IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I 1.25 '"iiis iiM O: i|3 2 2.0 1.8 U IIIIII.6 V] i9 /}. "m /a ^% />% y J 0;^! Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 i &< CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de niicrofiche3. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques 1 Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a 6t^ possible de se procurer. Les details de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exigar une modification dans la m^thode normale de filmage sont indiqu^s ci-dessous. n Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur Covers damaged/ Couverture endommagee Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaur^e et/ou pellicul^e □ D 7 Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur Pages damaged/ Pages endommag^es Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaur6es et/ou pellicul6es D Cover title missing/ Le titre de couverture manque V Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages d6color6es, tachetdes ou piquees D Coloured maps/ Cartes g6ographiques en couleur D Pages detached/ Pages detachees D Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) n/ Showthrough/ Transparence D Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Relie avec d'autres documents D Quality of print varies/ Qualite inegale de I'impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du materiel supplementaire D □ Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion alonr interior margin/ La reliure serree peut causer de I'ombre ou de la distortion le long de la marge int^rieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout^es lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte, mais, lorsque cela dtait possible, ces pages n'ont pas 6t6 film^es. □ □ Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible image/ Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., ont 6t6 film^es d nouveau de facoii d obtenir la meilleure image possible. □ Additional comments/ Commentaires supplementairos: This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film6 au taux de reduction indiqu6 ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X SOX y 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: National Library of Canada L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grdce \ la g6n6rosit6 de: Bibliothdque nationale du Canada The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Les images suivantes ont 6X6 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettetd de l'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are filmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impression. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprim^e sont filmds en commengant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont film6s en commenpant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol -^(meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la dernidre image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole —^ signifie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent etre film6s d des taux de reduction diffdrents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre reproduit en un seul clichd, il est film6 d partir de Tangle supdrieur gauche, de gauche d droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images n^cessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mdthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 K 01 re 3 REV. DR. RYERSOFS DEFENCE AGAINST THE ATTACKS OF THE HON. GEORGE BROWN (MAMACINU MBKCTOR of TIIK " GI.OBl; " NljW.srAPilR AND HIS ASSISTANTS, RELATIVE TO THE ONTARIO SYSTEM OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION AND ITS ADMlNlSTKATlttJg-TTIVE DISOAHD D "No" misrepresentation should be suffered to pass unrefutedr''\Ve must remember that misstatements constantly reiterated, and seldom answered, will assuredly be believed." Lord Macaulav. TORONTO: COPP, CLARK & CO., KING STREET EAST. 1872. Oh 1'\ c.r. PTiEFATOHY IS^OTTCE. The papers contained in the following pages (except the "Addenda") have appeared in such jnihlic newspapers as tlioughi pr()])er to insert them. Jn compliance with numerous applications, they are now presented in pamphlet form. As indicated in the concluding i)aragraph of my dedication-letter, addressed to the Members of the Legislature and of the Public Press, I had intended to subjoin some account of my earlier public life ; but, on further reflection, I have thought it best to confine my remarks to a vindication of my assailed public acts and of the principles and administration of that public school system which I have sought, during twenty-eight years, to estab- lish and develop for the best interests of my native countr)-. Toronto, May, 1872. CON"TEKTS. The Administration of tlic Educational Department most difficult and complicated- What the System of Education has done — F'^irther ilhistrations of the difficulties in the administration of the Educational System— Unfavourable circumstances and great disadvantages of Managing the Department— More favourable position in the Assembly of other Departments- The Press the only Medium left to the Department to explain and defend its acts—Effect of the growing evil and disadvantage of this state of things. Recommendations : ~ Political Head and Annual Committee of House of Assembly — The Globus "Policy of Slander" intensify the difficulties experienced Its \'oicanic Eruptions during each Session of the House— What these letters will show — Personal and Selfish Policy of the Manaeine Director 5-11 PAPER I. Character of the Globe's attacks — The new " Tichborne pretender" exposed — First accusation of monopoly refuted — Historical retrospect of steps taken to provide text and library books- Details given -Object of these proceedings— The Globe's inte- rested attacks on this patriotic policy of the Department— Object of Hon. G. Brown's selfish war on the Irish National books exposed ,2.16 PAPER II. Second accusation of the Managing Director turned upon himself— Sketch of the Brown-Campbell-Nelson Crusade against the Irish National Readers, in March, 1866 — Twenty-two (now twenty-eight years) unscrupulous hostility of the Globe — Pro- ceedings of the Council of Public Instruction at this juncture- Interested Character of the Attack upon the Council— Selfish Crusade against the Irish National Readers — Character and Merits of the National Readers — Good faith should not be violated— Committee to revise the National Readers— Defeat of the Managing Director and his Brother-in-law's Scheme to get a School-Book Monopoly into their hands - . 17.21 CONTEN'TS, I' A PER III. Mr. Brown's Revenue for the Failure of the School-Hook Monopoly of his Brother-ill-law - Scheme of tliis Monopoly as put forth in 1863 - Nine Letters on th*' Subject, by Mr. Nelson and Dr. Rycrson Four thinj;s established by this Correspondence, viz., 1, A Nelson-Brown Hook and Map I'ublishin^j Monopoly ; 2. Resistance to it by Dr. Ryerson ; 3. Selfish object in decry- ing the Irish National Readers ; 4. A most Rigid Sjstcm of Monopoly Prevented. I'.S. Further Development of the Selfish Policy of Mr. Brown's Brolher-in-Law F'ive Years' later, vi/., in 1868 — His Charge to the Canailian Schools of 3 per cent, more than other large Publishing Houses in Britain - - - -2-33 PAPER IV. What has already been shown in these Papers— The Glol>e\r\\- formidable attack on a definition mutilated by hiniself, and the pistil of a flower— A nominative supposed The (//<'//<• as against (iray, Schoedlcr, and Johnston -Illustrations in regard to acitls and bases suppressed for pur- poses of attack Mercury - Chemical notation I'rofanc and foul perversion by the (J/o/w of a reference to the infinite skill and benevolence of the Di\ inc Being - . . . 4S-57 PAPER VII Religious sentiments the objccl of the ir/o/>c's sneer and ridicule- lt>. significance, notwithstanding the pretensions of the Managing Director — Christian character of the Irish National Hooks Authors of " Guesses at Truth" on anti-Christian w riters of the (i/('/>t' type- Addison's recognition in his beautiful lines on the Divine Author of Nature The Ci/o/>i' on silica and alumina in soils, plants and animals, opposed by leading English and American authorities — The Managing Director and his " Nichol farmer" at fault -New and useful information for them in regard to turnip soil and root hooks — Circumstances under which the " First Lessons" were written - The Managing Director 7'. liim- sclf, the President of the Provincial Agricultural Association and his own former y\gricultural l-"ditor Mr. Brown's contradictory testimony would be rejected as worthless in a court of justice — Lord Macaulay on G/(>/>i' poison bags- A committee proposed — P. S. - In the blind zeal of the Managing Director he nms full tilt against Paley's Natural Theology and other scientific works --Each reference to the Great Designer, Ruler and Lawgiver, the subject of the Globe's ridicule and hostility — Archbishop - • - 58-67 Whatelv on such " seeming wise" writers. P A i^ E R V II 1 . great war on a little Book- Three-fold misrepresentation of the Globe Director- Objections answered: ist, As to Grammar; 2nd, As to obscurity of expressions ; 3rd, As to any book of Religious Instruction for Public Schools ; 4th, As to the intro- duction of anything on Christian Evidence and Miracles ; sth, As to the comparative teachings of Natural and Revealed Vlll C0NTENT8. Rcli^^ion ; fith, As to toachinK anything included in the positive institutions of Christianity ; 7th, As to the Hook being Sectarian its ^groundlessness Testimony to the contrary ; Sth, As to i|U()tations from Herodotus and Juvenal their teaching otYcnsivc to the {.ilobc writers Conclusion- Desirableness of Protestant Unity, as there is Roman Catholic Unity, in regard to Religious teaching in the schools — its possibility future hope of it. - ^>7-73 P A PER IX. .Summar\ retrospect of the Globe Managing Director's recent and former course of proceeding the .School Systini and its Chief .Superintendent His opposition to his own property being taxed for the erection of school houses - I'assing of tne School Act of r87i and its results 'i"hc (ilobi'\s attacks not endorsed by a single elective municipality in the Province What is done by the agreement of all parties when attacks have been made on the regulations of acts of the Committee of Council of Education in England and the National Hoard of Education in Ireland- A corresponding course suggested for Ontario before undoing any part of our School System, or condemning its regulations and administrations. 77-8 1 /V D D E N U .\ . Alleged "fad" No. 1 ; "About sixty teachers" present at Hastings Convention-Vote against " First Lessons in Agriculture," " car- ried unanimously" -Correction by the County Inspector: " Not one Common .School teacher voted for the motion !' Alleged "fact" No. 2: Agriculture "withdrawn from sale." Eirst cor- rection from the publishers : " We never thought of such a course." Second correction in the Globes "helpless disgust" that 2,000 copies of the "withdrawn" book had been sold-- Alleged "fact" No. 3: " Perfectly courteous language" of pub- lishers of the Caitiutian J/c//////)' -Correction: (Quotation of the ^ " Perfectly courteous Umguage" itself; statements and objections in the " Perfectly courteous language" answered— first objection — Eirst and second Proofs of the mis-statements contained in it -Second objection — Eirst, second and third proofs of the mis- statements contained in it — American reasons for preferring our Depository system to leaving the matter in the hands of " the Trade"— Cautions and warnings of American Educationists- General reply, giving seventeen reasons and illustrations — Routine in the Department in regard to the Depository. - 74-81 Rev. Dr. RYERSON'S DEFENCE AGAINST IHK ATTACKS OK THE HON. GEORGE BROWN, MANAUIN(i DIRECTOK Uf TIIK "(il.olll:" NBVVSPAPKR, AND HIS ASSISTANTS. -♦-♦"♦- CONTENTS. J'/tf Administration of the Educational Department most difficult and complicated ~ What the System oj Education has done J'urther illustrations of the difficulties in the administration of the luiucatiunal Systtm — Unfavourable circumstances and great disudTantai^t^ of Manai^i.' • '' the Department - More favourable position in 'he Assembly of other Depanments - The Press the only Medium left to the Depart went to explain and defend its acts — Effect of mc y^rowini^ evil and disadvantai^e of this state of thint^s. Recommendations :-- /'olitical Head and Annual Commi'*ee of House of Assembly -The '•'■llob^s'^ ''^Policy of Slander" intensify the difficulties experienced- its I 'olcanic Eruptions duriui^ each Session of the House—What these letters will show — Personal and Selfish Policy of the Afanagim^- Director. TO THK MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSl.MBLY AND OF THE PUBLIC PRES8 OF ONTARIO. Gentlemen, I take the liberty of dedicating to yon the following papers, which I have addressed to the Managing Director of the Globe newspaper, in defence of the P](hication Department and of myself against the various attacks of that journal. I pray your careful attention to, and impartial judg- ment upon this, I trust, my last defence of an otiicial life, extending over a longer period and to a greater age than that of any judge who has ever occupied the Bench, or of any head of a public department in Upper Canada. Administi'ation of the Education Department Confessedly most difficult and complicated- The Department of wliieli I have had charge since 1844, and duriiii^ several adtniiiistrations of frovernmeiit, is confessedly the most difficult and complicated, if not the most important, of any department of the pui)lic- service. Since 1844, it has devolved on me to frame laws, and to devise, develop, and administer a system of public instruction for the ])cople of this Province. That system lias been more eulogized by both English and American educationists, and nmre largely adopted in other British Colonies, on both sides of the globe, than any other system of public instruction in America. What the Ontario System of Popular Education has done, and is doing. The system of popular education in Ontario has opened a free school to every child in the land, and proclaimed his right to its advantages; it has planted a s(rhool-house in nearly every neighborhood, and in hundreds of instances, made the school- house the best building in the neighborhood ; it has superseded the topers and broken-down characters, so common as teachers of a former age, by a class of teachers not excelled in morals by tiie teachers of any other country, and who, as a wh le, compare favourably in qualifications with those of any State in America; it has achieved a uniformity of excellent textbooks, earnestly prayed for by educators in tiie neighbouring States, and has spread throughout the land books of useful and enter- taining knowledge to the number of nearly a million of volumes; it is the nearest approach to a voluntary system of any public school system in the world ; and it has developed larger re- sources than that of any other State in America, in proportion to the wealth and number of inhabitants. This unparalleled success is due to the Christian feeling, the energy, patriotism, and liberality of the people of this Province ; but it has been imposed on me to construct the machinery, devise the facilities and agencies by which so great a work has been accomplished, and to do what I could to encourage my fellow-countrymen in its promotion. Further Illustration of the Difficulties in the Administra- tion of the Educational System. The administration of laws generally is by learned judges, by the pleadings of learned counsel, and the deliberations of selected juries; but the administration of the school law and system is tlirough the agency of several liundred elected councils, and nearly twenty-thousand elected trustees, — thus embodying, not the learned professions, but the intelligence, common sense, feelings and interests of the people at large in the work of school administration and local self-government. Unfavourable Circumstances and great Disadvantages of Managing so complicated a Department- To secure the harmonious and increascdly etiicient v»'orking of such a system, is a task of no ordinary dilHculty and labour under the most favourable circumstances; but it has been my lot to toil at this task under very unfavourable circumstances and great disadvantages. The complicated de|>artment of which 1 have had charge so many years, has never had a representative either in the Executive Government or in the Legislature. Since Sir Francis llincks in 1^53, not a single member of Government or of Parliament has studied and made himself master of the management and details of the Education Department. The only exoception to this remark is, the investigation and report of a large C(jmmittec of the Legislative Assembly, appointed three or four years ago at my solicitation, and of the sub-committee which examined and reported upon the work of the department, and of which the Hon. Mr. McMurrich was chairman. With \\m exception, during nineteen years, not a single member of any Govern- ment, or of any Parliament, has mastered the workings of the educational system or tlie administration of the Education Department, so as to answer complaints or objections that have been made against the one or the other. More favourable position in the Assembly of all other Departments in the Public Service. If any complaints or objections have been made in Parlia- m(!nt as to the policy or decisions of the Department or acts of the Crown Lands, or of the Board of Works, or of the Treasury, there can immediately stand np a gentleman thoroughly acquainted with the department, and able to ex})lain and defend the policy, or acts, or decisions objected to, or assailed ; but when the policy of the Education Department, or any of its acts or regulations have been objected to or attacked in Parliament, tliere has been, down to this hour, no member of Government or even any other nicmber of the Legislature, who had made the School Law and its administration his Btudy, 80 as to be able to explain its workings, rclationB, V 8 necessities, and suitableness; but the whole has been shifted to the shoulders of the Cliief Superintendent, who has, perhaps, on sotne occasions, been referred to in friendly and eulogistic terms, as best qualified to judge, and doubtless acting for the best ; but there have been no such expositions of the law and its administration, no such answers and explanations as the members of Parliament have a right to claim in all that con- cerns any Public Department. The Press the only Medium left to the Education Depart- ment to explain and defend its acts.— the "political" cry used as a gag. If the Education Department had had the same representa- tion in Parliament as other public departments, all the attacks upon it, or objections to its policy, or any of it!:^ acts, would have been answered before the representatives of the people, and I would have been spared the responsibility and labour, and often odium and collision, in adopting the medium of the press — the only medium open to me — to explain and defend, by circulars and articles in the Journal of Eil ucatian^ , pamphlets, addresses, letters, &c,, the misrepresented or mis- understood provisions of the school law, and the regulations made by its authority, and the assailed acts of the Education Department ; or otlierwise, to leave the vital parts of the school system to be destroyed, and its usefulness to perish. And when political men have made these attacks »ipon the school law, or the school system and myself, and I have answered them, then the cry has been raised by my assailants, and their abettors, that I was interfering with politics. They would assail me without stint, in hopes of crushing me, and then gag me against all defence or reply. Effect of the growing evil and disadvantage of this state of things — Political Head, and Annual Committee of the House of Representatives proposed. So deeply did I feel the disadvantage and growing evil of this state of things to the department and school system itself, that I proposed, four years ago last December, to retire from the de])artment, and recommended the creation and appoint- ment of a Minister of Public Instruction. My resignation was * Even althougli the Journal of Education has been conducted witli strict impartiality for twenty-four years, yet it lias been sugjijested that I be deprived of tliis vahiable and ER I. TO THE HONOURABLE GEORGE BROWN, Managing Director of the "Globe" Newspapbr. CONTENTS. Character of the ^'- Globe'' s" attacks— The new '■^ Tichborne pretendtr" exposed —First accusation of monopoly rejuted — Historical retrospect of steps takett to provide text and library books — Details given — Object of these proceedings — The '''•Globe^s" interested attacks on this pat/ iotic policy of the Department — Object of Hon. G. Brown's selfish war on the Irish National books exposed. " No misrepresentation should be sufrered to pass unrefutetl. We must re- member that misstatements constantly reiterated, and seldom answered, will assuredly be believed." Loud Macauley. ^^' I now sit down to answe^ the numerous accusations and attacks which liave appeared in tlie Globe newspaper for montlis past a<>;ainst the school law and regulations, the Council of Public Instruction, and myself. So far as I am personally concerned, your attacks are of little importance; but when such attacks aifect the principles and working; of the public school system, mislead and exert a malign influence upon a large number of persons throughout the land, and thus impair the efficient operations of the school system, it is due to the persons thus unwittingly led astray, it is due to the friends of the school system, and it is due to the parties assailed, that your attacks sliould be met, and your misrepresentations ex- posed, I say your misrepresentations:, for during the months and in tlie many columns of your attacks, you have not specified one of the regulations assailed, but you have misrepresented them all, week after week, and then, on your own misrepre- sentations, you have demanded their repeal, the abolition of the body by which they were made, and the degradation of their alleged autlior. Like another Tichborne claimant, you have had your own way for months, in asserting and bolstering up your pretensions against the Education Department and its occupant managers; it is, at last, my turn to expose the falsifications, and even forgeries, on which these pretensions are founded. 13 The "Globe's" First accusation of ''Monopoly" rests on no Foundation but its own groundless Assertion. First Accusation. — Your first accusation is, tliat the Council of Public Instruction is a monopoly, of which I am the chief mana«i;er, for the publication and printing of school books. This charge you have repeated for years in every form of offensive assertion and vituperation — so long and so often that many well-meaning and otherwise well-informed persons think it must be true. In defence, I have to say, first, that the Council of Public Instruction has never pul)lished or printed, or contracted for printing a single school book, or any otiier book, during the whole twenty-six years rove of any bookt^, plans, or forms which may l)e submitted to them with a vi;-w to their use in schools ; and no portion of the Govern- ment grant shall be given in aid of any school in whi(rh any book is used which has been disap])i'oved by the Board, and of which disapproval jjuhlic notice shall have been given." (These provisions were re-enact(vj in the School Act of 1850, and they have remained intact ever since.) At the first meet- ing of the Board, held July 21st, 1846, I reported the conver- sations 1 had had the year before with members (jf the Irish National Board in regard to the pur(;hasing and rej)rinting of their books for the use of Canadian Schools; and the Board at the same meeting adopted the following minute : "Ordered, that the Superintendent of Schnols shsili enquire of the Com- misHioners of Ntitiimal Education in Ireland iit what pi iocs tisey would engage to supply t\us Board witli their School Books, and also to request that they would grant permission to this Board to reprint editiona of their bouks if required." At a meeting of the Board of Education, held on the 9th of October, 1846, the following minute was adopted : " The Board having taken the subject of Suhonl Books into their consi- deration, particularly those published by the Irish National Board of Education, express tlieir approb irion of that admirable serit^s of elemen- tary books, and feel great satisfacfion in recommending thorn for general use in the Common Schools of Upper Canada ; also Lennie's English Grammar." At a meeting of the Board, held the 27th of October, 1846, the following advertisement was ordered to be issued : — "TO PRINTERS AND PUBLISHERS OF SCHOOL BOOKS. " The Commissioners of National Education, in Ireland, having con- ferred the privilege on the Board of Education, for Upper Canada, to 15 of Mprint the books published by the Irish Board for the nse of flchiol-i in this Province; or, if preferred, to supply the Provincial Board with the Irish Eiiitions of those books at reduced prices. " The Board of Education is now prepared to receive Tenders for the Sublicatioii of those books, in every respect uniform with iho Irish Idiriotis, and for the importation of the Irish Editions, for the use of Common Schools in Upper Canada. " Lists and specimens of the books, and the reduced prices of the Irish Board, as well as every other necessary iiiformati(m on the sul)ject may bo had on application to the Superintendent of Schools in Toronto. " N.B, — The tenders to bo given in on or before the first of December next. " Education Office, "Toronto, October 27th, 184G." At ji mcetinpr of tlie Board of Ediiciition, liold tlie 22nd of Deeeinber, IS-iO, tlio followini; minute wan adopted, and ordered to be published : *' Tenders from several publishers for reprintinj? and importing the Irish National School Books were laid before the Board ; but upon mature reconsideration of the subject, the Board deems it prudent to leave the reprinting of the entire series, or any part of it, open to public compe- tition, the Board simply reserving to itself the right and discretion to disapprove of or recommend any edition of them, or any one of them, as circumstances may require. " Ordered, that the Superintendent of Schools be authorised to grant permit'sion to any bookseller, publisher, or otiier person, to import the Irinh National School Books upon the conditions heretofore impused by the Board, and notify the same to the Commissioners of National Educa- tion in Dublin." In the course of a year, some three Canadian editions of the Irish National school books appeared ; which gave rise to a two- fold competition — a competition between the publishers of the rival Canadian editions of these books, and a competition be- tween the Canadian and the imported editions. The Canadian editions soon drove the imported editions out of the market, on account of their greater cheapness, notwithstanding the unpre- cedented cheapness of the latter. The effect was a great reduction in the prices of school books, and the introduction of a uniform series of excellent text books, which soon super- seded, as if by magic, the American and other worthless school books, which had previously infested our scliools. The official correspondence and papers relative to all these arrangements were published in my annual reports, for the years during which, they took place. 16 The *' Globe's" Attaok on this wise and patriotic policy of the Department. Now, Sir, this is tlie jwocecding and policy for which you fix, and repeat for years, the charpje of monopoly on the Council of Public Instruction and myself, a proceeding which every man of common sense must sec was the establishment of free trade in these school text books in the widest senBe, and the creating and encouraging of this branch of Canadian enterprise beyond all precedent — thus saving our Province large sums of money, and proportionately promoting the interests of our public schools. So much, then, in answer to your accusation of monopoly, for the introduction, publication, and sale of the Irish National School Books in Upper Canada. Cause of the " Globe's " selfish war on the Irish National Books exposed. In my next, I will show when and how you commenced and carried on a war against these Irish National School Books, in order to get a series of your brother-in-law's school books substituted in their place ; and that, though with great noise you and your confederates did succeed in making the national books unpopular, and compelled a change of them against the wishes of the Council of Public Instruction, and my own efforts to retain them; yet you did not succeed in getting the monopoly for which you and your brother-in-law so stoutly contended (as I shall show by extracts of correspondence) ; and when you found yourself foiled in this attempted and antici[)ated monopoly, you changed your tactics, and began to raise a hue and cry against the Council of Public Instruction and myself for making changes of text books, and subjecting teachers and parents to needless trouble and expense! I shall exhibit your selfish conduct and false pretensions in this whole matter, as the Attorney-General Sir John Coleridge has exhibited the deceptions and falsehoods of the Tichborne pretender. ToRONTa, March Uh, 1872. PA.PER II. TO THE HONOURABLE OEORGE BROWN, Manaoino Director op thk "Globr" Newspapkr. lall this CONTENTS. Second /l,:cnsation of the Afaua^ifii^ Director turned upon himself-- Sketch of the Brown-Campbell-Neison Crusade against the Irish National Readers in March, iS66 -Twenty -two {now twenty-Eight years') unscrtifinlons hostility of the '' Globe"- Proceedings of the Council of Public Instruction at this juncture— Interested Character of the Attack upon the Council —Selfish Crusade against the Irish National Readers Character and Merits of the National Readers- Good faith should not be violated —Committee to revise the National Readers — Defeat of the Managing Director and his Brother-in- Lais/ s Scheme to get a School-Book Monopoly into their hands. " Confidence cannot exist where dclfishnoss is porter at the gate." — TurPKn. SiK, Having shown the groundlessness of your accusations of monopoly against the Council of Public Instruction and myself in regard to the Irish National School Looks ; and having shown that the very reverse of monopoly, and that the widest competition and the most perfect free trade, as well as local enterprise, were developed and acted upon in the im- porting, reprinting, and sale of these excellent books, I now proceed to answer your Second accusation against the Council of Public Instruction and Myself for changes in School Text-books, and for monopoly in the printing and publication of them. In my defence against this accusation, I will show that the war upon the Irish National School Books was commenced and carried on by the " Editor-in-Chief" of the Glohe and his en- listed corps of assailants, until the Council could retain them no longer as text-books in the schools ; and I will show the purposes of monopoly for which you and your allies made that war upon those books. 18 Brief Sketch of the Brown-Campbell Nelson Crusade against the Irish National Readers, 1866. Jri Miirdi-May, 180(), a i)iuiiplilet of fiomo 40 pji^^cs waa in'cpjmul ill the lOchK-ivtioii Dopiirtinont, ))rinte(l urid sold bv Mr. .loliii liOvoU, Montrcul, entitled, " Tlio School IJook QwiMtioii ; FiCttors in I^U>ly to tlio l]ro\vii-Cainpl)(.'ll (yrusiido Hly to your attacks, com- menced in February and March, 18(Jt}, up' the Irish National Sehijol I'ooks, which you declared to Ik unsuitahle to the Schools, to he full of erritrs in orthoijjraphy and L!;rammar, in j^^eoi^raphy and history in relation to Canada, in the chapters on natural philos i)hy and chemistry, as erroneous and behind the times. In short, every objection which you have recently brou<:;ht a!ished I wrote from Scotland to Mr. Campbell oub AOKNr UKKK, requesting him to call and submit the maps to you, and oiler them for introduction among the schools of Upper Canada." Mr. Campbell, as the agent of your brother- in-law, united with you right lustily in the columns of the G/^ffbe against the Council of Public Instruction and myself for retaining the Irish National School Books in our schools. This is stated in the preface to the pamphlet above mentioned as follows : The twenty-two (now twenty-eight) years' unscrupulous hostility of the " Globe." " The almost uninterrupted and always unsrcupulous hostility of the Globe to the Chief Superintendent of Education during the twenty-two years of his labours to establish and mature a system of public instruction for Upper Canada, is, perhaps, 19 without a y)i\rHllel in tlio liiHtory <»f' uownpapcr wurlUre, or ot* individiml iniili;jjiiity. 'IIk; very corrcspuiKli'tifs of flie Gloh*' lirtvo imhihed or Ijccn trained in the Hi)irit of their eniploycr, and have shewn no iittiiJ uiititiide in imitating liis exaniph^ of detnietiona and ealtunny. The last (^'usadt* of tliis eoinpuet aj^uinst tiu; ('hief Sii|i('riiiteii(h'nt U on a •fount of i/n' t>\vt- hoohN ill the ficfioolft^ inul thi t}ii'oni'(tfth- liH/ied booK'H in pn^fereiico to imported and inferi(>r hiMtkti. An Mr. (ireor<;o Jiniwn has near conneetioiiH in (Jroat liiitain, who are i)id)lishers of sctliool and othtM- hooks, he Ikin set lilm.sJf to cry'Dxj down .school hooks, which have iu'cn pi'inted (hut not hy him) and borne of them written in danada, and to »ii/ and enforcing the Ufic of nn ported, hookn into our ttchooln. "There is one fact eonneeted with tin's Jjrown-Camphell text-ho(tk (tontroversy wliich must have struck tlie ]inhlic. \t 18 the entire ai)senee of sympatiiy witli his sellisli ellort on tim part of the press, (except tlu; Freeman of Toronto, a paper notoriously opposed to the puhlic schoijl system,) or even on the part of hookstdlers themselvcjs. In 185S forty-eij^lit hook- sellers wei'e led on hv the Globe, in its attaek hefore the l.eiris- lature ; now, the Globe x solitary prompter in this new crusade is his own brothcr-indaw's " n^ent." The editor-in-chief, too, who is also the Canadian school hook printer for the "a^ent." is no d(Uil>t anxious that his new maimnoth printinli<> Iimfniclinn, iiol one mom- bcr of whii'h in an luillior or pnltlishcr of iiny sclioi>l ImxiU, or Iwis luiy jiorsonul inU'ioHl in ono - ii boilyol nion ronHlihilnl l»y tlu> LvniMliilnro, iirni np|ios(> for whom hi* lU'tH hh ii|i ('onncil only aiioH at in'ovidin^; for the puhhi' .xchooh a proper HiH of toM hooK^, anil at tln> lowosl pricos, and (o provcnt, a.s far as possiiilc, (ho 1>ulilii" si'ho<»ls from hoint; tho victims of private speenlalion. Mr. ramphell )as oome (o the eoinitry (o make as nnieh money as Uv can, anil has not the least responsihility as to the oHlcieney an I eeonomy of the pul)lic schools." + + ♦ * He Hi ♦ SoIUhU oharuotor of tho now Crusftdo ugtiinHt tho National Hoadora. " It is t»ow niy duty to x'-^y s\ r<'w words as to tli;» National School Headers, which Mr. t'amphell and certain other pait'es are trying to depreciate and supersede. l"he ('anadian ^eoi;raphicnl and hi-itorical parts of those IiooUh have heen rendered needless l»y a geoi^raphy and history, prepared and pnhlislied in Canada by Mr. Iiovell, as also the chapters rc'lerring to natnrnl jihilosopliy and chemistry, by special Canidian text hooks, j)repared l»y Dr. Sai\gstcr on those snhjecls. .^o (hat tlu« tew pages in (ho advancoil readc^rs on which alone the real ohj(>clioiis to these re.itlers hav(> heen founded, aro snperscdcd hy t'an:uiian (cxthooks, and lhi> renleis are oidy reipii.'od for the icmtnnate purpose of school readers, and for which purpose they are, iiH n whole, yet vniexcclled. Siivce (he ui\iver,sal use of them in ('anada our schools have advanced he\ ond all precedent, and our school reailers have become cheaper than ever lieiore. .\ unilorm series ol readers is absolutely essential to tho clas.sillcation of both pupils and schools, as woll as a great coiueiiienco and saving to teachers and pupils removin;' from school to another. fins nnitorniily and great interest of tho schools should not bo allowed to be destroyed to giatily tho caprice of any individual toaclior, or the avarice of any bookseller." Chiiractor and merits of tho National I'.oadors. "The national readers have a prestige beyond any o;her school reader.s. They were prepared by some of iho best te.ichers in Kuropo ; tiiey woro revised by a largo Hoard of highly educated men, compo>ied of both I'rotos- tnnts and Uoman t'atlutlics, and not one sentence was vetaineil in them to which any one member i>f tho Hoard objected ; they underwent the revision of Archbishop Whatoly. an oxporiencetl toicherand afterwards professor; A man of the tinest tasle. as woll as of great leainiug ami vast knowli'dgc. The tirst and scci»ml o( those readers have never boon objeclod to ; and tho third, fourth, and liftli readers aru entirely composed of .selections from tho standard K.nglish poets and prose writers — whose writings will never grow old as long as the KnglisU language is spoken." ♦ * * M*S. •oro (tOS- 11 to sion (imc. ilio the ■row 21 Good Faith nhould not bo violritod " Tlii> niitiuiml inatli^rH liavo in oiio hoiiho Ixvoiiio OiiiiiiiliHiii/.i^il liy linviriti; lMM>n |ii'iiilrul roiinticn oC II|i|»rr (JiitukIii, Imt I have niiiHM expeiiHc, or do injuKtii^o to pri. terM, who liavo iiiveKteil l«r^',rii:iin icailers, have heen jirovided to fat iiitale thn lahours l now as tii(«y have lieen in jiast years, a.id it would he premature to mako any change in tiiem the current your." It in lliiirt H(uin, that whih; ymi and yoiii- hfdthcr-Iri-Iaw'K Hid»IiKh('iv. and h ])artm(!nt, I'or the Kami; ultimate! purpose, htiton tlieentirf;ly ikjw groimd that wo inive nnido numeroUH and vexatious ehari^^erf in school toxt-i)ookH — a st;it(;ni(!nt which \ sliall also sliow to 1)0 without tla; h^ast Ibundation in fact. ToKONTo, March hth, 1871. * llov. Drs. McCaul, Ormieton, and IJarclay, and Ilcv. U. J. Oraset> 13.1). 2 I>A.PEK III. TO THK HONOURABLE GEORGE BROWN, MANA(!ISa DlRKCTOR OK THK " GlOBE " NkWSPAI'ER. CONTENTS. Mr. Brown's Rtiu'iij^n- for (he Failure of the School-Book Monopoly of his Brother-in-Law- Scheme of this Monopoly as put forth in iS6j Nine Letters on the Subject by Mr. Nelson and Dr. Ryerson -Four if the Selfish J'oitcy Later, vi::., in 186S-- His Char^^e to the CanadianSchools of ^ per cent. more than other larg'- Publishing Houses in Britain. ' Covetousiicss is never satisfied till its mouth is filled with earth." Patch Puoveri!. fell!, Ill my last paper, I shewed that your own attacks and those of your enlisted allies upon the Irish National school hooks, were the cause of any changes of text-books in the schools; and, in further answer to your accusation, against the Council of Public Instruction and myself for changes in the school text-books, J will now show that those attacks upon and demand for tlie change of the Irish Natioruil books, were made with a view of getting your brother-in-law's school text-books and maps introduced into the schools. Mr. Brown's Revenge for the Failure of the School Book Monopoly by his Brother-in-law. In the early part of 1863, your brother-in-law, Mr. Thomas Nelson, came to this country'and sought to become book and map publisher to the Educatioti Department, as will presently appear ; and after the failure of his efforts at negotiation with mo, you, wuth the assistance of your brother-in-law's agent, commenced the numerous and furious attacks 'n the Globe 23 upon the Irish National Readere, which I had opposed, in my correspondence with your brother-in-law, to his series of school readers. I had already bought of his firm books to the amount of from ten to twenty thousand dollars for our public school libraries; but Mr. Nelson came to Canada at the beginning of 1863, and opened correspondence with me in order to get his school bookri and maps made tcAt-books and maps for our public schools. The correspondence between Mr Nelson and myself was sent by me for publication in the Glohe newspaper in the spring of 18fi6, and was afterwards printed in the pamplilct referred to in the preceding number of these papers. ,' Scheme of Monopoly, as put forth by Mr. Brown's Brother-in-law. I will now give lengthened extracts of this correspondence, so as to sliow clearly the object your brother-in-law and your- self had in view, my resistance to your proposed monopoly, and the system acted upon by the Council of Public Instruction. Your brother-in-law commenced the correspondence with me in this city by addressing me the following letter : — {From Mu. Nelson to Rev. Dk. Ryerson.) (1) "9, TouoNTO Street, Jan. 6, 1863. " Dear Sir, " I beg to send herewith duplicate copies as requested, of Jhe school books I left with you the other day. I send also several other volumes of onr educational series, and I shall esteem it a special favour if you will kindly bring them before the Council of Public Instruction as soon as possible. " r am busy making arrangements for publishing in this country, and shall be able, ere long, to show that we can help on the cause of education in Upper Canada. " We possess facilities for the production of educational works beyond that of any other publishing house, and are prepared to carry out any suggestion that you may favour us with, either in regard to new books, or changes in those we are at present engaged in. " Yours truly, "(Signed) THOS. NELSON. " Rev. Dr. Rversox." " The enclosed circular has been sent to each member of Council, as I am anxious to make it generally known that we are prepared to make arrangements not only for publishing educational works, but works in general literature." Three days afterwards, Mr. Nelson addressed me a second letter, from which I give the following extracts : — M {From Mk. Nelson to Rbv. Dr. Ryerson.) (2) "Toronto, Jan. 9, 1863. "Dear Sir, " I was very glad to learn from you yesterday, that there was no obstacle in the way of our school-room maps being put on the list as well as others, and I have now the pleasure of submitting to you the map of Palestine, about which I spoke to you. " I may mention that we have nearly ready a companion map of the Lands of 'the Blhle, &c , and I will take an early opportunity of explaining to you the peculiar features and advantages, for educational purposes, which these maps possess over others. At home they arc superseding all school-room maps in the best institutions; and I feel confident that the issue of them by the Department of Public Instruction here, will not only be a saving in a pecuniary point of view, but will keep the schools of Upper Canada abreast of those in the old country. * "^ . * . '' As I mentioned to you yesterday, 1 sorry to see an imitation of our maps of the hemispheres in progress, i trust that when issued, they will be without our peculiar system of colouring. Now that 1 have come to this country, it will be unpleasant to me to see imitations ot what is peculiarly my own, and the result of years of experiment and study. I am quite willing to place our services, as publishers, at the command of the Department of Public Instruction here, but I cannot consent to others carrying out improvements made by ourselves. I was glad to see that the matter had been entered into without your cognizance, and I trust yet to see the maps referred to issued in a style that will not be recognised as an imitation of ours. " You will find that in our operations here I shall be only too glad to benefit by your long experience and knowledge of the wants of the country, and shall most cheerfully follow any good suggestions that may be made to us. " I beg respectfully to thank you for the courtesy I have already received from you, and am, " Yours very truly, " (Signed) THOMAS NELSON. " Rev. Dr. Ryerson." To the foregoing I addressed a reply, of which the following are extracts : — [From Dr. Ryerson to Mr. Nelson.) /8) " Education Office, "Toronto. January 10, 1863. "Dear Sir, "I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday, with the beautiful map of Palestine. "In regard to your maps not being on the catalogue, they were only received for the first time last year, while the catalogue was published in 1866, and the supplementary catalogue was printed in 1861. We have specimens of the maps which you mention as published, and there will be no objection to inserting them in the next edition of the catalogue. " We import as few maps as possible, on account of the duties, and because we do all we can to encourage the printing of them in this country. 1 "When you spoke to me the other day about the imitation of the colour- ing of your maps in certain maps whicli are in course of preparation under contract by this Department, I stated that I was not aware of it. On receiving your letter referring to the subject, T made enquiry, and found that 1 was mistaken in supposing that you referred to the colouring of the different countries ; whereas it appears that you had special reference to tho colouring of the seas and lakes. You sp^ak of your " system " of colour- ing having been imitated. I may observe that the .same system of colouring the seas, lakes, &c,, blue, was adopted by us in preparing maps which were published in 1856, copies of which had been procured by me at the Paris Exhibition in 1855. The same shade, only darker, was used in colouring the maps published in Boston, and prepared by Guyot, nearly ten years since, and advertised in our catalogue of maps for schools in 1856. The blue shading of the seas and lakes in Guyot's maps is not so dark as that of your maps, but it is darker than that which has been thought best for the maps in preparation for our schools. " The printing of all the maps which have been prepared in this Depart- ment has been done by contract after having received tenders from parties able to do that sort of work. Should you establish a printing and pub- lishing house here, the same offer to tender for the publication of school maps which we may require will be made to your house, which has been or may be made to other map-publishing houses in this city. * * * * , " Yours very faithfuU}', "(Signed) E. RYERSON. " TuoMAS Nelson', Es(|., " (Care of Hon. George Brown, "Church St.)" The following arc extracts of Mr. iSTelsoii's reply to the foresroini!': — • [From Mr. Net.sox to Dr. Rykrsox.) (4) •' 9, Toronto Strket, -Ae//. i;>, ISGS. " Dkak Sir, " Your favour of the 10th has been sent to me here, to which address I shall feel obliged by j'our sending any future communication. " I bog to thank you for the intimation that our maps will in future be supplied from the Depository in the same way as others. I shall take an early opportunity of calling to arrange about tlie price at whi^h they will be supplied If ordered in (piantities, we are prepared to furnish them at a very low rate. I shall ere long take the libeity of submitting for your approval something of a very important character in rc^'ard to several new school room maps we arc at j)resent preparing. "In regard to the maps of the hemispheres to which you refer, allow me to say that I know all the other maps that you name. They are quite familiar to me, and yet it is apparent to me, and will be so to any one, that the two hemispheres about to be issued from the Depositor}' are imitations of ours. I beg respectfully to say, that ours were sent out from Scotland specially, and submitted at the beginning of last year, and I do not think it right that two maps in imitation of tliem should have since been prepared and issued from a public institution. 26 *' It is our intention to make arrangements for publishing our maps here, and I feel it necessary, therefore, at the ou set, to remonstrate against any private publisher, and still more against any public institution imitating what we have already, or shall hereafter produce. But upon this matter and sundry other things, 1 propose to speak to you when I have next the pleasure of callirig. He * * * =1= ••!•• * :|: * " I know that T possess facilities beyond those of any other house for the production of educational works ; and I anticipate much pleasure in consulting with you as to what will be best suited to the schools of Upper Canada. " Yours truly, •'(Signed,) THOMAS NELSON. " Rev. Dr. Ryekson." My reply to tlio foregoing was as follows : Fro7n Du. Ryeuson to Mk. Nelson. (5) " Education Okfick, " Toronto, January, 16, 1863. "Dear Sik, "Other engagements have prevented me from returning an earlier reply to your letter of the 13th inst. " You say that your maps wore sent out from Scotland, and submitted at the beginning of last year. " AV'hat you mean bj ' submitted ' I cannot say ; but I am assured that no copy of any of your maps was 'submitted' to this office except what was ordered and paid for by this i)epartmtnt. " You state that you are familiar with the maps to which I referred. If so, you must be aware tli'it there is no ground for the assertion that the hemispheres about being published by Chewett & Co. arc imitations of yours so far as the colouring is concerned ; and in other respects the hemispheres prepared here are, with one exception, in advance of yours, both as to accuracy and useful information Besides, the jjublisher of those iieniispheres told ine the other d^y that he had never seen yours, that he had been using blue colouring on his maps more or less for the last fifteen j'ears, es[)ecially on maps which he liad printed for the Government. For the last four or live j^ears Mr. Ilodgins lias sought to get the seas or lakes on each map printed here coloured blue, but found the tenders too high to accept them ; but latterly he has got tenders at a lower price. " T do not see upon whut possible ground you can claim a monopoly of blue in the colouring of maps, since it has been used by French, English, American and Canadian publishers long before last year. "It is, of course, your object and interest to sell as many of your maps as possible, and upon the most advantageous terms. It is my object and duty to get the best maps possible, upon the most favour- able terms for the local school authorities and supporters, without reference to individual interest. But subordinate to the public interest of the schools and their supporters, [ think, tho.se Canadian publishers of maps and school books are entitled to consideration and gratitude, who 27 have borne the burden and heat of the day in publishing maps and books, for the schools in the infancy of our country and school system, when, in no instances, have they realized more than very small profits, and in many instances have sustained serious losses. By their enterprise and sacrifices they have developed the trade to respectable dimensions, so as to render it an object of attention and speculation by British as well as American pub- lishers. The more every branch of the printing and publishing business is developed, the more will the facilities of knowledge and education be pro- moted in the country. But the accomplishment of that great object would be materially retarded, were this Department to become the patron of any one publisher or bookseller, or interfere with the private trade, beyond by tenders, getting the most suitable maps, apparatus, &c., for the public schools of the country. Even in regard to the maps which are specially prepared for the public schools in this Department, and printed in certain quantities by contracts, no control of the copyright is exercised by the Department. In this way is private enterprise developed ; and the public schools, and all classes of the community, are enabled to avail themselves of the best instruments and facilities of education and knowledge upon the most favourable terms. On the other hand it can be shewn that during the ten years of the operations of this system, the bookselling and publishing trade has advanced more in proportion than any other branch of trade in the country. " I trust you will, therefore, fully understand that this Department can- not have any connection or understanding with any bookseller or publisher, for the advancement of his interests, but must act solely with a view to tho best interests of the public schools, and the general diffusion of knowledge. "Thomas Nelson, Esq." "Yours very faithfully, "(Signed,) E. RYEKSON. The same day on wliicli tho fore<»;oin<^ letter -was written, I received the following letter from Mr. Nelson : — {From Mi{. Nelson to Dk. Ryekson.) (6.) 9, Toronto SxnEET, January 16, 1863. " Deak Sir, " I have not received, as I expected, a copy of our Second Latui Reader^ but I beg to submit to you some other of our education works, which I shall feel obliged by your bringing before the Council of Public Instruction, at the meeting to day. " I can see that the proposal to revise the authorized list of books, will have the effect of excluding ours in the meantime, and I therefore trust to have yc-ir support at the Council in proposing that our educational works be placed /"t once on the same footing us others, and be declared eligible for use as well as those issued by other publishers. Anything else would place us at a disadvantage, a.;i T :;annol think that this can be tho wish of I shall feel obliged by your submitting this any member of the Council, notice at the meeting to-day. Rev. Dr. Hterbon." " Yours truly, " (Signed) THOMAS NELSON. '"i 28 The following day, I replied to Mr. Nelson as follows: — {From Dk. Rvkkson to Mu. Ni;r,soN.) "Education Okkfce, " Tuiio^TO, Jannar If 17, 186S. "SiJi, " I have the lionoiir to $• tatc, in rcpl}'' to your letter of the Cth instant, that 1 had laid your letter, as also one of the IGth instant, before tho Council of Public Instruction, which has appointed a committee to examine and report upon a revised list of text-books for the use of the Grammar Schools of Upper Canada. To that committee your letters and text-books, as also similar letters and text-books, from various other publishers, have been referred accordingl}'. "The law makes it the duty of the Council to 'prescribe' tho text-books to bo used in the Grammar Schools. Tiie multiplicity of text-books has been a great impcdi'uent to the efliciency of the schools, and a great expense to parents and guiudians of pupils. One object of the provisions of the law, in regard to textbooks for (irammar Schools, was to remedy this evil ; but tho Council would only increase the evil, were it to add to the already copious list the text-books (however excellent) which the various British publishers have submitted for that purpose. With a view, therefore, of not multiplying text-books and yet providing for tho use of the improved and best text-books which have been, or may be from time to time pub- lished, the Council has proposed to revise tho list of prescribed text-books every few years, so as to diminish as much as possible tho inconveniences of a change of text-books, and at the same time to secure the advantages arising from the publication of new and improved text-books for the Gram- mar Schools, I have, &c., '(Signed,) E. RYERSON. "Thomas Nklsox, Esq., " 9 Toronto Street, Toronto." Two days after the forcgoin<»' letter was written, I received from Mr. Nelson another letter, of which the following arc extracts : — [From Mk. Nei.sox to Du. Rvekson.) (8.) " 9, Toronto {Street, Jatmary 19, 186S. "DkakSik, "I beg to acknowledge receipt of your favour of ICth inst.. and, in reply, to explain what I meant by saying that our maps of the Hemispheres had been '■'■ »ithmittc(V^ to you early last year. When they were iirst published I wrote from Scotland to Mr. Campbell, our agent here, requesting him to call and submit the maps to you and oflfer them for introduction among the schools of Upper Canada. They were duly sent up to the institution, and one copy of each was ordered ; since which I have heard nothing about them. You can imagine my surprise to find, among tho first things I saw on reaching Toronto, that two maps had been prepared in imitation of them, and I thought it best to let you know how I viewed the matter. 29 "Since writing the above, T have received your letter in regard to the appointment of a coninuttee to revise the list of text-books. In England our cducationiil works were one by one, as soon as published, put on the list issued by the Coujnnttoe of Council on Education, and were thus placed on the same footing as those that had been previously on the list. In the belief that there was no tibjeclion to a similar course being a(h)ptod here, \ took the liberty of requesting you to state to the Council that the ellbct of deferring a decision in regard to the books I have submitted, till the entire list of text-books have lieen revised, would, in the meantime, pku'c us as publishers at a disadvantage. On the list already issued, 1 found a number of American works, and I ventured to think that other good Canadian or British publications sliould be placed on an equal footing with them. The fact that the list already allows a choice of several works of a kiml, seemed to me to do away with any objection, on principle, at least, to the addition of other books to the list, and accordingly from this point of view I took the liberty of asking you to bring the matter under the notice of the Council. V llf '' If. Mt ■■>: ■■■.: :;: :]; :|: llev. Dr. llvKusoN." "I am, yours trtdj', "(Signed,) THOMAS NELSOX. To the f'oreg'oiiiL^ L addressed tlie letter, of which tlio tullow- in<;; are extracts, and wliich closed the correspondence l)etwceu Mr. Nelson and niyseU': — {From Dk. Kveuson to Mu. NEf.soN.) (9) EdUI ATION OkI'ICK, ToiloNTo, Jan. 'il, 186;}. "De.vr Sll!, " In reply to your letter of the 10th instant, I have to remark that scarcely a month, sometimes not a week passes, without publishers, or their agents, bringing copies of their maps to this offlce, and soliciting orders for them. In most cases a copy of the map is ordered, with a view to examination, and inserting or not inserting it in the next edition of the catalogue for the schools. In no other way have your maps been submitted than in the ordinary way of every-day trade, as have scores of others. Each publisher tliinks — at least he tells us — that his maps are preferable to all others, and that he has peculiar facilities for preparing and modifying them, and will be happy for any suggestions from us for that purpose ; but I cannot assume the office of counscller, or adviser, or prompter, to one publisher more than another. I must treat all alike, except that the pub- lications of one may be considered better adapted for the use of the public schools than those of another. In this respect the Council of Public Instruction, in its sphere, and T in mine, must decide, and act to the best of our judgment in reference to the country at large, and not in reference to any individual. " In reference to the part of your letter relating to text-books for the Gram- mar Schools, I remark that in England there is no system of public Grammar Schools established and managed under the authority of a general law, as a branch of the system of public instruction — that the Government or Par- liament has little or no control over the Grammar Schools there, which are so many independent establishments * * * * — ^jj^t the Privy 30 Council Comtnittco of Education have nothing whatever to do with any other than the elementary or Common Schools ; but the Grammar School law of Upper Canada makes it the duty of the Council to prcscrihe the text-books for tho (Jrammar Schools, and does not authorise the Council to place any text-book on its list which it does not prescribe. After the pass- ing of the (Jrammar School Act in 1853, the Council examined and prescribed a selection of the text-books which were then most in use, and which were most easily accessible, being, for the most part, both Hni^lish and American publications. The Council did not act in the interest of any publisher or bookseller, but wholly in what it regarded as the interests of Grammar Schools. Since 18r»l, other, if not better and cheaper text books have been prepared on some subjects than those prescril)ed ; and the Coun- cil propoBcs this year to revise the list of text-books, but its members are not willing to prescribe any text-books on my recommendation, or that of a publisher or bookseller, but each member of the (^ouncil desires to examine for himself every book prescribed, and not to disturb the present already too large list by additions, without revising it throughout, giving all parties con- cerned due notice of any changes in the text-books, that trustees, teachers, and booksellers may have ample time to prepare accordingly. " Yours very faithfully, "(Signed) E. RYERSON. "Tuns. Nklson, Es(J." Pour things established by tho foregoing Correspondence : viz., (1) a Brown-Nelson Book and Map-Publish ng Mono- poly; (2) Resistance to it: (3) Solflsh object in decrying the Irish National Readers; (4) a most rigid system of Monopoly Prevented. I was at'terwardri assailed in tho d'lohe for liavinii* ])reventcd Mr. Nelson IVoin oroctiiii^ a hook and map pnlilishing estah- lishinent in Toronto. If so, tho foregoing eorrospondunce shows that I did it in the interests of open competition and free trade. The above extracts of correspondence estahlish the following facts : — 1. That your brother-in-law sought, with my co-operation, to establish a book and map publishing monopoly in this Pro- vince — a mono})oly so close and rigid that he tried to ])revent the Canadian publication of nuips, with the seas and hikes coloiu'ed blue, because he had published maps in Scotland with the seas and lakes coloured blue. 2. That your brother-in-law sought to become the school- book and ma]) publishers of the Education De])artment of Upper Canada, while 1 insisted that the Education Department never liad had, and never ought to have, any one book or map pub- lished more than another. 3. That the great object of yourself, and of your In-other-in- law's agent, in decrying the Irish National School Books, was it 31 to supcrsedo them by tlio i\ckoii series of school book^. So intent wns your brother-in-liiw's apjent in thi:* work, that ho sent to tcachora ])reHonts of sots of the Nelson readers in order to ^et them introduced into our schools. 4. That had I yielded to your hrothcr-indaw's oifors and persuaHioris, a system of most riii;id monoi^oly in the school hook puhlishinn; husincis would liavc; been estal)lished, the provisions of the law of 1850, re(juirini? a uniform stories of text books for the schools would have been dcileated, immense additional expenses would have been iiillicted uj>on parents in the purchase of school books and maps, and th(^ classilication of pupils and of schools, with all their advantai!;es, would have been rendered impossible. In my next pai)cr, in defence ai^aiust your accusations and niisstatements, 1 will show what the Coumnl of Publi(! Instruc- tion has actually done in re^^ard to changes of school text-books. TouosTo, JFitirh 7th, 1872. P. S.— Further Developmouta of the Selfish Polioy of Mr Brown's Brothor-in-Law His Charge of 5 por cent extra. Failinjjj in his efforts to secure a rigid monopoly of text-book and map-pul)lishing in Canada, Mr. Ih-own's brother-in-law was determined that his establishment in Scotland should get all lie could out of the Department in supplying such library and prize books as might be ordered from it. lie therefore refused to sui)ply the Department as chea))ly as other similar i)ul)lishers in Ih'itain, and insisted on charging luA^fitje per ceid. tnore than they did. This will be seen from the following subsequent correspondence. Messrs. Thomas Xelson Sz, Sons, with other ]jublishers, were a[)plicd to personally in London (on behalf of the Dci)artment) in 1807, to give the Canadian schools better terms than they had been in the habit of giving. The matter was referred to i\[r. Thomas Nelson, in Scotland, and he replied as follows : — (10) "Edimul-ri;ii, ,SVi.^ 7, 1SG7. "DkakSik, "I am sorry that without breaking faith with Mr. Cuiupbcll, we cannot increase tlie allowance to your institution beyond 10 percent. That is the most we allow to the wholesale houses in London. "(Signed) TIIOS. NELSON. "J. GiiiouGE IIoDGiNS, Esq." Subsequently, on the (piestion of better terms having been again urged upon them, Messrs. i^elson maintained that their terms were as liberal as those of other houses. This was :y. donicd, and tlio names of Rcvcnd larpjo ]in])lisliing liouscs wore msQU In j)ro(>t' of the t'lxcX that the Nclnonrt alone, of all the larjijo i)nl)Ii.shini^ honsen in Britain (rtiich as J^hickwood iV Sons, IloutUid^o ifc Co., Ninimo, Warnc it Co., tkc, tlio Christian Knowlodj^io Society, Tract Society, A:c.), refused to <^ivo hooks to the Canadian scIkjoIh on as <^ood terms as these puhlishers, and that they had even raised the pricres of sonu; of their looks, (Schonherfj; Cotta Series), as pointed out to them. To this Mr. I*. Camj)l)ell Nelson replied as follows: — (H ) " London, 20th Jaunan/, 1808. "DkauSiu, » iH H * "As our interest lies in the direction of cultivntinp; as extensive a business as possihlc with the I)ei)artnieMt, it must be dear that we can have no object in instituting comparisons, but that of puttinj^ our- selves ri^;lu witli it. Now that you have furnished me with data, I have l)leasure in informing you that inquiries at Messrs t'nsscils' i^ Co., Jloutledge tV: Co., and Warne &, Co., support your statement that there exists at least a nominal ililf'crcucc of five per rent, in /amy r oj' those honnrs an roiiijiared ■with thtil I represent, but an examination of their catalogues leads me to the belief that if regard bo liad to the difference between trade and selling prices in each case, the apparent ditl'erence would disappear. " However, as I informed you in London, that, though willing to stretch a point ill our dealings with the Department, we roiild not extend to it the termn iilloioed to our rceof/niHcd atjent w\i\io\.\t breaking down the distinc- tive features which constitute an agency." "I am, &c., "P. CAMPBELL NELSON. " J. Geokgk Ilonoi.vs, I'sq." Further Specimen of the Proposed Monopoly Prices. The followinii; letter afi'ords a el tie to the kind of })riees which the schools would have to pay for the nuips i)ublishcd in Britain by Mr. Brown's brother-in-law, had the numopoly scheme succeeded, AVith a view to insert a list of jNFr, Nelson's maps in the Depository catalogue, Mr. Xelson was a]>])lied to for the price of those maps. The following is j\[r. Nelson's reply, dated " Nkw YoitK, April >s//(, 1863. "DkakSih, " I received some time ago a note from Mr. Campbell, asking me to let you know the price of our wall maps. I hoped before this to have been back in Toronto. * * * t therefore think it better at once to write to you. Plcafte enter the mnpn in the liM at four dollnra each, mounted and varnished. Pll arrange the price at which we shall charge them to the institution when I come to Toronto, " Yours truly, "THOMAS NELSON. "Rev. Du, Rykrson," ;J3 Not wiBhinj? t«, place Mv. NelsonV maps at a di.a.lvai.ta-o m compaml with tho iiiapB puMiHhcd hy the Irinh Natu.nal ioard and o lior parties, liis maps Nvere a(tuaIlvcntero♦*>»' fV«J ,> /,»«■ i^^.tVVA-/ .*)• rt A\fi»f» r,1lit,UHitU' f't'itnth'U »'/ Mr* A""* v »/•♦*•>• f'*f Ai'v AN-^iv^;*/ A'> A'>»vv Am AVv/m /»/A' M/- AfAfVA f,t*ffut f{^ }'H <»••,->'<•> ("r' /■»>••.>■ fkr ,\\'isvn AVvvi-A fWA> WAV J^r- "C.'/ttf*,.'" M»' <><•?«»;/»?>''« i^''-' Mo ,vVA-A-*>» f>;' /^tA'T .ifu*i\,iv *»rStV iV irfitrwitw if /^»VV*('»- rV / ^W >V*f,vVVV f>/^fA vSV ,♦,•»><• /'4f Wr-fl' .SV»frC r^/ AVrfr>*r'^.r S/ftifTrVfvr, A'<^ MfV vrt/V A7? ♦vvV.''/ />\v»/mv//,> a A\>f/ ^/?'i/ »"» Mr' *'trVf^/V" <'.v /?>♦ f>?V" A'> irrf* V ' l'»rt>!>««»i m»v" « ' Mil , m\ In t'livOuM' ;\n>i\\ rv <«> v^^\^^• Mi'('nn;>(ioun jo to ('liMn;'(>i in s*'li.\'>l to\l Ivv^Wsi, I pn>*vo<1 (o nlunv wIimI tlw ('oiim'il I'l' What hrt;5 «hvrt*iy Ihvmx shown \\\ thoRO I'lHHfj'n. *2. ] luuo shown hti.MiMl school IxtoKi-i worn n\'on;ntonvi<\i for us<^ in tho sv'liools, \\\\y\ \\\\\\\ jM-ovision v't> < W;\do t\>r ^upplv'.nsi' t)>o }i.,'hi>ol!» with th«*MK i havo mIho s^ho vm how !iJ^\^nJJ:ly I !' th;U om'oIUmiI s»'.itss and tonsvily jho '.Vunoil of TuMio lnsHnoti«>!\ nvilioriHl ti> ihoni. Kat who'"', ^onu"" modi iiv'.iJ ion *>i thon» oo;;lil no h>nixor ho ro- j-ij-Uxi, the CVunoil of Tuhho InstrnctioTi tv>ok stops to roviso m in :>■> vi\ •ion ,v- ■it*o llictii. I nlmll |tii'fli'tilly «'X|il)iin Hie ulnpn luUiu i'm fiittf pur p|iH«». MkImi-im riHinliu- III H, H»»rni'Mi I'rirllMHif'fif,. ;i. Ill ilio iii('iifiiiiiii> I mIimci v(» iliiii ili»> M» Iki'iI AcI r.c |t lllllM'hH of yrilllM»ji' MImI '^dWt I'Mi fPupniHJt'iilH nl llii' h'liilif iipoii Mi(t \'ur yriiv\i\\u\t dfcl in Mi(-«lili<'. npnii \y r.cilcM oC ilMi(|. iri'li'ini I'm liiiiiiiH'iil Vdjir I'omcN'HH (Mi'l rri»'r'''niiry wiir luiy liiMMi iiiMiji' iipMii iiii'MiiMply lii'cnUHP I lijivo oliMycrl nri A't '.I I'mliiiiiH'iil , mill kIimmI (riKird iiiniiimf. iK vidniliori by your liinljici ill liiw, \\\>\ n|n>Ml, mill oIIimh, wlio imv^ .^oni'lif to (It'uhnv llin Kvclciii iii' imijoriii tcxi lioo| Imii»I(k wlii'li tJii-y tli'iiiiflif proper \Hinnl. Mm ii«o of iinrtiiMifiri/.rjfl (Mill inrorlor Toxt-Mfjokw 'I . Til'" miiiii' f 'rJHMij A il ool; \a ik<:'I rlijif lijiu luM'ii iJifuippiuviMl of jiy llin Ooiincii of I'liMi'-, IfiBtriK^t.ion, siri'l pnlilii- iKtiii'n ffivm of Kin:li »'. iJH<;d for a (imc, iiim"' '!iuiiiilimi [!;''";i;i"iipli,y 'onM Id; pfpan:'), i\A norio of llic I'!ii^:;iiKli (rl«'<)i^rrii.plii''rt, not, rvj'.n tJiut of' tlif; Iri-li N'atiofjal Hcricf^, ciinliiiiKfl (iny niiip, or miich inf'orinsif iori in Ti:\ihvi\ U> ('MIumIm, or cM'ti I'rilirtli Norfli A nifri'-;!.. lint, f u<;%f:r },n'] ocoision lo <'.\(;i'iit,n llic pcnaify utf.ii'tiifd to t,li': vir»Jation of tiiirt pi.'Vi.siofi of tli(! Hl.iit.nfc, l>«;yon'l notifying' thf; {»artl^;ijlar piirli t c incri'iKid, tliiit tlif- iiH»r of Arn(;ri'!firi bookn in t.liolr 36 school anotlier year M'ould be followed by witholdiiiii; from it the legislative scliool grant. The Penalty Clause Inoperative until Mr. Brown's Brother- in-Law sought to force his Books into the Schools. 5. But it is seen by the same clause of the statute above quoted, tliat any book published in the Britisli dominions could be used in the schools, nidess ''^ dhapproved (>f\yy the Council of Public Instruction." During fifteen years I never recom- mended the Council of PuUic Instruction to act upon this clause of the Act in any case whatever, relying upon the excellence and cheapness of the Irish National school books, for their gradually superseding all other school books, wherever published. But after your brother-in-law's correspondence with me in 1863, in which he insisted upon the introduction of liis school books into the .- lools as superior to the Irish National school books, 'i'^ ;»; mj*- and yourself, and all yov. could enlist in your servcv , co' imenceJ the furious crusade against the Irish National school books, {,s containing nume- rous and gross errors in orthography, gr'immar, history, and science, and assailing the Council of ?ublic Instruction for continuing them in our schools — pro(.isoly the grounds on Avhich jou have for so many weeks asbJJ.iled my First L(;ssons in AijricultuTe^ and the Council of Pul»ljc Instruction for liaving sanctioned its use in tlie schuois. Thus history repeats itsidf, and you return to your old ways, "■ as a dog to his vomit." Farther Tactics: Teachers' Self-interest appealed to, and their judgment set up against tfavi- . " ^he Council. 0. Your brother-in-law's agent sair^ hi t!'„ {ih)he. with your vociferous endorsement, and advo( .h'a. t' /^t " if wo produce a series of books acceptable to teachers. Wv, ^ '^ald think loe have a riijH to expect the Council si • uld tiiiow iio obstacle in our way." " We do think if our books aro acceptable to teachern^ we should have full liberty of disposing of them." " We leave it to the judgment and practical experience of teachers to decide lohich are hesty Thus you sought to set the teacher — though even an inexperienced young man or young woman — above the parents, above the trustees, above the Council of Public Instruction, and oven above the Act of Parliament of 1850, in order to get your broil -t snlnw's books into tlie schools ! 37 of of the System of Bribing the Teachers resorted to, in order to force the Nelson Books into use. 7. Your brotlier-in-law's agent, suiting the action to the word, sent sets of his books to teachers, one of whom (tho head master of the Newcastle Grammar School) said in a letter to the Department, " Mr. Campbell, of Toronto, forwarded mo a jpackage of books, containing several books I have been using. Nelson, of London, is tlie publisher. His school reading series are not to he compared to the Irish National. I never saw loorse^'' It was manifest that if " a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise," the gift of a " package of books " would influence many teachers to promote the sale of the giver's books, by introducing them into their schools, had they the discretionary right to do so, whatever might be the expense to parents, and whatever might be the eifect of destroying uniformity of text books in the schools. The "Globe" the Champion of this system of Bribery- American mode of repressing it disregarded. 8. I might fill pages with extracts from reports of American State Superintendents as to the manner in which booksellers and their agents there have, by making teachers donations of books, or a percentage on the proceeds of the sales of their books, got their publications introduced into schools, to the injury of the schools, and at the expense of the parents of the pupils. To arrest this evil, the State of Massachusetts jiassed a law some years since, imposing a fine upon any bookseller or his agent, who should caavass for the sale of books at any public school throughout the State. Such a system of Ameri- can abuses, without the protection which American law has provided to prevent their continuance, you have soug'it to introduce among our schools, and have .bused me beyond measure because I have inflexibly opposed to them a legal resistance. Two important steps taken by the Council of Public Instruction in 1866. 9. But under such a state of things as you and others Avith you had brought about from 1863 to 18()6, the Council of Public Instruction felt called upon to take two important steps, viz., to appoint a committee to revise the Irish National school books, and to put a stop to the introduction and use of all un- authorised tyxt books in the schools. Accordingly, in March, 186G, the Council appointed a school text-book committee, 3 L^ 38 consisting of the Rev. Doctors McCaul, Ormiston, Barclay and Rev. II. J. Grasett, J3.D., to revise the National Readers the list of text books for the Grammar and Common Schools. The Council also adopted the following minute, as authorised bj law, and caused it to be published as an official notice : — " The Council of Public Instruction disapproves of the use, in any Grammar or Common School, of any text book which is not included in the list of text-books authorised by the Council as provided by law, after the close of the current year (1866)." New Policy of the Agent of Mr. Brown's Brother-in. Law- Success of his Scheme. 10. The text-book committee of ths Council thus appointed had, with the assistance of the then head master of the Normal School, Dr. Sangster, proceeded to revise the Irish National Readers, and had completed the revision of the first two by June, 1867, when Mr. James Campbell, hitherto the active agent of your brothor-in law, slipped his neck out of the yoke of that connection, for tlie time being, or for the occasion, and got prepared, partly at least, in Canada, and printed and stereotyped in England, but with Canadian imprints, a new series of six school readers, transmitted copies of them to me, to be laid before the Council, with a letter offering that if the Council would adopt his series of School Readers, lie would lea/e the reprinting and selling of them open to any printer or publisher in Canada. This was taking the Council on its own ground. I admired Mr. Campbell's pluck and enterprise, and treated him and his offer as if he had not said one of the many hard things he had written in the Globe against me. I forthwith submitted and recommended Mr. Campbell's offer to the favourable consideration of the Council, which referred his books to the text- book committee for examination, and to the masters of the Normal Schools for their opinion, who stated in a written memorandum, that, having examined Mr. Campbell's series of readers, they thought some parts of them, especially the first part of the series, Avere defective, but that, as a whole, they thought they ore an improvement on the old readers. The text-book committee, after a careful examination of Mr. Campbell's series of readers, recommended the acceptance of his offer, upon the condition that he would consent to revise the readers as the Council might direct. I communicated to Mr. Campbell in compli- mentary terms, the decision and proposal of the Council, and 39 a tor Ight rere au he promptly agreed to it. The text-book committee, especially Dr. McCaiil and Dr. Ormiston, assisted by "Dr. Barclay (who, being a near relative of the great Scotch publisher Strahan, and having, at an early period, something to do in his publish- ing house, knew a good deal about books and book-making), and also by Dr. Sangster, whom they called in to assist them, proceeded, with great energy, to revise Mr. Campbell's readers, rejecting the first two, reducing the six to five readers, omit- ting many selections, and retaining the best parts of the old national readers ; the result of the whole of which was that the copy of the revised series was furnished to Mr. Campbell during the months of September and October, and he broke up his stereotypes of his own series, and actually had the whole of the revised series set up and stereotyped in England, and c 3pies ready for delivery in Toronto the last week of the year 1867 — a remarkable instance of energy and enterprise on the part of Mr Campbell. The Council left it to the discretion of boards of trustees to use the Irish National Readers for one year longer, or introduce the new series of readers ; but such was the attractive character ot the new series, that before the end of the year, about three-fourths of the trustees of all the public schools in the Province had voluntarily introduced the new series of readers, to the great advantage of Mr. Campbell- Tho new Series of Readers sanctioned, but [their Sale left with the Booksellers. 11. This is the only change which has been made l)y the Coun- cil of Public Instruction in the readers for the schools since 1846. There are now two competitive editions of these readers published in the Province ; but with their publication and sale the Education Department has no more connexion than the Emperor of China, except to withold its authorization from any edition that is not equal in quality and mechanical execution and home printing to the standard copy first agreed upon with Mr. Campbell. I may add, that when the Council of Public Instruction sanctioned the new scries of readers, it included the condition that each book should be printed in Canada, on paper of Canadian manufacture. lers, tion icil |P«: and Bad effect of the Agent's new movement on the "Globe"— But "warring Picts become brother Scots again" 12. It was understood that this new move on the part of Mr. Campbell in relation to the school books gave huge offence to the Managing Director of the Globe, as you soon came down ;M 4P in its columns upon Mr. Campbell in the same style that you have long assailed me ; but I believe, the warring Picts have become brother Scots, and are now rowing in the same boat, and even pulling at the same oar ; which, indeed, may be inferred from your recent attack on the rival enterprising book pub- lishing firm of Messrs. Copp Clark, & Co., both of whom are guilty of the sin of being Englishmen. However that may be, Mr. Campbell has succeeded admirably, as well as deservedly in his new enterprise, as he has, from being ten years ago the " travelling agent " of the Edinburgh and London publishing house of Thomas Nelson and Sons, become one of the wealthiest publishers in Canada. Authorized School Geographies may be reprinted by any Canadian Publisher. 13. In regard to school geography, the only change made is the superseding of " Morse's American Geography " by the Cana- dian geography, published by Mr. John Lovell, of Montreal, and which is free to be reprinted by any other Canadian publisher. English Grammar Text-books may also be reprinted. 14. As to English Grammars, several, which had been exten- sively used in the schools, and even printed in Canada before 1846, were allowed to be used in the schools until 1868, when they were superseded by a primary and advanced Grammar, now open to be printed and sold by any Canadian publisher. Arithmetic Text-books may also be Heprinted. 15. In regard to Arithmetics, the larger and smaller Irish National Arithmetics were authorised in 1846, and almost universally used. But when the system of decimal currency was enacted by law, it became necessary to adapt those arith- metics to it, and Mr. John Lovell, of Montreal, employed Mr. (afterwards Dr.) Sangster, to Canadianize them, and (at my suggestion) to select the examples from Canadian statistics and commerce. The revised and Canadianized editions of these arithmetics soon became more popular than tlie original editions, the use of which, however, was not forbidden. But when, six years afterwards, in 1866, the Council revised and recommended a new series of readers, it determined to reduce to the smallest possible number, the text-books on all the sub- jects taught in the schools ; and I proposed to the publisher of the National Sangster- Arithmetics (especially the smaller one) 41 to have them revised and placed on the same footing of open copyright as the newly sanctioned readers. The publisher dec med to do so, and, after some delay, which I sought to 1^1 SS -A ?"° ""' ^^''^^^^' ?'^ ^^""^^1 ^"^"^^d itself compelled, m 1869-^0, to sanction another primary, and afterwards la. ger aritnmetic, the copyright ol which was to be left to open com- 16. Now these are all the changes which the Council of Pub- lic Instniction has made in school text-books since 1 846 In the two arithmetics alone have tliere been two changes (the one of them arose from the introduction of the system of W'.V.?'/,^ currency, and the other from the publisher declining? to aP ^r the copyright to come under the new fiee trade rcr^ul'^''- . but in regard to all the other text-books there liat^bec/i ' one change in moro than twenty years. Yet you have fo xVn. the clianges ol your misrepresentations for many month ■ a-. ' lead tJiose who believe you to suppose that the Council o. l'vl^^■;^. Instruction has done little else for years than change ^. 1. 3I tex.-books for selfish and mercenary purposes ! It is v^ery pos^,! ble that some have, by mterosled representations, been iiAnccd to buy school books, under tJie erroneou.'- impression that, ; ■ , had been authorized by the Council of Public Instrnc-.. and have afterwards been told that the Council h-id cliano-ed the text-books when it was found necessary for them to pvo- vide their children with the authorized books ; but the alLo tacts show how gromidlcss have been your representations on this subject, and how cruelly unjust to a body of i-entlemen who have gratuitously devoted much time and anxiety for the best in ores sot their fellow citizen., have been your ground- less and selfish attacks. ^ .^luuiia ^JL ^^f ^^"^ "^IVeplied to your long and various attacks on miifonmty of text books in the scliools-their selection, print- ownTl';f l^^- Z'^ "'^^ ''""^'^y ^^ y^"''' ^^^^tacks upon my own two book8-i<'.r..;{ Zes'sons on AgricuUnre and First Les- sons in Christian Morals. ToKoxTo, March, 1872. rrmmim^mmmmmmmmi''ii' r^^mmm PAPER V. REV. DR. RYERSON'S DEFENCE. REPLY TO ATTACKS ON THE " FIRST LESSONS IN AGRICULTURE." IN TIIKi:!: P.M'KliS. CONTENTS. T/ie '' i>/o/>c's" rations of criticism — Provisions' of the Law rcquirini: the clcmcn - of Ai^ricultural Science to l)e tauirhi in the Schools— J )o}^-in- the-niam^'er policy of the Afono^iiini:- /)ircctor - J/is war of weeks on a mntilaied dcfmi'tion and the pistil of a Jlower-- Reasons for his past torn;- silence and present vociferonsness—a new professional adven- tjif-^^r^His conduct not that of a jrentlenian or a scholar— DrydeK andCowher's estimate of such 'a critic- Dean Swift on the writers oj the '^ Globe' o:enus--The Mana^rin.^ Director of the 'Hllohe" tradint: on its fabrications— Philip of Xlacedon's illustrations of the Mana,i:;nij; Director's military and mercenary tactics -Shakspeare on his ^'Policy of Slander I'— The " Globe's'' lauded specimens ofi^nimmar—The most experienced practioner in the art of vilifyinc^, not havimj; learned to spell the word itself " The slaucler of some neonlo is as great a recommendation as tlie praise of others." Fielding. S„.^_I now proceed to answer your attacks upon myself for writinr?, and ui)on the Council of Public Instruction for reconiuicnding " The First Lessons in A(fnciiltur6"—';raminar, the followinijj sen- tence, which occurs in the letter of the lion. Edward Ijlake to nie, precisely as published in tho (rlohe of the 5th inst. : "This is all that need liavo been written just now, but that your allusion to my personal feelings towards you, and to what you call your vehement expressions used last year towards me, require remark." * Tho practised Viliflor not ablo to spell the word " Itself." 10. I iTiig'lit also observe, according to your own rule of jndghig, that, although it is admitted on all sides that you are the most experienced practitioner in all Canada in the scienco of vilitying; yet, that up to Thursday, tlie 1st of February, 1872, you had not learned to spell the word itself, since, in your leading editorial of that day, you spell it with two ll's instead of one. Perhaps this is enough as an introduction to what I shall say when dealing, in my next paper, with your dishonest repre- sentations and criticisms in detail. TouoNTO, March, 1872. *I do Hot suiipose or believe that any gramiiiatioal error will be found in tho manuscript of he passages thus referred to, any more than in my own (as was proved by the publishers), as he writer of them is known to bo a scholar. ■*v>^ 1 •A^i»i :ii VI. SKCOND VAriOll OV rilK \{KV\.\ nUOWN ^i\A)\^V. ATTAOKS ONTUM I'MllST MlMrtONH IN AOlllCltl.TUIlI': AN1> TUKlll Al'TllOU. TON i" I". N IS. FoNtftil.i niisf,/>rt\\yf!// ■:;t!/i'i/\ f.^lsi^ ( i ifii isms aiui viis^u<-'i,\t!,-'ns 7Vfif/\s,^fi <'» tlw " (i7,>/'<'s" dishofhs/ kiiui oj f,}lsrhoo,i " Simpliiily " of,-o»fon»/,»; i;xf,r»,ys -rchh the SiVn;,- re// .■7/,.' ihcv i;;-ii I'lir 'U>/<>/>/s" {(■•rmi.f.ihJ,- ! uiutiliilci hy /lintsr/f, ,iii,f //><• fiistil of <7 jio;i',->- . I ,tii>i,Ui:v s///>/y<>si-," iis niL^iu'iisf i}f<-, iviii j'olDisiou lllnst>iis in rri^iitd to iidi/s iXiui P*ofa>ii' ,in lio i^ nol Id lio fouivl, tho uii\uvvl ]\:unios sh.MiM Imvc ;v riiilU, to .'nine on iiny of tlu' iiiiloi'Mci-M." Siii'UinAN Si In vour oriti('isn\ nnd Mtlack on luy Firsi /.rssi>/i.\' in A(7ri<'ulfur<\ von liavt^ ]u\h'00(1oi1 u\)on ;v lourf'ohl niisn'ju'crton- Fourfold Misroprcscutation— Falso Criticisms svud Mis- quotations. Fh'st, yon liavo ropivstMitod it as intondiMl lor lit lio cliil- dron. whiMi you know that, acconlinii' to I ho ])n\uTainnui of fitudios. it wa^ not to bo introdiiciHl bt>tV>ro tho t'onrth year oi" studios, and until attor tho \nx\nh had tar advanced throngh the most e^i^ential subjects ot' conunon school education. aSV'- t'<>7j(//v, you luwo ropre>cnted the book as a professed text-book of Chemistrv, wl\on it is not used us a text-book of Chemistry, 41) ■liil- r of iii2;li )ook 'try, «1V(MI it) ilin Nnnridl Sclinnl, and vvlifMi you kru'W, fnti!! wIimI is Hliilrd ill ilio hook ilni'lC, lliiit it, whh only idlondrfl l(» ir'tvc tlio riKwI. (dciiicnliu'y (icfoiiiil. (»!' |Iiom(> (rw Hiil»h;tiUM'(M witli wliifii ilin lormor luiK lo do, iiiid rx|»liumlionH of llioKoclMfMiicMJ t<4 un Kciciiiilir (i[/;ri(Mdliic«". 7'////v//y, yon liiivo ro|tr('Konl,(M| Iho Imm»I< ii-t ii. licdiiMfi on l»(»l(iny, when only Krvcn ])!i|!;('rt ol' ill n.ro dcvolod to tlnit Hulijor.l, (niir \t;\(frn of wliidi f't'vcn piifj^cH (MtnHinl. ol'nolcH, not to hn joiirticd, mimI vvlicn flioiuj IIm'co rcnuiininii; pii<.n'w nici'cly sliiln tlio did'cifnl pfiitH of a pliinl, jind I lie liincliiMiw n\' i'i\.c\\ [Kirl. /'oNr/Zi/i/, yi>\t ic|trcH(^fifc ilio whole hook fiH intended |o he t)iiii_dil in the srhoolM, wiieri-jiH yon k'lew thai, it wuh not iecoinni(Mide<| to leMcli or lefon finy ol' the Meeond piicl in the Kchoolrf, n(»r even all the Icssouk of the lii'Ht iiiirl, neither any of tln^ notew, and that the |»artrt vc- (•oninien. 116, says — " The pistil, when only one, occupies the centre of tlie flower ; wlicn there are two pistils, they stand facing each other in the centre of the flower." Then again, in Lesson 12, ("The Flower; its Parts or Organs"), (h'ay says — " The ovary is the hollow case or young pod, containing rudi- Qnentary seeds, called ovules" The reader may judge as to which authority is to be most regarded — the anthority of the famous German botanist, Schoedler, and the equally famous American botanist, Gray, or that of your own unsupported assertion. Such are the only two things — a definition mutilated by yourself, and the pistil of a flower — that you have been able to find as even a pretence of attack in the matter of the text part of my book designed to be taught in the schools. If you could have found any thing more vulnerable, you would, of course, have assailed it. The space occupied in so trivial a discussion can only be justified, as illustrating your malice against an individual, and the paucity of materials for your purpose. A Nominative Omitted for the Purpose of Attack. But I must refer, for some additional illustrations, to your criticisms on the 7iotes of the first part of my book. In your cpiotation from my third note on page 75, you leave out my nominative to the verb, in order to represent my sentence as nngrammatical, and then, in reference to my speaking of the seeds ripening, or becoming fruit, you say — " The fact that seeds become fruit is new in botanical science." The Botanist, Gray, p. 116, says, " The ovary contains the rudiments of seeds, called ovules,''^ and states, p. 126, that " The ripened ovary, with its contents, becomes the Fruit.'''* Schoedler, p. 421, says, "The fully developed and matured 53 lat the lat red ovule, the seed, is, of course, regarded as the essential part of the fruit." Johnson, in his book, " How Crops Grow,'''' says, p. 300, " Tlie Fruit comprises the seed-vessel and the seedy Again, you profess to quote from my wovk, p. 74, " Inside the calyx, in the corolla (crown), consisting of flower leaves, called petals," &c., you say, " What it is tliat is ' inside the calyx in the corolla' is not told, and the student is left to draw upon his imagination for the filling up of the picture." Now, in my hook, first edition, my words are — " Inside the calyx is the corolla," &c. Illustrations Suppressed and Perversions Employed as Pretexts for Scurrility. I have before me no less than three other similar examples, which I have marked, of your perversions of my ^\•ords and sentences, as pretexts for your scurrilous ridicule, while pre- tending to fairness and truth before your readers in reviewing my book ; but my limited space prevents my exposing them in detail. I must, however, give some additional examples of your criticisms on the few pages of my chemical definitions. You quote from a note on the 30th page, " acids and hases arc binary compounds — each consisting of two elementary bodies," and then you say, " it is a pity he (Dr. Ryerson) does not make public the evidence of this statement ;" when you, as usual, quote but half my sentence, and know that I gave several examples illustrating my statement, and that my note, parti- ally quoted by you, was only an inference from the facts 5)reviously stated, and which you do not pretend to deny. Vly words were as follows : " Note. — It is thus seen that acids anil hases are binary compounds — each consisting of two elementary bodies — the acid being composed of oxygen united with a non-metallic element, the base of oxygon united with a metal. This is the first order of chemical combination, when elements unite with elements, forming acids and bases." Again, you profess to quote, (but, as usual, quote only part of a sentence, and omit the illustrative examples.) from a note on the 31st page, the words, " each salt consists of at least three elements," and say again it is pity he (Dr. Ryerson) does not make public the evidence of this statement, though, you knew, that I had given the evidence, and that my note was but an ii.ference from the facts or evidence which I had stated. Hav- ing briefly defined salts as compounds of acids and bases, and stated their constituent elements, with exai:?ples, I appended a note as follows : 54 " Note. — It is thus seen that each salt consists of at least three eldments. Saltpetre (nitrate of potash) consists of oxygen, nitrogen, and potassium ; Gypsum, or plaster of Paris (sulphate of lime) consists of oxygen, sulphur and calcium ; and so on." Further Perversions and Misrepresentations. In tlie 15th Lesson, which is expressly excepted from being taught, your writer quotes me as saying, " Mercury is distin- guished from all other elements by being liquid at ordinary temperatures." You then state, on authority of Professor Miller and others, "that the element hroinine at ordinary temperatures and pressures is a deep brownish red liquid." Now, Sir, though your statement as to the element bromine is correct, yet you omit two facts : The Urst is that I professed to treat in my book of only the fifteen elements witli which the farmer has to do ; of wliich bromine (only discovered in 1820) is not one. Secondly, I was speaking of metals, as the head- ing of the lesson, and of the three preceding lessons expressly states ; and hroirune is not a metal, but a non-metallic element, to which 1 was no more alluding than I was alluding to the Director of the Globe. Your critic likewise remarks : " I may also say that hydrargyrum — the technical name of quicksilver — to the best of my belief, is derived from the Greek words hudnr (water), and argnros (silver), and not from arguron, as Dr. Ryerson says. In fact, I can't find that any such word as arguron exists in the Greek language at all." In this your critic confesses his ignorance of even a Greek declension ; otherwise, he would know that arcjuros and arguron are one and the same word, only that the former is iu the nominative, and the latter in the accusative case. System of Notation in use Offensively Attacked. Another pretext of attack (as usual in most offensive terms) upon my book is, that I have not adopted the new system of Notati.-'.i in chemistry, a system which was only introduced into the Toronto University College in 1869 ; so that every student that ever graduated there before 1870, was never tauglit it ; a system which is not used to any single work on Agriculture throughout Canada, or in England, or in the United States ; a system, therefore, which it would have been foolish and absurd for me to introduce in chemical de- finitions and equivalents relating to all the existing standard works on Agriculture, and all the commonly used works on Chemistry. It would be as absurd for me to introduce the 55 new and almost unknown system in place of the old and well- known system, as it would be to employ Napoleons, francs, and centimes, in place of dollars and cents, because a few persons happen to know the former, while everybody under- stands the latter. Those who have studied and practised both systems of notation have told me, that it is very easy to con- vert the old into the new system, but to convert the new into the old, is more difficult, — somewliat as would be without much practice to convert dollars and cents into pounds, shillings and pence sterling. Had I adopted the new, instead of retaining the old system in my few chemical definitions and illustrative examples, I should have been charged, and justly so,with writing abook for beginners, incomprehensible and useless to nine-tenths of those who might wish to use it for practical purposes. * •d n * Since writing the above I have received the following note from the Natural History and Science Master in the Normal School ; — " Normal ScnooL, Ajjril 6, 1872. " Rev. Dr. Ryerson : " Dear Sir, — I beg to acknowledge the receipt of yonr note of the 5th instant, asking me if I found any inconvenience, on account of the so-called old notation in chemi>stry, in using the First Lessons in Agriculture as a text book. " In reply, I beg to say that I have found no inconvenience on account of nota- tion, and for the present I would not recommend that a change bo made, for the following reasons: — '•1. In the present state of chemical science teachers are obliged to explain both relations, one or other to have prominence according to the oljject they may have in view In the division in the Normal School in which the First Lessons in Agriculture is used as a text book, chemistry is taug^ht more especially with reference to its application to Agriculture and the Arts. The standard works on these subjects still retain the old notation. A student, therefore, who had only learned the new would have to learn the old notation before he could intelligently read these works. " 2. Many of our most eminent teachers of science still adhere to the old nota- tion. Prof. Chapman, in his excellent work on the Minerals and Geology of Central Canada, published last year, after explaining the composition of certain substances according to the old notation, states also the modern views, and says: Various arguments might be adduced both in support of and against this opinion ; but as the former views (the same as in the First Lessons on Agriculture) of the composition of these bodies is the more simple of the two, and is still very gen- erally followed, it has been thought advisable to adhere to it, in a work of the present elementary character." Dr. Dawson, Principal of McGiil College, Mon- treal, in his little work on Agriculture, uses the same notation. Dr. Percy, Professor of Metallurgy in the School of Mines, London, probably our highest authority on metals, uses the old notation in his lectures ; and the celebrated Professor V. Robell, of Munich, in a work published in 1869, adheres to the old. I might add to these nearly all the Continental Mineralogical Chemists. The new is more generally adopted by writers on organic cliemistry. Even if the new notation come into general use it may not be in its present form. It is still in a transition state. Mr. Bloxam, in his chemistry, published in 1867, says: " The different modes of representing chemical changes are almost as numerous as chemical writers." Another recent writer says: "Many of the elaborate «e Profane and Foul Perversion of a Reference to the Divine Being. But I will not weary the reader with more than one other instance, in this paper, of your foul quotation for the tbuler purpose of profane ridicule. You profess to quote from the 6th and last note (p. 76) in the first part of my book, in con- cluding the short Lesson on the " Structure of Plants and Offices of their Organs." I give your own words as follows : " One is not surprised on looking back upon those exhibitions of his (Dr. Ryerson's) skill in darkening counsel with words without knowledge, that he should say, as he does in his 6th note, ' In this summary notice of the flower, the reader can hardly have failed to admire and even adore the display of infinite skill.' What o happy self-complacency I" The reader will observe that you represent and quote me as self-complacently admiring and directing attention to my own skill in describing the flower ; and to do so, you not only omit what intervenes between two parts of a sentence, but wilfully and profanely pervert and misapply the whole of what I said. My note is as follows : " 6. In this summary notice of the flower, one of the most beautiful creations of Divine goodness, the reader can hardly fail to admire and ovea adore the display of infinite skill and benevolence, as also in the works and laws of nature referred to in preceding lessons. The reason, and principle, systems of classification now brought forward are more ingenious than ufseful, and even their plausibility seems but too often to arise from accidental circum- stances rather than from any foundation in fact." But it is not yet certain that the new notation will ultimately prevail. The German cliemists contend very strongly for the superiority of the old. Hermann Koble, editor of the Journal Sur Fraktische Chemie, Lepzic 1871, devotes thirty pages of the October number to " Fashion in Modern Chemistry." A quotation will give a very inadequate idea of the article. It says: ' but if this modern nomenclature has no advantage if it is inferior to nomenclature hitherto in use, how shall we explain that it has so quickly come into use with so many. A new fashion, however clumsy, (unchon) and impracticable, will easily catch the ear of the public. But in ques- tions of fashion the majority do not determine their worth. In this connection I recall how quickly Gerhardts' theory of types came into fashion only a short time ago, and wlioever did not adopt this tlieory, or ventured to oppose it, was con- sidered a mere nobody in Chemistry, and quite a number looked down on me with compassion because I did not adopt it. Now it is never heard of. It has gone out of fashion. It requires no pliilosophic gift to foretell that the fashions of modern Chemistry will share the same fate. The lovei*s and worsliippers of the new system will be the first to cast it aside.' " In view of the above facts, and others which might easily be added in an introductory work an Chemistry, Pope's rule is undoubtedly the best : — " ' Be not the first by whom the new is tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside,' " I remain, my dear Sir, your obedient Servant, " Thomas Kirsland." 57 and even modos of many of these operations, are beyond tho search and comprehenHion of man, but none tho lesH real, though tho more wonderful. It every page of tho fhmer-book of nature abounds in mi/steries, tho hiirher book of revelation could not have originated with tho Autlior of nature were it without mysteries." ^ I leave it with every candid reader to form and prononnco Ins .^^d^^^nont upon the principles and character of a writer who resorts to sucli perversions and misrepresentations of my words, in order to assail me, and of the trnstworthiness of a newspaper wliose Manaj,nn<,' Director employs sucli instru- ments and weapons against me. But in my next pai)er I will give still more flagrant examples ot jgnorance of the suhjects of criticism on the' one hand, and ol dislionesty on the other, in the criticisms on, and pretended quotations from, the second part of my First Lessons on Agriculture. Toronto, April, 1872. PA-PEK VII. TO THE HONORABLE GEORGE BROWN, Managing Director of tub "Globe" Newsfapke. I:- CONTENTS : Religious sentiments the oljcct of the (Hole's sneer and ridicule— Its significance, notwithstanding the prett-nsions of the Managing JJirector — Christian character of the Irish National BooU — Authors of ''Guesses at TrntV on ant i- Christian writers of the Globe type— Addison' s recognition in his beautiful lines of the Divine Author of Nature— Tlie Globe on silica and alumina in soils, plants and animala opposed by leading English and American aiithorities—The Managing JJirector and his "• Kichol Farmer" at fault— New and useful informa- tion for them in regard to turnip soil and root hool-s-Circumstancea tinder which the ''First Lessons'' were ioritten — The Managing JJirector vs. himself the J'resident of the Prodncial Agricultural Association and Ids own former Agricultural JJditor-Mr. Brown » contradictory testimony would be rejected as worthless in a court of justice- Lord Macauluy on "Globe" poison bags— A committee ptroposed __p. S.—In the blind zeal of the Managing Director he runs full tilt a/a?i< silica, but no tunina. The animal no alumina, and very little silica." 01 Your in)erfvl ridicules laviriluul upon inc, fulls U[>ou Profossor Johnston liinisolf, uml I iiiuy udd, upon the author of the " New Aniuricim Farm Uuuk" ulsu who employs the Bunio triplot. The Managing Director and his Niclaol Farmer at fault. Thou, Sir, you suborn a '' Xichol Fanner," to refute and ridicule what is stated in inj hook (p. Ill), that "any soil adopted to Indian C(»rn will pnxluce <2:ood turnips." Vour critic asks, " What has Indian corn to do with turniiis ? Indian corn will not rij»en where trood turnips can he produeod." Fpon such (rlohr authoi'ity, my hook is. (»f course, condomried as hereti(!al, and I am denounced acco!'din:;;ly. Now, it happens that I'roi'essor flohnston, in treating; of "liirht and heavy latids," in his Cateehit>m of Ai^riculturo, has the foUowinj^ questions and answers: "12"). Which of these two kimh of land is most caslhj and cJd'Jly cuUn-iilnl ? "The lijicht lands — oftun called barley, Indidn-eorn, or turnip noils. " 120. \Vh]/ arc thusc I'lndu cidlid Ixirlcf/, Indiiin-eorn, or tiirni)> noilt "IJecaiiso tlioy have beur\ I'ouiul to bo peculiarly lilted for tlie growth of barley, of Indian-corn, and of turnip, and other green crops." Aujain, yonr critic quotes from my hook the followinu- words : "IJut it is only on new land, or freshly tin-ned sods, that tliey (turnips) arc most Bucccssfid." On this your critic remai'ks, "Newly cleared land will, no doubt, pnxluce an avcraH^\ \\m \\\vs \\m m\sm )\\\\\\'\\U\ m] '■■■ '\ \\vv\my '■ "■ '' ■ "■ ,„._.„. , ^rtynu...,,.. ., tV.v-#w>vHvV ^Vn ^^ \^^V l\\\\ v\n\\H \\^ A A\s\\\\^\m\s \\m\\ \\\v\ W \\\\ M\\k\ my \ \\m\ \^% w m\\\\ I v\\\\^\\V(A\«f \\U\'\sy^\\< ul\\v\Ui\n|u t'-ui i^1 ■WPVaMMMVOT mmmmmm m 111 IIM'Ii )i|l(lh(i/'lii|| , IHIl'il ijH Ih III*' illplillr <|"hi H iiihjillfU , ... ,^ ii\",, iinii laiuii iiiinif I'hiiiii'l hi fiff- l|/(*l '(O/H'll- A /|///M(/N/ /;f M//*,> //7(/N iilihiltiii jiih jUMi^ljiiUili llh hjtih fiifl/k liii Mum |i|ii|Mii<(>^i'i, fiiiil i >:iinMi H m ft m f''/f III ii lipnilliiii III (d/fi'ill (' ''(/(//I/ /(/f/f '/I III,/ hitaiii i'H^liiift* ( iIIh |iiIiii|.i| liii W llillll > llllfl I i'flllUlji W'lif! ilii ii' I I ((H.I i/( /((i/.| , /w//| r i,\\iihi] n m « ^ir/ !''/f Hl|l-(l II (H.l! I llM (> |i(''(( ((lM/f'/-j ,"/.^*|' llhl^t '///•''/', ^////l ^////^/rf/ mIIi'I iiiMiiili, h, III/, M((((i(//l///» hliiilht' i,f iiih //////i/' fi/i/f ilk % HH il jil||(i|(< M//i , , .h tililUHJf^ 'li '^'iil « I I M||||(II((<|(|Hm/( /(|//(/( M(/ lllini' '^ hlf >/llll f>1imI |(l lliii Ih,\» >Uihi\i hI ii,liii HfUli ililiifi) til fu f*i/"ffiif,'i- i'/^i{HiH HIM ImImjH Li.lllf. iMIll \,i\{Hi'\uU'H f\^JtiiillillHi hlli^luh-Ui ""''' ''••''''•■'' ■•♦''''^•'^^ (Iiiihh" • llH IV|(HMHi'lH(j» ffllfWW'fr I . illUlffhit\ iihi I, tin iUl fiiliuiti ii'Mlilnhti^ IIhi'Ihii-, ,mii jMi()i'''ll iiiiiijt "ifiii:':',, nii/i ii'/i f/ifiit<*nnfyiffi^ ('Mil iiiKiilliiMil hI(I('\lil\i I{\UiIh\ !• Illl','i'liui- Tile iiliii(. ii(|(tilM.)/,(( iiiiil I'liiiiiffi'dHlfl '(f ffif' "M/Zfrl/''' »t|lMlll||M-hM III III, Ii'imI', It'll I( ' l'lll-l(l'lhni fiil'l h^/l«-il\ffttn'i '' MjHimiimI Id 111. h'/ii/ir hniii, 'r\lll nf Jtiittltif^ iiul] f/h t^H 'Mh til I'l'lmitll V, »<'il III I h'i'ii' U'dn" l>> i"ihiit/i Ifi^. W^\l 'iiMMi'iw »;/ 'ii'hiilllln hunililiiliff^' Ihn* " Ih lfiiifi.t./,'^ /•mh/' \i^ \'iit,'iiliifiil III ifliw I woi'iiiit h/i-Hit nil nil !/)/■ hiilt'ii f/f 4ftit*'t*'** I, Ml, 'I A/|M'iy Uli "tiVifih" t'Oln'f/r hft1^,*( NiiW, Ml(, W'Ik'M, «»f( lie- Ai'ifi] III' 4 till tint / fii'f t«y, "■ ^//if^4 llli» llillll iImkiI'iiI fili'l iij/» M i(|h/^;il 'f/f 1^ 'f.'/f^l, oflhir Hfiiih/iiitl iciif/iH i" utii\ iiiHi ntr/^ oh iht ^itih '^ V^^ffhmf-j^ llml llii> liMii!' " |(((Iho»m'. Mm« Htfiiti^"*'ff»/''U':itiifi^'. Vh^rtt\*'fWfi!;' mill "I'lviii I Mifdi'iiKx )»|»'M« u\i irll M./i %n\/\t''-^*, fff wftiV'lv A- 64 treats," what does it prove, hnt tliat you not only impugn your own liii,dicst autliorities, but completely contradict your- Belf; and that, if in a court of justice yon thus contradicted yourself, your oath would not have the value of a straw with either judi>;e or jury. It is thus, as Lord Macaulay says of another, your " ettbrts to wound resemble those of a jufj^ler's snake. The hugs arc fall of poison, but the fang is wanting." Mr. Brown vs Hon. D. Christie and his own former Editor. But in addition to your own admission of the " bodily" soundness of my book, " chemical and agricultural," the lion. David Christie (a scientific and practical farmer), President of the Agricidtui-al Association of Upper Caiuida, has commended it in still more uiiqualilied terms. In his official address to the Association at its annual meeting, October, 1870, after remarkinii: tiiat " elementary aji-riculture and mechanical in- struction should form a leading part in the teaching of our connnon schools," Mr. Christie referred to my book in the following terms : " Dr. llyerson has published a very valuable little work on Agrioultui'e, whicli I hope to see made a toxt-book in all our rural districts, llnquea- tionabh'. the result of f^iving elementary instruction would be not only to impart important scientific and practical knowledge, but to make the farmers' sons of this country feel the importance and dignity of the pro- fession of agriculture. Dr. llyerson has done good service tu the country, by compiling the manual to which I have referred, and I hope he will see to it, that the lienefit which it is so well oalculated to confer, shall not be lost to the country. It is a good tiling for the cause which wo wisli to promote, that we have so able a coadjutor as the Oliief Superintendent of Education. I feel convinced that lie will soon make agricultural and nieclianical instruction a leading feature in our common school teacliing." Then, besides complimentary newspaper notices, the Ontario Farinei% edited by a gentleman who had been several years your own chosen editor of the Canada Fanner (until you made it an instrument of ])arty polities, when he resigned), recommended, October, 1870, my book in the following terms : " It consists of two parts : ' Preparatory Knowledge,' in wliich first principles are dealt with, and ' Preparatory Knowledge Applied,' in which these principles are reducol to practical results. The work is tlirown into the form of question and answer, making it convenient for use as a class- book in scliools, and we hope to find it extensively introduced into tlie common schools of our Dominion. In this form it is well adapted for family use ; and intelligent farmers could not do better than improve tlie long winter evenings by the study cf this book and the instruction of their children in its teachings. We tender our thanks to the (Jhief Superinten- dent of PM'.ication for the patriot'.c task he has so well fulfilled, and com- menJ the ' First Lessons' to all aud sundry." x'J 65 After such testimonials, as -well aa on otlicr f!;ronncls, did tlio Council of Public Instruction, without my previous knowledge of any intention of the kind on my part — connnend my book for use in the schools, in giving effect to the re<|uirements of the law as to teaching the elements of agriculture. A Committee proposed. But I propose that the Honourable Commissioner and Tresi- dent of the Board of Agriculture shall appoint three impartial, scientific, and pra(ttical fiirruers, to come to the Echu^ational Department (where they will find all the school books of agri- culture and agricultural chemistry which I have been able to procure from Great Britain and the United States), and examine them; and if the committee thus appointed shall find one book that they think is better adapted to our schools than my First Lessons in Agriculture, I will adopt their recom- mendation, and urge its adoption by the Council of Public Instruction. TouoNTo, April, 1S72. Blind zeal of the Managing Director ; runs full tilt against Paley and others. P. S. — I will only notice what I had intended to devote another paper to ; namely, your attacks on the last lesson in my book ; a supplementary lesscm, which is not on agriculture, but on Natural History, headed, " JMiscellaneous questions and answei-s respecting Water, Plants, Birds, Animals, Man ;" compiled chiefly from a book of General Science, entitled " The Reason V/hy^'' but derived in part from Paley's " Katural Theology." Every question and answer of this lesson was compiled ; not one ])aragraph is my own. The book entitled the Reason Why, or General Science, is published in LondER VIII. TO THE MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE "GLOBE" NEWSPAPER. REPLY TO HIS ASSAILANT'S ATTACKS ON "FIRST LESSONS IN CHRISTIAN MORALS." CONTENTS. ^ ^'TlLTn'",'' ^'nt ^."^k- Threefold misrepresentation of the Globe Dtrector-^ObjectiOHs answered: ist, As to grammar -^nd As o obscurzty of expressions; 3rd, As to any book of Re! i A ^rTr/^"r"^^lf ^f""^'' ^'^'' ^^ '' '^'^ introduction of am^ thin}; on Christtan Evidence and Miracles; ^th, As to coniMratZe teachings of Natural and Revealed ReliJon; 6th As to teachiZ ^y^--fj''cludedinthe positive institutions ^Oi^tL^fr^ t^lrv m 7^ ^'''rr~H' .^roundlessneis-^Testiniony'tothe contrmy, 8th As to quotations from Herodotus andJinmial—Their teaching offensive to the yiobe'^ ^^vriters-Conclusion-DeLblZss of Protestant unity, as there is Roman Catholic unity, in rZrdfo Keltgious teaching m the Schools-^Its possibility^Fuiure hofeof it. tonl^^!S f^ <^«^c^"es8 of a professed pleader, he has availed himself of every topic which could afford the slightest colour of support to his cause with little RoZx h2J"'"'"^ *'" '"""'•^^^^ "' *'^ P""^i^^^ ^^ -'-h he argues."- SiK, — 1. I now devote one paper in reply to your numerous and voluminous attacks upon my little book entitled ChHstian Morals, \\pon myselt for writing it, and upon the Council of -fublic Instruction for recommending its use in the public A great "Globe" War on a little Book. 2. From the many columns of space and the vast amount of labour bestowed by yourself and correspondents on this book It might be supposed to be a volume of great magnitude and importance ; whereas it extends to only 94 pa|es of large type ; 8 pages of which include the title page, preface, and 68 table of contents ; 32 pages consist of notes, and 8 pages (4th Lesson) on the Duty of Parents, — thus leaving but 42 pages of large print, to be taught in the schools, — assuming that all that was intended for teaching in tlie schools, to tlie most advanced classes, should be taught. 3. On page 42 of large type, leaded, have you employed such an array of assailants, and for weeks, from the ultra Ilomanist to the denier of the Biblical account of man's creation — against the recomnicndaiion of a distinguished lay member of the Council of Public Instruction of the Baptist Church, two Presbyterian clergymen, and two Episcopalian clergymen, apart from the writer of the book. 4. Such, when analyzed, is the amount of all your noise against this very small book, — loud thunder, but a storm of wind. " Empty vessels make most sound." Three-fold misrepresentation of the " Director." 5. As usual, you found your attacks on misrepresentations of botli the object of the book and the autliorization of its use in schools. 5. First, you represent the book as designed for little children ; whereas the programme of studies provides that during the first three classes, or years of children in the schools their religious teaching is from simple tablet lessons, named in the programme. It is only with pupils of the fourth year in the schools that the use of the book on Christian Morals is commenced ; the first nine lessons of which consist of duties taught in as simple language as any of the catechisms usually taught to small children. It is only when pupils have entered their fifth year at school they are supposed to learn the lust six lessons of the book. These lessons embrace some of the first elements of moral science, such as the ground and rule of moral obligation, in two lessons ; then the teaching of ^Nature and Revelation compared and contrasted in two les- sons ; miracles and mysteries of Revelation evinced and illus- trated in one lesson ; and the elements of human happiness in one and the last lesson. Brown myth as to forcing the book. 7. Your second misrepresentation, which you have repeated loud and often is, that the use of the book has been forced upon the schools, and its use required by pupils; a representa- tion which you could not but know is as unfounded as it is unjust and wicked. While asserting this untruth week after 69 week, you knew three things. First, that the law prevents any force from being used on this subject, since it enacts that " No person sliall require any pupil in any school to read or Btudy in or from any religious book, or join in any exercise of devotion or religion objected to by his or her parents or guar- dians." You knew, therefore, that any compulsion on the subject was out of the question, at the same time that you were imputing it to the Council of Public Instruction and myself. Secondly, You knew that the Council of Public Instruction had never jprescribed the use of ray book in the schools, though you were all the while asserting it. You knew that the Council had only recoinmended it, and, at the same time, appending to the word reGOinincnded the explanatory words, that the use of a book recommended was at the dis- cretion of the Trustees of Schools. Thirdly, You knew that the book was not even recommended for any other than the pidjllc (not separate) schools ; yet you have resorted to the supporters of .s<^a/'a^(? schools for weapons against it. Fourthly, You kiiow that, within the limits prescribed by law as quoted in the lirst particular of this paragraph, the law enacts "within this limitation pupils shall be allowed to receive such religious instruction fis their parents or guardians may desire, according to any regulations provided for the government of Common Schools ;" yet, in breathing out slaughter against me, you would denude parents and guardians of this sacred right. The " Director " a Rip Van Winkle on Religious Instruction. 8. Your third misrepresentation — which, like the two already mentioned — lies at the foundation of your attacks, is that the recommendation of a book of religious instruction in the public schools is a new thing / whereas it has existed during more than twenty years. 9. The very foundation of your general attacks on my First Lessons in Christian Morals^ thus consisting of a three-fold misrepresentation, merit not the weight of a straw to any impartial reader. But I will notice your principal charges under distinct heads. Three objections answered. 10. Your first charge, or class of imputations, relating to the orthography of certain words and the grammatical con- struction of certain sentences — are objections which may be brought against nearly every considerable editorial or other article which has daily appeared in the Globe throughout the 70 year — an objection wliicli can bo established against every book that I have ever read, even the Bible, with all the care which professional proof-readers in succession have exercised — an objection which Lord Karnes in his Elements of Criticism, and lilair in his Lectures on Rhetoric have shown to lie against some of the passages of the standard authors of the English language — an objection whicli I have sufficiently dis- posed of in a previous ])aper in reply to a similar charge against my First Lessons on Agriculture — an objection made by a species of scribijlers, of whom Sir William Temple says they are " like certain brokers, who, having no capital of their own, set up a trade with that of other men ;" for Shenstone observes, that " a man who fails in writing becomes often a morose critic. The weak, insi])id white wine, makes at length excellent vinegar." Infidels of the Tom Paine stamp have assailed the composition, imagery, and even doctrines and pre- cepts of the Bible, in precisely tlie same manner and style as the Glohti critics have cpioted half sentences, perverted words, and distorted sentiments, and then ridiculed and abused the author of the book on Christian Morals as well as that on Agriculture. Obtuseness of the " Globe " writer genus. 11. Your second objection is, that my sentences are obscure and unintelligible. An able living writer remarks, " Ileviewers are forever telling authors they can't understand them. The authors might often reply, /« i5/i«, ny fault f^ Men without moral feelings have as little perception of writing on moral questions as has a deaf man of harmony, or a blind man of colours. To such men inspired truth itself is " foolishness ;" much more First Lessons in Vhristian Morals j not one senti- ment of which they have expressed even an approval, of every teaching of which they have sought to bring into contempt, especially when respect to old age is inculcated, or the teach- ings of lievelation represented as superior to those ol Natural Keligion, But I may also remark, that though I have never aspired to elegant, much less to eloquent writing ; yet the motto of my life, whether in s})eaking or writing, has been to try and make things plain and forcible. 1 believe every reader of these papers, which 1 am now writing (except a Glohe writer) will bear witness that they are at least plain — are neither obscure nor unintelligible — whether forcible or not ; and I believe I have expressed myself quite as plainly in my book on Christian Morals as I have in these papers. "But 71 that would be an extraordinary book somo of wliose Bcntcnces could not be improved ; I daresay I could improve some of the sentenecs in my own book ; but that I have expressed myself plainhj none but a partizan could deny. The " Director's" objection to any book on Religious Instruction. 12. Your third objection is 5if!;ainst any book of religious instruction boinj^ recommended for use in the i)ubli(; schools. To this objection I reply, firstly, that the want of such a l)ook has been not oidy felt, but expressed, from dift'ercnt (piarters. The CatKidhm. Baptist has said of my own book, " Tiiere can be no doubt that it will supply a want lohlcJi has Ioikj filnee heenfelt in our common school system^ (January, 11, 1872.) Remarks to the sjime effect were made by tlie Church Herald and Christian Guardian. J)iit, secondly, the Irish National Board have not only books on this suljject, in their authorized list of school text books, but the Council of Public Instruction has long authorized three of them ; each of which contains more reading than any one book of mine. Thirdly, in the Toronto University College, not only is Paley's Evidences of Christianity an authorized text book, but also Dr. Wayiand's Moral Science, of the most essential parts of which my books are an epitome The " Christian Morals " Book gives, briefly, what other approved books contain. 13. A fourth objection is that I have given a summary of the Evidences of Christianity, in respect especially to the inspiration of the Scriptures, miracles, and mysteries. In reply, I observe, first, that if young men, before they finish their collegiate education, should be fortified on this ground, it is equally necessary that those youths who finish their edu- cation in the public schools should not be left unarmed on this point. Secondly, pupils in the public schools of the fourth axi^ffth years are quite as capable of understanding the few pages in which I have condensed and simplified the answers to the common infidel objections, as are young men at college to master the large text books prescribed on the subject. Thirdly, the Irish National Board has provided a hook on the subject, to which I have devoted two lessons. On the list of text books authorized by the Irish National Board is one entitled, " Lessons on the Truth of Christianity, being an appendix to the Fourth Book of Lessons, for the use of 72 Schools.'''' This book contains 18 lessons on the subject to wliich I devote two lessons ; enters far more larfurcs,'' '- Vleio of the Holy Scrijdtirex^"' " Of the laanncr in which we learn our Duties from the llohj Scriptures.'''' Let it he remembered that Dr. Wayland''s JNtoral Science is an authorized text book in our Provincial llnivcrsity, and that Dr. Wayhind, (late President of the Ih'own University) was a distinguished Baptist minister. Dr. Wayland on the " Positive Institutions" of Christianity. 15. A sixth objection is, thut I have not confined myself to those '• laws wliich regulate our natural obligations ;" that I have taught the ''positive institutions''' of Christianity, such as " rei)eiitance, faith, reading the scriptures, personal devo- tion, family worshij), attendance at public worship ;" and this objection, as well as the preceding one, comes under your endorsement, from ii man professing to be a Baptist minister. But Dr. Wayland, not only in his Moral Science above referred to, used in colleges, but in his own abridgment and simplifica- tion of it " for the use of schools," has chapters on " The Nature and Defects of Natural lieligion,''' " The Holy Scrip- ttires!;'' " Our Obligation to Love God^'' (teaching redemption, repentance, faith, conversion) " The Natwe of Prayer^'' '' The Duty of Prayer:;' " The UtiUty of Prayer;' " The institution of the Sabbath;' " The manner in which the Sab- 73 hath is to he observed.'''' In the manner of keeping tlic Sab- bath, Dr. "Way land specifica not only worship, but " reading the Scriptures, meditation, and i)rivato prayer," and pjoea so far as to say " one of the iirst indications that a young person is becoming vicious, is his disrespect of the Sabbatli and his neglect of religious worshij). Tlie youthful Sahbath-brciiker rarely fails to become a profligate and abandoned inan." Had those words proceeded from my pen, instead of that of the illustrious American Baptist minister, they would have shaken terribly the nerves of the ])rofessed Canadian Baptist minister, who is so horrified at the idea of a book on Christian morals teaching a word of the positive institutions and duties of Christianity, and would, of course, have roused the Glohc camp to arms. Nay, the same person, ]H'ofessing to be a Jjup- tist minister, (juotes '* Dr. Ryerson^s delinition of Christian Morals " thus : " What arc Christian morals 'i Christian morals are those ])rinciplea and duties which Christianity teaches." The writer then says, " This l)Ook, then, not only teaches what Baptists and others do not believe, but the M'riter has gone out of his way to make it so." I do not believe this writer represents the Baptists ; I am persuaded they believe in the ])rinciples and duties which Christianity tenches, whether mv book is altojretJier correct in their view or not. 10. my l.)ook is altogetJier correct in their The "Sectarian" cry Shadowless. Another charge is, that my book is sectarian- a charge To this recently made by the Canadian Baptist newspaper charge I have to return a threefold answer. First, It is at variance with the habits of my life. During my nine years' editorship of the Christian Guardian^ between 1829 and 1810, I never wrote or published a paragraph which gave oiience to either Baptists or Presbyterians, among whom were many sub- scribers to the paper at that time ; nor since has a word fallen from my lips or pen that could be so construed : and during the last live years I have, by request, occupied Ba])tist jnilpits more frequently than those of any religious persuasion, except those of my own persuasion. Secondly, My book was recom- mended by two clergymen of the Church (jf England, two clergymen of the Presbyterian Church of Canada, and a distin- guished layman of the Baptist Church, who had consented, at my solicitation, to have his name submitted by me to the Government to fill a vacancy in the Council ; not one of whom would for a moment have consented to anything that could be fairly construed as less acceptable to the Baptists than to the T4 members of any other Protestant Churcli, and each of whom was fully conipLtcnt to perceive and jndjjjc wlicther the book contained anythinf; oi)jcctional)lo in that respect. Eulogy of the ''Canadian Baptist" before the "Globe's" plans were developed. Thirdly, The editor of tiie Canadian Baptist liimself gave implicit testimoDy, on the 1 1th January, 1872, to the unobjec- tionable character of the book, in the following words: "The object of this little treatise is to supply for our Public Schools a text-book containing the elements of moral and Christian truth. We have perused it with a good degree of interest and pleasure, and regard it as, on the whole, a safe and useful hand-book of religious instruction. There can be no doubt that it will supply a want that has long been felt in our Common School system. We rejoice that the venerable author is spared to bring forth fruit like this in a green old age; and wo have good hope for the future of our country, if the minds of the rising generation are imbued with the important truths contained in this valuable little work, which gives evidence of wide research, vigorous thought, and judicious arrangement." Somersault. These words speak for themselves: the more carefully they are analyzed, and each of them weighed, the less will they admit of evasions or qualifications. On the 22nd January tho concocted plans of the Globe director were developed in tho onward shout of " Down with Dr. Ryerson and his books ; " and on the 8th February the editor of the Canadian Baptist joined in the hue-and-cry, having suddenly discovered, with the aid of new glasses, that the book which he " rejoiced to see," on the ilth January, as adapted to " supply a want which haa long been felt in our Common School system," had been " every word error," to the extent of a whole page, and " an outrageous assault upon our most cherished religious belief." But wherein the " error in every word," or even in one word, consists, much less the " outrageous assault," not a single word of explanation or reason has been given to this hour, any more than is reason given for the condemnation of a book in the Index Expurgato- rius. I do not think the intelligent Baptists will resign their own judgment and honest course of examining and thinking for themselves, or acknowledge the editor of the Canadia/ti Baptist as Pope, any more than they would me or any other man. I think they will find more reason for respecting the recommendation of so distinguished a layman as the Hon. Mr. McMaster, and the still stronger recommendation of the editor of the Canadian Baptist himself, on the 11th January, than they will the self-contradiction of the latter on the 8th February, 75 a few (Inys iiftor tlio too«in of war Imd been souiulod :i;_'ain9t mo by \\iv. Miiii!i4) three lines of Juvenal from the ori<2:inal, and that I had (pioted in English a pa88atures teach on this subject, and I (pioted Herodotus and Juvenal to show what law and custom re(|uircd amoniji; the ancient heathen on the 8ul)ject, (pioting the former in lMi;^lisli and the latter it» the orifi'lnal, adcbng a translation (whicli your critic has ciirefully omitted), followed by references to Enj^land a .d the United States. But my assailant does not state the occasion or subject of my references, much less does he commend the sentiments inculcated by either Scripture or heathen antifpiity, but abuses me in the true Glohe style for makini:, such references ; an objection whicli, if sound, would preclude me or any ordinary man from quoting the Scriptures, either in the original or English version, unless it could be demonstrated that we could read them in the original Hebrew and Greek. Your critic afHrms my total ignorance of the lines I have rpioted. With this I am not at present concerned — only remarking, that I not only read Greek, but taught Latin two years as acting master of a district (Norfolk county) grammar school before my assail- ant was born, unless he is more than fifty years of age. I will give from Herodotus and Juvenal the quotations which have called forth the abuse of your critic. In connection with the quotations of Lev. 19:32, Is. 3:5, Lam. 5:12, 1 quoted Herodotus as follows : " If a young person meets his senior, he instantly turns aside to make way for him ; and if an aged person enter an apartment, the youth always rise from their seats."--(Euterpe, c. 80.) Then Juvenal (Sat. 13, v. 54) I gave, first in the origi- nal, and then in English, from GifiFard, as follows : *' It was ft crime Worthy of death, such awe did years inspire, If man rose not up at reverend age, And youth to manhood." 7G The doctrine of such words beinpj little better than death upon the (rlohe writers, they arc, of course, death upon tlie m an tliat would dare write them. Union of Protestants desirable dxcopt to the " Globe" Ishmaeli as. 18. In oonc'lusion, 1 bog to j'.id a low words to what has been said as to my writlnjjj the 1 ttle hook on (Christian Morals. Besides dcsirini;; a small amount of relifjjious teacliinjj^, one hour (Monday moruinij;) in tlio week, for the senior pu})il8 of public schools, Avhere tlie trustees and ])arcnts n'i<;'ht apjtrovo, J did desire a nnited testimony on the part of I'rotcstantism, as there is a united testimony on the part o+' Roman Catholo- cisi'i, as to religious teachinii:; in the schools. One County Inspector writes, that the Roman Catholic ])riest, in a se])arate school which the lns]iector visited, said, " Your schools are atheistic. You don't acknowledge God.'" The same charge has been often r(']*cated hy the same iiuthority against the public schools. A\' Idle I have provided and contended for fuQ provision by which the lioman Catholics could teach their own children in their own books of religious instruction, T did desire that there might be a somewhat corresponding unity of testimony and teaching in religious ]U'inciples and duties of common agreement among Protestants, being first most strongly impressed with its feasibility by the remarks of the late excellent llev. A. Gale, who, as pri:icipal oi Knox's Academy (then kept m the building now part of the (Queen's Hotel), on closing a puldic exanunation of the ])upils, said that he was persuaded, from his own experience, that all need- ful religious teaclnng could be given to pupils at schools with- out infringing upon any demiminational ])eculiarity, I had long meditated, and at length sought to realize thif giai.l idea in our public schools. One discordant note luis interrupted the harmony. The responsibility of the failure, if 't io to be a failure, is iu)t with me. I hope the Protestant Christians of Canada will yet realize '', aiul that my country will yet enjoy the untold advantages of ;!., though 1 nuiy die without the sight. TouoNTo, April, 1872. • (cONCIiUDING PAPER.) TO THE MANAOINCI DIKEiJTOTl OF THE ''OLOBE" NEWSPAPER. REPLY TO HIS ASSAILANT'S ATTACKS ON "FIRST LESSONS IN CllllISTIAN MORALS." CONTKNT.S. S!ii;tmeino; taxed for the erection of school houses -Passing e\'i-' attacks not endorsed by a single elective muni- cipality in the Province -What is done by the agreelnentof all parties when attacks have been made on the regulations of acts of the Coni- viitke of Council of Julucation in ling'land and the National Board of luiiication in. Ireland -A. corresponding course suggested for Ontario before undoing any part of our School System, or' condemning its regulations and administrations. "The inun wlio possesses every other reriuisite, hut is overcome by tlio tornptivtion of interest, will bo ready to sell everything,' for the gratification o his avarice." — I'lciiirLKs in TriccvDinKS. "_ It is greatness of some alone that never grrws old ; nor is it wealth that delights in tiic latter stage of life, as some give out, so much as lionour."— Pehiclks. All eminoiit statesman lias said that " erro:- may travel far wliile trutli is puttiii^^ on its boots." You have employed months in spreading far and Avide the errors of your misrepre- sentations against 'the Council and Department of Public Instruction, and against myself individually. 1. have at leiigtii exposed your errors and cruel misstatements on all the points of your attacks, in every instance op])osing facts to your asser- tions, and contrasting your own conduct with that of the men whom you have so grossly aspersed. Of tl ■? result, I have no doubt \ for, as Junius has said, " A wiiccr who builds his 78 arguments on facts is not easily to bo confuted. Tie is not to be answered by c:eneral assertions and (general reproaches. He may want eloquence to amuse and persuade; but speaking the truth, Jie must always convince." Retrospect of the Managing Director's Fabrications, low Ridicule and vulgar Abuse. Before concluding this, to me, painful discussion, I must make retrospective remarks. 1. In the whole history of the coarsest and most depraved newspaper literature, I submit whether a more violetit and unscrupulous combination ever existed to destroy an indivi- dual than that which you liave created and directed to destroy me as a public man. The grossest fabrications, the lowest ridicule, the most vulgar abuse, have been employed by you without stint, and for months, in order to blacken my charac- ter and drive me in disgrace from public life, and that at the juncture of my reaching the divinely prescribed limits of the ordinary life of man, and after having been publicly serving my country during a period of forty-seven years. Your more than shameful conduct towp'c':" me is, I believe, without a precedent or a parallel. Summary to the "Globe's" opposition to the development of the School System. 2. Nor do I think the history of any country furnishes a parallel to your protracted and unscrupulous o})position to ray labours to establish and develope our school system during more than a quarter of a century. From the publication of my first report in 1840, for several years you sought to excite popular opposition by representing that I was saddling a Prussian despotism upon the country. Then, when I coun- selled the establishment of free schools, you sought to rouse the opposition of the country by representing me as endea- vouring to pauj)erise it by estf^l)lishing a system of imuper schools. Similar opposition met me from you in my every Bucceeding effort to provide public school libraries, prize books, and uniform text books for the schools. At one time you would exterminate by law all separate schools, and denounce me as a Jesuit in disguise because I insisted upon maintaining them upon the ground of public faith ; then you formed an agreement with gentlemen of Lower Canada, dur- ing a forty-eight hours' administration, not only to maintain the separate schools, but to protect the conventual institutions 79 of Lower Canada ; then again yon renewed your liostility to the Separate Scliool Law, assailed me when in 1858 I pre- pared a special report on tlic Separate School Provision of the law, and afterwards you oi)posed (in 1853) the passing of the present Separate Scliool Law, which has set the question at rest. Let your labours and mine during the last twenty-eight years be compared, and let the country decide on thein. I cannot better describe your course of proceedings in former years on this and kindred subjects than in words which I used in my twelfth letter addressed to you, dated February, 1850, at which time you were also seeking, but igiiominiuusly failed, to drive me from public life, and, urging other reasons, upon the ground that I was in my ""dotage." My words to you then were as follows — and the latter part of them are equally applicable to your recent proceedings now: — Hon. George Brown's Portrait of 1859 still Life-liko, " Assailin|» the civil and relij^ious institutions of Lower Canada at one time, and guaranteeing them inviolate at another — at one time warring to the very death against the very principle of Separate Schools, at another time making an honourable com[)romise on theqiiestion of Separate Schools — now liiling the land with ' eternal hate to Rome,' then the ' political ally' of the ultras Romanist champion — then the eulogist of Gavazzi, now tii^ favourite of McGee — one week the favouring dictator of the judges, the recent week the violent traducer of their motives and character — one year holding the right of the Bible for all, and no education without the Bible, another year tre?tiiig the right of the Bible in the school as an absurdity, and the cry for it as a shame." Taxation of the Director's Bothwell property for Schools "a downright robbery." " Early last spring, when you complained to me of a tax which the trus- tees of a school section, including the village of Bothwell, had imposed upon you for the erection of a brick school house, which tax you denounced as a downright robbery, you may well recollect that your brother, in your pre- sence, threatened me that if 1 made a report on the separate school ques- tion, or interfered with it, " we will pitch into you." I replied that you might pitch into me as soon as you pleased ; that I had in successive reports, and otherwise, expressed my views on the subject, and [ would not now withhold any inforniation which I believed might be useful ; that my report on the separate school question was ready, ai:d woul-.i be delivered to the Provincial Secretary on the following Monday (it beinp; then Saturday) ; that if you desired to see it, you might do so before it was seen by the (jiovernment. You said you would come to the Education Office on Monday morning to see ; but you never came ; instead of which, in the course of a few days, you began to pitch into me, and you continued to do so until £ thought it was time to try and pitch you out of me. You have heaped upon me insult upon insult, and calumn)' upon calumny, iu hopes that you could do so with impunity, and that the restrainis of oftice and the iniirmities of age would i)revent any adequate defence on my part." *<. 80 Hon. George Brown the only Public Man (down to 1871) who dragged the School System into the Political arena. 3. How has what thus transpired in 1858 been reproduced in your conduct towards nie in 1872 'i Down to 1871, no pub- lic man of any party, but yourself, sought to bring tlie school system into the arena of party politics. A school bill was then before the Legislature for the tiiird session, and I felt that (as subsequent circumstances have shown) great interests were involved in the passing ot it, and that within the course I then pursued (in which, liowever, I wrote two sentences that I much regret) the passing of it could not be accomplished. The "Globe's" attacks on the School System not Endorsed by a single Municipality in Ontario. The passing of the bill was thus secured, giving the country free schools, an improved system of school instruction, pro- visions for and an impulse towards the im])rovement and sup- port of teachers, and of school accommodation, such as had not been witnessed any one year during more than twenty 3^ears. Thus, in the face of your opposition, and of all the opposition you could excite, the school system has become matured and advanced beyond all precedent, though you may still, as you did in 1858, consider it " downright robbery" to have your pro]iorty taxed for the erection of school houses, and cherish an undying grudge against me for getting a law passed for these purposes. But I feel that whatever may be the con- sequences to myself and mine, for the part I took in getting the School Bill of 1871 passed through the Legislature, 1 havo been enabled thereby to secure priceless benefits to the coun- try. At the late general elections, not a member was returned to oppose it, and in scarcely a riding was it even named, so general was the tacit approval of it by all classes of the com- munity, except the few who are opposed to to all rates for school purposes. And notwithstanding your misrepresenta- tions of the provisions of the law, and the regulations made by its antliority, but two annual school meetings, so far as I have heard, out of nearly five thousand, have expressed other than satistaction with them ; and not a single county, township, city, town, or village municipal council throughout the Pro- vince has endorsed your misrepresentations and attacks. What is done in England, under similar circumstances, is fitting for Ontario to do. 4. In England, the whole system of common school educa- tion has been under the non-political management of a Com- 81 mittec of Council of Education during thirty years, until the passing of the recent English School Act of 1870. In Ireland, the whole system, of education, with all its regulations, has been, during the past forty years, under the sole direction of the Kational Board of Education in Dublin. The system of education both in England and Ireland, and the ])roccedings of the Committee of Council of Education, have been assailed and opposed in newspapers, pamphlets, books, and even by associations; but no Parliamant or Government in England ever allowed one of the regulations or acts of either tlic Com- mittee of Council of Education in England, or of the National Board of Education in Ireland, to be interfered with, without a previous and thorough investigation, wlierc all parties (iould be heard, cither oy a Parliamentary Committee or by Royal Commission, consisting of the most distinguished men in the United Kingdom, without respect to political party. It is to be hoped that the representatives of the people of this Province will, in like manner, have an opportunity to investigate into and form and pronounce their judgment upon our own system of public education, and the regulations by which it has been developed, before any of its bulwarks be taken down, or before any wlieel in its machinery be removed. I think this mode is due, not only to the example of all parties and governments in England, but to the people of this Province, who liave so nobly maintained and promoted our School system — is due to the Council of Public Instru(.'tion, who have gratuitously framed its regulations, managed its training schools, provided for its libraries and collections, and watclied over its progress during a period of twenty years, to say nothing of the claims which 1 may have to the verdict of the representatives of my country upon my almost life-work in its service, before being condeuuied and degraded, at the age of throe score years, as demanded by the Managing Director of the Globe. Toronto, April 10, 1872. E. KYERSON ADDENDA TO THESE PAPEES. A FEW "GLOBE" FACTS TESTED. CONTENTS. Alleged "fact' No./: " About sixty teachers" present at H astir gs Con- vention-Vote ai;ainst '■'■ First Lessons i)i Agriculture''' '^carried unani- mously' — Correction by the County Inspector: '■'•Not one Common School teacher voted for the motion/" — Alleged '■'fact" No. 2: Agri- culture " vithdraivn from sale." First correction from the publishers: " We never thoi/ght of such a course." Second correction in the " Globe's" '"'•helpless disgust" that 2000 copies of the ^^ withdrawn" book had been sold-^ Alleged '•fact" No.j: "Perfectly courteous language" of publishers of the " Canadian Monthly '' Correction: Quotation of the '■'■Perfectly courteous language" itself; statements and objections in the '■'•Perfectly courteous language" answered- First objection — First and second Proofs of the misstatements contained in ii — Second objection — First, seco)id and third Proofs of the misstatements contained in it Ameri- can reasons for preferring our Depository system to leaving the inatter in the hands of "the Trade' — Cautions and warnings of American Fducationists — General reply., giving seventeen reasons and illustra- tions—Routine in the Department in regard to the Depository. Before and during tlie passage of these " Papers " tlirough the press, the Managing Director of the Olohe and his assistants have indulged in their usual amount of vituperation and invec- tive. Tliey rarely came down to the region of "facts;" but when they did venture there, their vehemence of accusation was so great that their so-called "facts" were either so dis- torted or mythical, that it was difficult to recognize any resem- blance to truth in them at all. To attempt to set the Managing Director right, even in a tithe of his misstatements and disin- genuous representations of the facts alleged, would be (as the public well know) a hopeless and useless task. As to doing so in his own paper, his Cerberus watchfulness to prevent it renders that an impossibility. AVe must, therefore, be content, in this supplementary paper, with exposing a few of the Globe's most reckless assertions of "facts," so called : ex uno disce omnes. 83 it "Fact" No. 1. "About Sixty Teachers" -"Carried unanimously." In the Olobe of the iitJth March, the following paragraph appeared : "Tho South Hastings Teachers' Association held its quarterly meeting a few (lays since, which wan attended by about sixty teachers. Mr. Johnston, Inspector of Schools, occupied the chair. Among other matters considered was that of 'TnE Globe's criti(iue upon Dr. Ryerson's Text-book of Agri- cultural Chemislry.' This was introduced by Pruk'.^sor Bell, in a speech reported at considerable length in the local press. After a full dincussion of the matter, the following resolution was introduced: " Professor McGann moved, seconded by Professor Hell,'' *' 'That Dr. Kyerson's 'little book' on the Science of Agriculture is not suitable for use in the public schools of Ontario. Carried unanimously.^ " COUUKCTION. In the Belleville Intelligence?', of tlie 3rcl May, there is a report of the remilar monthly uiectino; of the {South Hastings Teachers" Association, of the 2()th A])ril — the first held since the publication of the above paragra[)h in the (ilohe. From that report we make the following extracts: "'J'he Inspector slated that he was very sorry the Convention took the step it did, at its last meeting, in regard to Dr. Ryer.son's work on Agricul- tural Chemistry. lie si.id that the reports of the Convention were eagerly read, and that it had aroused a feeling against the book that it. did not deserve. lie felt the more sor -y, because at the lime the motion was voted upon, not one Common School teacher voted for it. Had the motion been the expres- sion of the Teachers themselves, he would not have said anything against it. He said, the subject can be taught, and is being taught in many ot our schools, and succcssfnlly too. He instanced Mr. McLachian's school at Caniflon, and Mr. Sprague's school at ^mithvilie ; also Mr. ^•(juiers' school, 2nd concession, Sidney. He believed the book to be a good one ; and what- ever feeling there was against teaching it, came from a dislike of the subject, and not the book. He thought the only trouble was, thnt scholars were not up in their other studies, as a general thing, far enough to commence the study of agricultural chemistry. He wished it distinctly understood that no matter what was said, the subject had to be taught in all ttie schools as soon as they commence the 4th book. "Professor Macoun said, that initnediately after the last Convention, he examined the work, and commenced to leach it in his school. He con-idered it a good work, and he often since wondered how the Doc'or had crowded so much into so small a space. In answer to a question as to how he would teach it, he said that he would endeavour to bring it down to the capacity of children, and that no true teacher would attempt to teach such a work any other way. " Professor Bell thought the 'oook too highly concentrated to he taught verbatim to a scholar. * It is proper to state, an an explanation t)f this Gloht zeal against Dr. Uyersdn, that ProfoBSor Bell was one who had been utubU^ to obtain fium the Chief Buperiiitviident a ecitidcato cf qualidcatiou for tlie office of limpfctor of Public Scliouls in belleville. Professor McGiinn too liHfl for Boniutitiic felt very aorc because Dr. Kyersoii could iiot recommend him for the position of Principal of a Deaf and Dumb Institution, //tiio ilkc Uuryriia:. 6 84 "After some further discussion, the foUowinj; motion was put: " Moved by J. Sqiiiers, seconded by S. Pashlcy, That it is t? -! opinion of tho Teiichers of this Association, that Agricultural Chemistry should he taught in our schools to pupils who are sufficiently advanced, and we think Di. Hyerson's book a suitable text-'ook; and we hoar with sincere regret, that the erroneous impression has gone abroad, that this Association, at its last meeting, condemned tho work entitled "First Lessons in Agriculture, by Dr. Ryerson.' Carried iinnnimouHly. "The session was then brought to a close. The present meeting was a very successful one, and of deep practical value to the Teachers; and we cannot too highly' commend tho action taken by the Convention v/ith regard to Dr. Hyerson's book. And it should be distinct!}' borne in mind by both teachers and parents, that, no matter what may be said, or what action may be taken, tho subject must be taught in our schools." "Fact" No. 2. " Withdrawn from Sale." In ail editorial of tho Glohe, wliicli a])pGared on tho 20th February, the writer (after qnotiiiiij, witli evidently liearty approval, an editorial fn^n tho Canadian Baptht on the " First Lessons in Christian Morals") states that it " is a tolerably Bweepiniij answer, in the name of 50,000 citizens, to Dr. Hyerson's conteinptlions reply to our* criticism on liis 'First Lessons in Aajricuiture,'" &(;. Then follows a sentence which contains a notable specimen of " bad j^rammar." From the context above quoted, however, and by supplying the omitted nominative, we can as clearly understand its meaning as we note its animus. The infallible grammatical writer in the Globe (the small capitals are liis own) says : — " What has since appeared on the same subject proves with how great moderation our critical judgment was expressed , and after all the Doctor's bluster, his disgraceful tissue of bad f-pelling, had grammur, and nonsensi- cal absurdities in every department of science wliich he touched upon, has been withdrawn kkom sale. Tbat book, he told u.s," &c. What is alleijed to have been " withdrav/n from sale " is obvious enough from the context, (although the nominative m the hitter part of the sentence is omitted by the grammatical Globe writer). The myth about the withdrawal *' from sale" will be exposed trom a two-fold source: — the authority of the publishers and the admissions of the Globe itself. Exposure No. 1. — By the Publisheks. In reply to an inquiry about the alleged withdrawal of the "Agriculture" "from sale," the publishers wrote as follows: — ■' This " swtH'piiig answer" funii.slied l)y tlin CauMliaii Uaptint, in defeniu' of " our (Giofte'j) pritini.sin," iiiiJ licro arknowliMlgcd by tUi; " Maiiiigin'^ Director," .HUifli'iently explain* tlie oaase anil niiilivu oftlie rumarkable soiueraaultwhicli the Caaarfiu/i i?aptis( made outheSth February. The coLncidcuce is striking. 85 *' The Olohe lia . . . - be,^ and no ilouht is, so, according to the standard ot a j<>nrnal whose chief "policy" has ever been "slander;" but courtesy must be of a very low type indeed when its " language " is that of insinuation and insult, like the following : — "Moreover, aid [to Mechanics' Institutes] in this direct manner * * * will manifestly bo more sensible than the granl.s for such investments as * Even this " helpless" cry from the Glohe Direotnr for "somitthing nioni" being doiio than t,e w;n floitis aj^aitist tho aiitiior dI the. honk, r.uuld not h.ave beuii niaUe without tlio adilltiimal lAi.'fStiitiMnctit btiiig niailc, th.jl, thi" " Agriculture" was " iialuied otf ui)Oii the public; by order of the l.'oiuu^il ol rublif. lubtruetiou." Mie ^'■perfectly conrto(»ns language" used by the "editors" l)Iislu!rs only, we believe), of the Canadian Montlihj may 86 the intdlliffenee (.') of the Education Ooparttnent book shop make, and insist u[)')t» runii.^liiti'^ nolena nolcn.i, to tliu school boanls of thr I'rovitico ! Ileuvuii free llic coiiiitry fioin the conliiiuiinco of this eeil and tliis libel on intolllj^eiit, mndorn luid li'gilitnato Ixiok-sijliing ! " " We [jri'smnc the Kdiicational authorities would stand nprhast at the idea of a hooksi'lliT, say, of iMtolli;j;eiii'c and (•apa(Mty, hcini^ apponitod a CDMcai^oo of the prdlussional gentleineii on the H')ard ; l)Ut it occuis to us that the appoiutriient of one or more mornl)ei's of the l/ook trade, of business capa- city. iH.HiiUercHlcil m."r('etitirUjj, and of liberal views, would not be auiiss. Tljou;.;!! perhapi'. ignorant of school economy, and a heathen in the ways of circtiml'X'utioii and red tape, * * f- his prvseitce would be likeJij to (•heck' mate tin;/ dhmrpthn of * cusudl adiuiiitdf/cn,^ and any tendency to tlio formation of liteiary and educational rings. Accustom yourselves, my masters, to this thought, and let your minds linger on the probabilities of tliis sugge>lion being acted upon." Even two weeks Loforc. tlio (/lobe editorial of the ir)th April was published, in which he speaks of the "perfectly eoiirttioiis lanirtia^o" of the ''editors of the Canadian J/onf/i/i/" to the Chief !Sii])eriiitendctit and the Kdiicatinii l)ei);irt!iieiit, the followiiiir aiMitioiial s|)eeiineii of further " jierfectly cotirteoiis laiiii:"'',U'<^''" <->f the (f/olfe type was appended to the Canadian Mont/ihj magazine : "In reganl to the abuse and injustice of the riovornmcnt l>ook-shop, and the follies and expense of its management, criticism and invective iiave, hitherto, been levelled at them in vain. For around this monopoly, .so vicious in principle and so inilefensiblo in practice, its conductors seem always to have been able to throw the gloss of plausibilitj^ and llic fiction of the public good. Jlence its management lia.s, for many years, become renpoHxible to no one; its rules and regulations have been freed from all higher interference, and its accotiiits and, balance n/ieets held sacred from the rnhjarity of an audit. * * * Its repression and abolition have been loudly called (or; and a.*-', unquestionably, not a solid argument can be advanced in these late years for the continuance of this (Government book depository, except the pevHonal benefit h/',(m tho 18th Aj.ril, lS(i«); iuui, 2ii^ Photographic Sciences Corporation ^^ iV #> V ^ ^9) V .#> '''■■ # ^ 6^ % V ^^^ >3 v/"=';t main street webster, ny. 14s80 (716) 872-4503 <6 %^ <-^ €P^ -^0 W- IP. (/j \^' y^ 88 Third Proof. — In the Puhlic Accounts of lS71ypage 2u, will be found the following statement: RECEU'Tt BT TlIK PkOVINCIAI. TkEASURER, PROM EuCCATION DEPARTMENT, FOR THE YEAH ENDING 31ST DkCEMBER, 1871. Sehvicb. Norninl and Model Schools . . PARTIOUlARg. j1 \ ! Fees, I'tipib .... . \ jlntfrost on ^l.lOu Don.inion Stock I to 3i,ith Sept., 1 871 Depository jSnln of >[iips, Ajipnratiia, Prizes and Libraries iiuriii<('riptioiis and advertisements. . , Museum i.Salc of i'iii)tiiL;rapiis Conlini^encies Kd. O.|po.stay;o Slaini)s. . . . Total . I Ctfl' 5,429 00 180 66 7 94 72 39 35,450 65 A. Mackenzie, Treasurer. W. R. IIakkis, Aconiiont. Trca.miry Departiiieid, Ontario, Toronto, Dec-eiuber IJOth, 1871. Second Objection — 77u(f t/ie Depositor?/ is a cost to the Province. On tliis point, avo \\\\\ ([uote the two autliorities just cited) viz., the ('hief ISuperiiitemleiit of Education, and the Coniniittce of the House of Abseinhlj, merely jrcnnising thiit tlie entire cost of salaries, trci:j,ht, plii])])ino: cx])eiises, (hity. insurance, fuel, printin*;- and other cuntinjiciicics in the cost of inaniii;einent, is fully defrayed out of the ^inall protits of the Depoi^itory itself, and not by the J'rovinee. First Proof. — The ('hief Superintendent, in the letter to the "Globe'' quoted above, says: "Mr. P)ro\vii lias more than onrc learned hy exatnin.ition, in his capacity as a chairman of parliatncnt.niy conHiiiliecs on the subject, * * * that the exjiense of tlie Depository and its nianagcnient is included in the cost of articles furnished by it for the public schools; that the Depository causes not a larlhing's expense to llie (lovernntent in any wa}' whatever; and that every penny of the 'didVrcnce' arisin;^ linm the cost and sale of any book or maps goes into the ' public chest,' to the crc'lt of the Province.'' Second Proof. — The Coininittoe of the IIouso of Assembly demonstrate the fact itself in the followiufjj statement: " In connection with this subject, your Comtnittce submit the following statement, showing the cost of bookrf, maps, &c,, and the amount received 99 ' for the sarno from 1850 to 1867, inclusive; also the amount received from the Government on account (hereof, via. ; The total amount paid for books, maps, &c., imported from 1850 to 1H«7, was 1271,800 52 Purchase s m Montreal ;^ ()«jp, gg Articles manufactured or purchasea in Toronto 93,' 14(5 88 V • u, 1. . . |30y,OO6 46 hreight, agency, packing, printing, insurance, salaries and expenses 73 (.,00 jg $442,000 05 Value of Books dispatched, Libraries, including the 100 per cent, granted $p:} oqg 07 Maps, prizes, .*^c 2:3,'lMl3 78 Do. sold, without grant (text books), &c 82, 182 59 $411»,47.5 34 Grants rec'd from Government on this account,ffrom 1850-07. $253,518 48 Less remitted Keceiver-General .' r)(i'378 09 $187,139 79 If we deduct half of the above amounts $123,298 97 213,'y93 78 337,292 75 S^hich is $108,040 37 We get tlic amount of goods dispatched over and above what was paid for. Taking then (he grants $187 139 79 And deducting the above proportion of goods 108^040 37 Leaves a balance of $18 493 42 Which amount is fully covered by the stock on lund. The above is exclusive of the transactions of 1808." Ameri can Reasons for preferring our Depository System to leaving the matter in the hands of "the Trade." Previoiihly to quotirii!; tlie reusoris jiml warnings of the Ameri- can e(liicatio?iists, we desire to refer hrieHj to an incident of the Perth library case (which case gave rise to recent discu.ssions on this subject). The JJoard of I'rustees at Peith liad ordered several of Lever's novels, which the Coiinci! of Public Instruc- tion and the Department had refused to sanction fur introduc- tion into our schools. The Perth Courier and Toronto Globe* ♦ It is worthy of note tiiat the eJitors of ivm of the paj era which attai kod the Depository are ftoo/wHcrs. wlule a tliinl i.s olosely allied to a proniiiieiit publisher. The other two coulii not, 0/ oonrsc take swlcs against those who urtp; ronstiiutly aeudiiig nUvertiseinents to their imper, and pooks for review. 90 both assailed the Department for refusing to send the books asked for by the Perth Trustees, on the ground that tliey were quite as competent as the Department to decide what kind of books sliould be placed in the school library. To this, Dr. ]iyersun rej)liod as follows : " Among the most serious charges made by one of the principal complain- ing parties is this: that the Department has refused to supply them with Lever's novels, including stories of such rollicking, drunken heroes as * Harry Lorrequer,' 'Charles O'Malley,' 'Jack Hinton,' &c. The Council of Public Instruction, believing that there arc too n)!iriy of such characters in the country already, without increasing their numlx-r, refused to sanction the spending of public money to buy and circulate books to eulogize and applaud them, and to place such books in the hands of our youth." As to the evils, even in oiu own Province, of placing works of a doubtful kind in the hands of youth, we refer to the pain- ful cases on this subject mentioned in iha Journal of Kdueation for A])ril, ISOl, and the further illustrative papers on the sub- ject in the Journal for November, 1805, The Glohc of the 30th March says : "The complaining parties have dared to question the propriety of that index lihrorum prohihilornm which this Canadian Pope has instituted. Some rebellious spirit has asked for Lever's novels, and the soul of Dr. Ryerson revolts at the idea of supplying stories of such 'rollicking, drunken heroes' as Harry Lorrequer, Charles O'Malley and Jack Hinton. * * * The absurdity of this literary dictatorship is too gross to escape ridicule, and the sooner it is done away with tlie better," And now what is this " literary dictatorship," thus denonnced by the Globe f Why, it is that "The Council of Public In- struction regards it as imperative that no work of a licentious, vicious or immoral tendency, and no works liostile to the Christian religion, should be admitted into the libraries.'- Cautions and Warnings of American Educationists. We have already cited the opinion of two prominent Ameri- can authorities in favour of the Depository system adopted in this Province, in the, Jour 7ial of Education for June, J 867, will be found regulations similar in effect to those in this Pro- vince, which have been adopted in Michigan, Maryland, Nova Scotia and Australia. We will now quote the following extracts from the Eeport of the Snperintendent of Public Instruction for the State of Michigan on this subject. lie says (after speaking of some other difficulties in carrying out their library system) : "/??/< a worse evil grew np in the systematic, plans of peddlers to palm upon the libraries amass of cheap, trashy, and often pernicious literature. One or two wealthy booksellers kept their peddling agents traversing th« 'Jl fUate, and many are the trirln by inhich they boasted that they cajoled the Impeetorx. A few libraries were wi-ll selected and wt-ll kept ; but so value- less for the public Rood, and cspi'oially for the odm^ation of the young, had the great majority become, that all intelligent friends of education desired a change." Sec an illustration of tlic existence of tliis peminioiis system of peddling- in our Province, given in tlu; (riohes Book Trade Review for 1802, as follows: These "wealthy'' and other "booksellers"' here mentioned were determined, however, not to permit their " trade '" to be interfered with by State authority, and tlieir next course of action in the interests of "the trade" may be l)est gathered from the following notice, which tiie State Superintendent found it necessary to issue to the Schools : " Caution. — School Officers are especially cautioned against travelling book peddlers, who, pretending to bo agents of the .State contractors, or asserting that they will sell cheaper than the contract prices, paltn on to the libraries inferior and cheap editions of the wc)rk selected, or of worthless books in their places, and in common and frail bindings. Every book on this list is contracted for at considerably less than the publisher's retail price for the same in common binding, while ihc bindin<^ provided for by the contract is a much more expensive, as well as durable binding, than ordinary cloth or even sheep binding. " No book peddler can furnish these books in equally good editions, and in equal binding, for the prices given in this circular. " It is hoped that this simple and easy method of supplying the libraries with books will commend itself to the good sense of tlie people, and will induce a more liberal support of these valuable agencies of popular educa- tion. It would be difHcult to devise a mor> simple plan. It is like bringing a large book store home to ea(;h district. A large list of good books — more than twice as large as any book store in the State can show — has been care- fully selected, with the aid of some of the best men in the State. » + ■)(•*** + *♦ *' All orders for books and stationery, must be sent to the State Superin- tendent through the Secretary of the Board of School Commissioners, the Secretary keeping an account of the same," &c. C. S. Stebbins, Esq., in his " Educational Needs of Michigan," published in 18G9, says: "The founders of our school system thought libraries indispcn.sable to furnish reading to the young. We do not need them now so much to fur- ni»h reading as to secure the proper kind of reading. This, our present law, would do but for one fatal defect — a defect as fatal as would bo the omission of the connecting rod in a locomotive. * * + And what kind of books were they ? Some good ones, doubtless; but generally it vvere better to sow oats in the dust that covered them than to give them to the young to read. Eoery year, soon after the taxes were collected, the State swarmed with peddlers with all the unsaleable books of Eastern houses — the aensational novels of all ages, tales of piracies, murders, and love intrigues — the yellow-covered literature of the world." 92 In tho State of Nnw York, tho library system has, nnderthe pernicious eftorts of itinerant vendors, a^ just ])ointc(l out, greatly declined. The New York 7'eachir tlius gives some ot the reasons for this decline : " Tho trustees rcftise to be troubled with the aire of tho library, thug consigninp; it to an unfavourable locatipn in the section, and often hide it in sonic dark corner of the garret, or stow it into some out-buildings where its only visitors arc rats, mice and spiders. They exercise a low and pernicious taste in the selection of books. l)avk and bloody tales of war and hlood- $hcd, the silly catch-penny puhlications of unprincipled puhlii^heTs, v.nd the dry, nnini>trHctite matter if sovu cheap old book, usurp the place of the instructive, the elevating, the refining, the progressive iasues of repu- table publishers. General Eeply. Without entering into detail, a general reply may be snm- inarizcd as follows : 1.- — City and Town Hoards of Trvsteea aufhorized to establish a Depo$i- tory for their Schools. That the law authorizes (and provides facilities for) each Board of School Trustees, in Cities, Towns, kc, to establish and maintain what is equiva- lent to a Depository, or School depot, for the supply of its schools with approved books, stationery, &c., of all kinds, and authorizes the charge of a fee for its maintenance. 2. — Educational JJepository, a City and Town one, on. a larye scale. That tho Depository connected w ith the F^dncation Department is nothing mcc than such a City or Town School depot on a large scale, and jnder Provincial control, out of which to supply all the Schools of the Province. 3. — What is ri*l)ari(ls of booksellers, br the books are all naiiied and known, and no depart vne from the list can take jdacc; but that with the larj!;e and constant inlliix of i.ovv books no such .supervision could take place over the supply by booksellers of prizes and lib ary books. 16. — Lfgislative aid to Depositor;/ develo]->» local cfTort. That, of the $30S,40^^ {^ranted by the r,epislature to the Depository since ISril, $t5:i,()S)2 have been returned to the Provincial Treasury, as tlie pro- ceeds and evidence of local effort to supply the schools with books, maps and apparatus. 17. — Depository ha? fully paid its own expenses. Thdt the Depository has fully paid its own way, and has not cost the Province one pciniy for its management for twenty years. Routine in the Department in rojrard to the Depository. From the Report of tlie Committee of tlic House of Assem- bly, Jiiiil from tlie Memorandum of the I)e|)\ity Superintendent laid before the House of Assembly in ISOO, M'itli the (^hief Superintendent's Kcturn on the subject, we select the follow inved l>y him before being sent (ilf by post. The scllin;j; prices of all library and prize booUs, and all other school recpiisites received from Kn;:^l uid or elsewhere, are, ur)der tiio general scale approved by the Chief Su|)erintendeiit. determined by the Deputy for the Clerk of Libraries, before their buiiii? i.iaiked and pot away in their pla;;es. The selection of books for local school libraries and | rizes, after revisal by the (Jlerk of liibraries, is examined and ;;|)proved by the I)e|nity Super- intendent before despatch. The object of this additional supervision is to see that the styl(^ char.tctei', and number of the books selected, are in accordance with the order and vvishc:; of the Municipal Council, or lli>;h, Public, or Separate School Trustees sending the remittance. This care is the more necessary in cases— now becoming more inimerou* every year — when parties leave the S' lection of library and prize books entirely to the I)e()artment. In suc'a cases, re<^ard is had to the condition of the school, the tiumber and ages of the scholars, the character of the neighb.nirhood, whether old (T new settlement, and the attainments of the pu|)iis, the naturo of the population, whelhtr Protestant or liMinan Catholic, or mi.xed nation- ality -whether Irish, Scotch, (ierman, &.<.., or any other |i'culiarity sug- gested by the parties sending the order, or incident to the case. Note.- Groat care is taken to prevent the occurrence of mistiikcH in the Oepository, mid hitlicrlo with very gratifying success. As a matter of mutine, eiidi clerk having' aiiytliiii',' to do with an order adixes his initials to it, indicaliiiK that [lart of it for which he is n'spoiisililo. Thus in ca.oe of cuini'laiiit, which rarely occurs, any ncKlect or oiiii.ssion is naillly tiai ud lii p years transactions, involvinj,' the sending out of from 8:i."),000 t^j |t(,i,0 worth of material to ..ic H.lmols, not mcjre than from six to eight such cases occur. Wlun they do, the case is fully inquired into, and every extilaiiation given. In most instances, it has been founil that the fault or oversight has been with the parties thcin.selves. f