CHAPTER XXVIII.

OPERATIONS OF THE EDUCATIONAL DEPOSITORY, 1864.

It having been considered desirable that I should proceed to the United States to make purchases of Books for the Educational Depository, I did so in the Spring of 1864. While there I addressed the following Letter to Doctor Ryerson :

I remained in Boston until Monday morning last, when I went to Lancaster, Massachusetts, to visit the Girls' Reform, or Industrial, School there. In Boston, I visited all the best Schools, besides the University at Cambridge. I stopped at Hartford, on my way here, to see the Deaf and Dumb School, and at New Haven. to see Yale College. etcetera. I intend to do the same in New York before going on to Philadelphia. 1 think it best to see all of these Instituions that I can, and look at them in the light of our own experience. I hope to visit the Boys' Reformatory on Randall's Island, and the School for the Deaf and Dumb in New York.

I see that Mr. George Brown has given notice of a motion on the Establishment of a Deaf and Dumb School for Canada.

Mr. Philbrick, the City Superintendent for Boston, and Mr. George B. Emerson, of the same city, have been very attentive to me. Mr. Emerson enquired very kindly after you. Mr. Barnard of Hartford, and Mr. Randall of New York have also been very kind and attentive. Old Mr. Silliman, the noted Scientist of New Haven, also enquired

for you.

I have made some purchases of Books and Apparatus in Boston, as I shall do in New York and Philadelphia. I managed, in some instances, to get the Books at the old rates, and not at the new and greatly increased prices.

I have endeavoured, thus far, to see as much as possible, so as to be able to turn my knowledge to account. There is a great educational work being done in Boston and in New York; the Schools there, which I have seen, appear to me to be very superior. Mr. Philbrick has promised me some engravings of new School Houses. I will try and get some from Mr. Randall also.

NEW YORK, April 7th 1864.

J. GEORGE HODGINS.

CIRCULAR NOTICE TO SCHOOL TRUSTEES AND MUNICIPALITIES IN REGARD TO PUBLIC LIBRARIES.

As the reading season, in connection with our Free Public School Libraries is now at hand, I would call your attention to the abundant facilities which this Department possesses for the supply of Public School Libraries to the Schools and Municipalities in Upper Canada. The Schools having taught the Pupils to read, they will naturally seek to gratify the taste thus acquired. There is always so much pernicious literature in circulation that they may seek to gratify their taste in reading it unless you provide for them the good and wholesome literature in the shape of the Books supplied from the Depository in connection with this Department. To permit Pupils, whose desire for Books and reading has been fostered, to select such works as they see fit, is to leave them open to most dangerous influences; for often the reading of the bad and disreputable Books, affords their unsophisticated natures a species of unusual gratification. The taste thus vitiated grows by what it feeds upon; and the descent, it is well known, is easy from familiarity with the over-wrought pictures of imaginary crime to the actual perpetration of it. The case of young Harter at Brockville, as given in our Journal of Education for April, 1861, and the English cases mentioned in the current number of that Journal, afford a painful proof of this.

It is, therefore, a serious responsibility which rests upon Trustees to provide for this inevitable want in the School-room-a want that is inseparable from the very training which they are giving to the Pupils. To meet this pressing necessity every facility has been given to Trustees by the Education Department to furnish their Schools with suitable Library Books at the least possible cost to the neighbourhood. is gratifying to know that so many of the Trustees have cheerfully availed themselves of these facilities, but still there are yet many parts of the Country in which no free Public School Libraries have yet been established. From an interesting library map of Upper Canada, recently compiled in the Education Department, it is curious to see how whole districts of the newer parts of the Country have largely availed themselves of their Library privileges, while many of the older parts have literally done nothing at all. What may be the future fate of the children of the Schools thus deprived of the blessing and companionship of good Books during the long Winter Evenings, it is difficult to tell; but the risk in their case is more than should be incurred by intelligent parents, or School Trustees.

Already the Education Department has sent out to the School Municipalities and Mechanics' Institutes, 393,977 Volumes of Books, from 1853 up to the end of 1864, as will be seen from the following Table:

In addition to the Books supplied to the School and Municipal and Mechanics' Libraries, there were also 3,665 Volumes sent out to a number of Jails in the Province, as well as to two Asylums, as follows:

But as the net value of the Stock on hand amounts to $59,345.27, as above, the profit on sales for the year after paying all expenses,

was

Net value of Stock, as above

808 52

$59,345 27

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE "DISSENTIENT," OR SEPARATE, SCHOOL QUESTION IN UPPER AND LOWER CANADA, 1864.

1. LETTER FROM THE CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT OF EDUCATION IN LOWER CANADA TO DOCTOR RYERSON.

I suppose you have seen the articles in that partisan newspaper, the Montreal Witness, on the subject of Dissentient Schools in Lower Canada. I wish to know how the matter stands in Upper Canada, as to non-residents. 1st. Can a non-resident Roman Catholic pay his land School Tax to Separate Schools. 2nd. Can he be exempted altogether from taxation, if there are no Dissentient Schools in the Municipality where he is a Landholder.

I see nothing to that effect in the original School Laws of Upper Canada, nor in the last amendment to them; but, as they have been so frequently amended, I want to make it sure by referring to you.

We in Lower Canada are prepared to grant Dissentients anything, since we have the same interest. There is one third Catholic Dissenters, and two thirds Public School ratepayers, but the Catholics are poorer. But you may expect to see the same things asked for in Upper Canada.

MONTREAL, April 22nd, 1864.

PIERRE J. O. CHAUVEAU.

2. DOCTOR RYERSON'S REPLY TO THE FOREGOING LETTER.

1 had not for months read the Montreal Witness before receiving your Letter, mailed on the 22nd, but since then I have read the articles to which you refer.

In Upper Canada, two Roman Catholic Separate School Sections, or districts, can unite and form one united Section, or District, whether they are situated in the same Municipality, or not.

Also, a Roman Catholic who gives the legal notice that he is a Roman Catholic, and a Supporter of a Separate School, is exempted from the payment of all Public School Taxes, or Rates, provided he resides within three miles, (in a direct line,) of the School, of which he professes to be a Supporter, whether he resides within the Section, or District of such School, or not; but the property which he owns in either School Sections, or Districts is liable to Rates and Taxes for the Public Schools, whether there are Separate Schools in such Sections, or Districts, or not.

The following explanatory remarks will exhibit the nature of the School System of Upper Canada, in respect to different Religious Persuasions.

1. The Public School in each Section, District, or Division, is strictly non-denominational, having no symbols, or ceremonies, or instructions, peculiar to any one