Part 64 (1/2)

The circumstances under which this abortive School Bill, as it proved, of 1849, was passed, is thus described by Dr Ryerson in a letter written ten years afterwards (in 1859):--

Froislators appeared, led on by the _Globe_ newspaper It was represented that I had plotted a Prussian school despotis upon the country a systeuished, and Canadian youth would be educated as slaves Hon Malcole and less experience than he has noas astounded at these ”awful disclosures,” and was dazzled by the theories proposed to rid the country of the enslaving eleth appointed to office; and he thought I ought to be walked out of the office Messrs Baldwin and Hincks (as I have understood), thought I should be judged officially forworthy of evil treatht that, as I could not be turned out of office by direct disislation; and a School Bill was prepared for that purpose That Bill contained ood, but more bad provisions, and worse omissions, but of which only a man who had studied the question, or rather science, of school legislation could fully judge Mr Caet it through Parliament He executed his task with his characteristic adroitness and energy Mr Hincks never read the Bill, and had left for England before it passed Mr Baldwin, a ruins of a Parliaht froiven hilance at the synopsis of its provisions, that itlahile the passing of it would gratifythe Bill, I wrote down my objections to it, and laid them before the Government, and proceeded to Montreal to press them in person I left Montreal in April, 1849, with the expectation that the Bill would be dropped, or essentially mended Neither was done; the Bill was passed in the ordinarythe last few hours of the Session; and within three hours of learning that the Bill was law, I informed Mr Baldwin that my office was at his disposal, for I never would administer that law

As to the effect of Mr Cameron's Bill on Dr Ryerson's future, he said:--The new Bill on its co into operation, leaves me but one course to pursue The character and tendency of the Bill clearly is to compel me to relinquish office, or virtually abandon principles and provisions [in regard to the Bible in the Schools] which I have advocated as of great and vital importance, and becoradation--thus justly exposing myself to the suspicion and imputation of mean and mercenary conduct I can readily retire from office, and do much more if necessary, for the maintenance of what I believe to be vital to the moral and educational interests of ly be a party to ret that an unprecedented ratify the feelings of personal envy and hostility I regard it as a virtual vindication of ations, that it was felt I could not be reached by the usual straightforward adlish House of Lords, the Marquis of Lansdowne stated, that Mr Lafontaine had returned to Canada, and boldly challenged inquiry into any of the allegations against him in reference to past years I have repeatedly done the saranted or instituted Yet I am not only pursued by the base calu to support and enjoy the confidence of the Governislation is resorted to, and new provisions introduced at the last hour of the Session, to deal out uponmeditated blows of unscrupulous envy and aniret that the blohich will fall coht, and more serious consequences, upon the youth of the land, and its future , as I hope I do, upon Christian and public grounds, I should not feelfrom a work in consequence of personal discourtesy and ill-treatment, or a reduction of means of support and usefulness But when I see the fruits of four years' anxious labours, in a single blast scattered to the winds, and have no satisfactory ground of hope that such will not be the fate of another four years' labour; when I see the foundations of great principles, which, after extensive enquiry and long deliberation, I have endeavoured to lay, torn up and thrown aside as worthless rubbish; when I see e of the application of the principle of responsible government as applied to every other head of a Departent of a Board which I have originated, and the members of which I have had the honour to recommend for appointment; when I see myself officially severed from a Normal School Institution which I have devised, and every feature and detail of which are universally commended, even to the individual capacities of the ht out and recommended; when I see myself placed in a position, to an entirely novel systee, in which I can either burrow in inactivity or labour with little hope of success; when I find myself placed in such circumstances, I cannot hesitate as to the course of duty, as well as the obligations of honour and self-respect I think it is ht, and only frank and respectful, on the earliest occasion to state, in respect to my own humble labours, whether I can serve on terms and principles and conditions so different from those under which I have, up to the present tiret and emotion, contemplate the loss of so much time and labour, and find myself impelled to abandon a work on which I had set my heart, and to qualify myself for which I have devoted four of thenow fulfilled , my views on this important and extensive subject--I leave the whole question in your hands

The result of this letter was, the suspension and abandon of the Act of 1850

Now Mr Caht naturally feel deeply at the repeal of his own Act without a trial; but after he had tih knowledge of the nature and working of the syste to establish, I believe no man in Canada more sincerely rejoiced than Mr Cameron at the repeal of the Act of 1849, and no man has more cordially supported the present system, or more frankly and earnestly commended the course I have pursued[135]

The letter to Mr Baldritten on the 14th July, 1849 Speaking of it, Dr Ryerson said:--

In the former part of that letter I stated the circumstances under which the Act of 1849 had passed, and the fact that ainst it had not been even read I then stated what I considered insuperable objections to it I will quote part ofto the exclusion ofto the exclusion froious instruction They are as follows:--

Another feature of the new Bill is that which precludes Ministers of Religion, Magistrates, and Councillors, fro as school visitors, a provision of the present Act to which I have heard no objection fronal benefits to the schools have already resulted Not only is this provision retained in the School Act for Lower Canada, but Clergyymen alone--are there authorized to select all the school books relating to ”religion and morals” for the children of their respective persuasions But in Upper Canada, where the great y are Protestant, the provision of the present Act authorizing Clergymen to act as School Visitors (and that without any power to interfere in school regulations or books) is repealed

Under the new Bill, the Ministers of religion cannot, therefore, visit the schools as a ht, or in their character as Ministers, but as private individuals, and by the permission of the teacher at his pleasure The repeal of the provision under which Clergyious persuasions have acted as visitors, is, of course, a virtual conde in that capacity When thus denuded by law of his official character in respect to the schools, of course no Clergyradation as to go into a school by suffrance in an unministerial character The character and tendency of such a change in connection with the Protestant religion of Upper Canada, in contrast with a directly opposite provision in connection with the Roion of Lower Canada,person

To the school-visiting feature of the present systereat i in behalf of the schools the influence and sy men of the country The success of it, thus far, has exceeded y alone during the last year being an average of y what may not be anticipated in future years, when inforeneral, and an interest in the schools enerally excited And who can estiiously, socially, educationally, and even politically, of Ministers of various religious persuasions ether at quarterly school exaround, and beco the education of the young

The last feature of the new Bill on which I will remark, is that which proscribes froical dog these words, the Bible has been ruled out of schools in the State of New York] I doubt whether this provision of the Act hars of members of the Government; but it is needless to enquire ere the intentions which dictated this extraordinary provision, since construction of an Act of Parliae of the Act itself, and not upon the intentions of its framers The effect of such a provision is to exclude every kind of book containing religious truth, even every version of the Holy Scriptures theical doctrine”

controverted by the Roical dogical doctrine” of miracles in Paley's Evidences of Christianity is ”controverted” by the disciples of Huical doctrines” in Paley's Moral Philosophy are also ”controverted;” and indeed there is not a single doctrine of Christianity which is not controverted by some party or other The whole series of Irish National Readers ical doctrines;” since, as the Commissioners state, these books are pervaded by the principles and spirit of Christianity, though free from any tincture of sectarianism

I think there is too little Christianity in our schools, instead of too much; and that the united efforts of all Christianwhat little there is

I have not assuht of the Governious books or religious instruction, but to recommend the local Trustees to do so, and to provide powers and facilities to enable them to do so within the wise restriction ihts and scruples of the Roman Catholic as well as those of the Protestant

By so towards the Roe the rights and feelings of Ro Protestants of the Text-book of their faith--the choicest patrimony bequeathed by their forefathers, and the noblest birthright of their children It affords me pleasure to record the fact--and the circumstance shows the care and fairness hich I have acted on this subject--that before adopting the Section in the printed Forulations on the ”Constitution and Governious Instruction,” I sub others, to the late la it, said, [he could not approve of it upon principle, but] he would not object to it, as Rohts and views, and as he did not wish to interfere with Protestants in the fullest exercise of their rights and views

It will be seen that New England or Irish National School advocates of a system of mixed schools did not ious instruction should be excluded from the schools, but that the peculiarities of sectarianisious instruction in the schools, and that the essential elements and truths and ht without a single bitter element of sectarianism The advocates of public schoolsthe connection between Christianity and education, but by denying the connection between sectarianis Christianity in the syste sectarianism from it The same, I think, is our safety and our duty

Dr Ryerson concludes this part of his letter with these emphatic words: Be assured that no system of popular education will flourish in a country which does violence to the religious sentis of the Churches of that country Be assured, that every such system will droop and wither which does not take root in the Christian and patriotic sympathies of the people--which does not coious persuasions, both ate of the Christianity of the country The cold calculations of unchristianized selfishness will never sustain a school system And if you will not embrace Christianity in your school system, you will soon find that Christian persuasions will soon co schools of their own; and I think they ought to do so, and I should feel that I was perfor them to do so But if you wish to secure the co-operation of the ious persuasions, leave out of your system the points wherein they differ, and boldly and avowedly provide facilities for the inculcation of what they hold in common and what they value most, and that is what the best interests of a country require

Speaking in a subsequent letter of another feature of this question of the Bible in schools, Dr Ryerson says: The principal opposition which, in 1846 and for several years afterwards, I encountered was that I did not make the use of the Bible coht of Protestants to use it in the school (not as an ordinary reading book, as it was not given to teach us how to read, but to teach us the way to Heaven), as a book of religious instruction, without the right or the power of coht has been maintained inviolate to the present time; facilities for the exercise of it have been provided, and recoiven, but no coht of coious exercises in each school have been left to the decision of the authorities of such school, and the religious instruction of each child has always been under the absolute authority of the parents or guardian of each child Nowthe Bible as a text-book of religious instruction for his child in school, but would even such parent ( to be deprived of that right?

To the objection that the Bible is ”often read in a for derived from it by the pupils,” Dr Ryerson replied: Is not the Bible often read in the family, and even in the Church, ”in a formal and perfunctory manner,” without any benefit to either reader or hearers: but should we, therefore, take away even ”the abstract right of reading the Bible” in the faainst the reading of the Bible in the schools because ”a ious instruction,” Dr Ryerson replied: The reading of the Bible and giving religious instruction fros The question is not the coious instruction, but the right of a Protestant to the reading of the Bible by his child in the school as a text-book of religious instruction That right I hold to be sacred and divine

To a rejoinder that ”the cry for the Bible in the schools is a shaious instruction, apart froht of having it there--its very presence there--is not ”a shan of the Crossis not a ”sham,” but a symbol precious to the hearts of hundreds of thousands of our brethren; the coat of arms which stands at the head of all royal patents, nor the sparkling crohich encircles the brow of royalty, is not ”a sham,”

but a symbol which speaks more than words to every British heart; the standard that waves at the head of the regi that floats at the shi+p's masthead is not ”a sham,” but a symbol that nerves the soldier and the sailor to duty and to victory So the Bible is not ”a shaht and liberty dear to the heart of every Protestant freeious liberty--a standard of truth and morals, the foundation of Protestant faith, and the rule of Protestant morals; and ”the cry” for the Bible in the schools is not a ”shaious instructor, whether he be the teacher or a visiting superintendent or clergyht of the Protestant child, and the inalienable right of the Protestant parent

No man attaches e, and fewand diffusion of every branch of it; yet, so far a the Bible, even in an intellectual point of view, that I hesitate not to say, in the language of the eloquent Melville, that--

Whilst every stripling is boasting that a great enlarge into all its dwellings a tide of general inforotten position, that in caring for , God cared for him as an intellectual, and that if the Bible were but read by our artizans and our peasantry, we should be surrounded by a far ent population, than will appear to this land, when the school-h it, in its length and its breadth