apprehend the true nature and extent of that impress which he made, of that influence which he exercised and exerted, we have only to look around, to look on that noble structure, whose foundations he was permitted and honored to lay, and whose superstructure he was so largely enabled to rear. Our school system is his true memorial. I have already said that it is a meet and a becoming thing for a nation to honor the memory of its public benefactors. The nation that ceases to cherish and manifest a grateful remembrance of those who have devoted their energies to the promotion of its welfare and spent their lives in its service, gives evidence of deterioration and decay, gives evidence that it is on the down grade of national existence. To-day we have gathered here to give expression to our gratitude in tangible form, by the erection in this public place, of this costly and enduring memorial of the individual and his life-work, that by its very presence it may speak to all who behold of the grateful sense of benefits received, cherished by the people of this Province. Yet there is another way in which we may manifest our gratitude, viz., by seeking to conserve, to consolidate, to ameliorate, our school system, which has thus come down to us from the moulding hand of the departed; and not only seeking to preserve what has thus been handed down to us, so far as the school system itself is concerned, but to seek to make it practically effective in its operation, so that all who live under its shadow, may share to the full of the blessings and privileges which it is fitted to confer and intended to bestow. Our sense of gratitude will thus assume a practical and beneficent form. That the management of our school system has fallen into, and now is in good and wise hands, we all feel confident. That its success depends largely on the energy, the zeal and the faithfulness of those who are entrusted with the education of the youth of this Province, our high and public school teachers, together with the co-operation of the people at large, of all classes and of all creeds, all will be prepared to admit. In one word: It is only by the united and concerted action of all three, the executive skill, the zeal and energy of the teachers, and the popular sympathy and support that we can hope to secure the full benefit of our school system on the one hand; and on the other, show ourselves worthy of the heritage that has been handed down to us by those who have gone before us. ADDRESS OF THE ACTING MAYOR.