DR BRUCE'S SPEECH. 77 age to look for guidance, and their minds are in a state peculiarly susceptible of impressions. The teacher and the pupil are brought into close intercourse with each other for years. It is impossible to over - estimate the influence a teacher may have in forming the habits and moulding the thoughts and feelings of his pupil, and this is education, rather than the cramming of the memory with a few facts. This occasion will, I am sure, help forward the great cause of education. It will sustain the labourer in his wearisome, long-continued, and often thankless toils. Who can look upon this assembly, the fruits of but one school, and not be cheered? And yet, the gentlemen here gathered are merely representatives of a host of others as high principled, as intelligent, as influential, as useful. The husbandman is in spring cheered by the hopes of harvest. I am cheered by the sight of as goodly and golden a crop as ever waved in the autumnal breeze, and many a brother schoolmaster who hears of our proceedings to-day will share my joy and take courage. I am sure that if fifty years ago my father could have anticipated such an assemblage, the labours and anxieties under which he was often almost sinking would to him have seemed comparatively light. But more than all this, gatherings such as the present have a tendency to elevate the schoolmaster in the social scale. My father had no cause to complain that an adequate meed of honour was not awarded him; still less have I. But it must be confessed that in general the schoolmaster holds a lower position in society than is right. It is for the good of mankind that the instructor of youth should both respect himself and be respected by others, that an office so useful should be accounted honourable. Your presence here to-day, gentlemen, and the kind expressions made use of by our excellent president, and responded to by you, proclaim to all the world that in this northern metropolis it is so regarded." In 1856 Dr Bruce took the Rev. Gilbert Robertson, M.A., into partnership with him in the management of the school, and in June 1859 Dr Bruce retired from the active management, but he continued frequently to visit it, and he took the Friday Bibleclass until June 1864. Dr and Mrs Bruce in June 1859 moved from the old house in Percy Street and went to live in the house No. 3 Framlington Place. They moved from No. 3 to No. 2 on the 2nd May 1863, where Dr Bruce spent the remainder of his life. On the occasion of his setting up house in Framlington Place, his mother presented him with a handsome silver salver bearing the following inscription: Presented to the REV. JOHN COLLINGWOOD BRUCE, LL.D., BY HIS MOTHER, AS AN AFFECTIONATE MEMORIAL OF HIS DUTIFUL KINDNESS TO HERSELF AND FAMILY DURING THE LONG PERIOD OF HER WIDOWHOOD. 1859. LETTER TO HIS MOTHER. 79 He wrote to his mother in acknowledgment of her present : "NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, 30th June 1859. "I was quite concerned to see the salver this morning, which you have been kind enough to give me. On looking on its massiveness and beauty and purity, I thought chiefly of the privation which it had cost you. Though not fond of plated things generally, I wish this had been plated rather than real. However, as you have given me so royal a present, I wish I could adequately thank you for it. It will render our new sideboard quite superb. Charlotte and I thank you very much for it. On looking on it we shall ever think of your largeness of heart, and will be stimulated to follow you in the narrow road which leads to the house of many mansions." CHAPTER V. 1833, MARRIAGE OF J. C. BRUCE-1834, BIRTH OF SON-1838, BIRTH OF DAUGHTER, FRANCES; 1839, DIED 1840, BIRTH OF DAUGHTER NAMED WILLIAMINA BENNETT 1841, J. C. B. VISITS ENGLISH VISIT TO ALLANS GREEN 1845, DEATH OF MR CATHEDRALS-1843, VISIT TO OXFORD GAINSFORD. ON the 20th of June 1833 John Collingwood Bruce was married at Chalfont St Peters, Buckinghamshire, to Charlotte, the youngest daughter of Mr Tobias Gainsford, a retired London merchant then resident at Gerrards Cross, a lineal descendant of the ancient family of Gainsford of Crowhurst. The following letter from John Bruce to his wife at Newcastle gives some account of this event :— "GERRARDS CROSS, June 19, 1833. "We arrived here on Monday evening, and found all the family busily employed making preparations for Thursday. Mr and Mrs Gainsford had met us in town, and Mr Gainsford went along with us to Doctors Commons to procure the licence, which John has now in his pocket, and the parson is duly summoned to be at Church to-morrow at half-past ten. Charlotte is looking very well, and is at present in very good spirits, which I hope will |