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 Publisher of these Hemispheres told me the other day that he had never seen yours; that he had been using blue colouring on his Maps more, or less, for the last fifteen years, especially on Maps which he had printed for the Government. For the last four, or five, years Mr. Hodgins has 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.

I do not see upon what 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 favourable terms for the local School Authorities and supporters of Schools, without reference to individual interest. But, subordinate to the public interest of the Schools and their Supporters, I think, those Canadian Publishers of Maps and School Books are entitled to consideration and gratitude, who 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 Publishers. The more every branch of the printing and publishing business is developed, the more will the facilities of knowledge and education be promoted 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, etcetera, 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 contract, 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 cannot have any connection, or understanding, with any Bookseller, or Publisher, for the advancement of his interests, but must act solely with a view to the best interests of the Public Schools, and the general diffusion of knowledge.*

TORONTO, 16th January, 1863.

EGERTON RYERSON.

6. LETTER FROM MR. NELSON TO DOCTOR RYERSON.

I beg to submit to you some 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 your support at the Council in proposing that our Educational Works be placed at once on the same footing as others, and be declared eligible for use as well as those issued by other Publishers. Anything else would place us at a disadvantage, and I cannot think that this can be the wish of any Member of the Council. I shall feel obliged by your submitting this notice at the Meeting to-day.

TORONTO, 16th January, 1863.

THOMAS NELSON.

* From this Letter it will be seen how widely the objects of Mr. Nelson differ from those of the Department.

7. LETTER FROM DOCTOR RYERSON TO MR. NELSON.

I have the honour to state, in reply to your Letter of the 6th instant, that I had laid your Letter, as also one of the 16th instant, before the Council of Public Intruction, 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 accordingly.

The School Law makes it the duty of the Council to "prescribe" the Text Books to be used in the Grammar Schools. The multiplicity of Text Books has been a great impediment to the efficiency of the Schools, and a great expense to Parents and Guardians of Pupils. One object of the provisions of the Law, in regard to Text Books for Grammar Schools, was to remedy this evil; but the Council would only increase the evil, were it to add to the already copious list of 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 the use of the improved and best Text Books which have been, or may be from time to time published. the Council has proposed to revise the list of prescribed Text Books every few years, so as to diminish as much as possible the 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 Grammar Schools. TORONTO, 17th January, 1863.

EGERTON RYERSON.

8. LETTER FROM MR. NELSON TO DOCTOR RYERSON.

I beg to acknowledge receipt of your favour of 17th instant. and, in reply, to explain what I meant by saying that our Maps of the Hemispheres had been "submitted" to you early last year. When they were first published I wrote from Scotland to Mr. James Campbell, our Agent here, requesting him to call and submit the Maps to you and offer 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 the 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 view the matter.

Allow me to say that you have been misinformed on one point. Messieurs Chewett and Company have not only seen our Maps, but a few days after the copies were sent up to the Institution, they obtained for themselves a copy of each, which they afterwards returned. As far as they are concerned, I believe that, in the long run, it will be better for them not to imitate the style of these Maps, and in regard to your own efforts to improve the Educational Apparatus of the Schools of Upper Canada, I can only say that it would have given me great pleasure to have adopted any suggestions you might have made in regard to the Maps referred to, or others of our series.* As we are frequently printing them, we can more readily make additions, or alterations, in them, than where a large number requires to be printed off at once.

Another of the Maps submitted last year was our Map of the British Islands. I understand that the next Map about to be prepared for the Department is one of the British Islands also.

It would have given me pleasure if, instead of this, you had adopted either the Map already submitted, or another of the British Islands, which we have in preparation.† I feel confident that this would be better, not only as regards expense, but in view of the educational advantages which our Maps possess over others; and I beg leave to

*This was a novel proposition on the part of Mr. Nelson. It has never been the business of the Department to suggest improvements for the benefit of private parties. Its "suggestions" and "improvements." in regard to the Maps it publishes, are only made in the interests of the public schools. See Doctor Ryerson's reply on this point in the next Letter.

No doubt; but the Departmental Map of the British Isles was nevertheless published in 1864.

repeat what I before stated, that I am quite ready to make any additions, or changes, you may wish in them.

Since writing the above, I have received your Letter in regard to the appointment of a Committee to revise the list of Text Books. In England* our Educational Works were one by one, as soon as published, put on the list issued by the Committee 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 objection to a similar course being adopted here, 1 took the liberty of requesting you to state to the Council that the effect of deferring a decision in regard to the Books I had submitted, till the entire list of Text Books has been revised, would, in the meantime, place us as Publishers at a disadvantage. On the list already issued, I found a number of American works. and I ventured to think that other good Canadian, or British, publications should be placed on an equal footing with them. The fact that the list already allows a choice of several works of a kind, 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.

May I request the favour of your letting me know if it is intended that the entire list be revised before a decision be come to in regard to any one Book? If otherwise. I shall esteem as a favour your kindly submitting for the early decision of the Committee our History of the British Empire, and Latin Reader, of which you were kind enough to express a very favourable opinion. I believe that there is at present a want felt among the Grammar Schools here of a good History of the British Empire, and 1 shall be glad if ours meet with the favour it has already received all over England. TORONTO, 19th January, 1863. THOMAS NELSON.

10. LETTER FROM DOCTOR RYERSON TO MR. NELSON.

In reply to your Letter of the 19th 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 Office, 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 haye your Maps been "submitted" than in the ordinary way of every-day Trade, as have scores of others. Each Publisher thinks,-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 of any suggestions from us for that purpose; but I cannot assume the office of counsellor, or adviser, or prompter, to one Publisher more than to another. I must treat all alike, except that the publications 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 I 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 regard to imitation of maps, I stated what was said to Mr. Hodgins and myself by one of the firm of Messieurs Chewett and Company, and which I have no reason to doubt. The Hemispheres about to be printed for Schools under contract for a certain number of copies by this Department, are the same size as those which were printed for this Department ten years ago, and more than 1,000 copies of which have been supplied to the Schools, but with information more recent, accurate and full than I have observed in any other Maps of Hemispheres.

The Maps of the British Isles required in the series of Maps for our Public Schools. are quite different from those which you have published.

In reference to the part of your Letter relating to Text Books for the Grammar Schools, I remark that in England there is no system of public Grammar Schools estab

* In regard to the example of "England," see Doctor Ryerson's reply to it in the next Letter.

lished and managed under the authority of a general law, as a branch of the System of Public Instruction—that the Government, or Parliament, has little, or no, control over the Grammar Schools there, which are so many independent Establishments-that the Privy Council Committee 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 prescribe the Text Books for the Grammar Schools, and does not authorize the Council to place any Text Books on its list which it does not prescribe. After the passing of the Grammar 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 English 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 1854 other, if not better and cheaper Text Books have been prepared on some subjects than those then prescribed; and the Council proposes 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 Council 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 concerned due notice of any changes in the Text Books, that School Trustees, Teachers and Booksellers may have ample time to prepare accordingly.*

TORONTO, 21st January, 1863.

EGERTON RYERSON.

ADDENDA TO THESE LETTERS. MAPS CONSTRUCTED FOR THE EDUCATIONAL DEPOSITORY DURING, AND UP TO THE END OF THE YEAR, 1863.

Thirteen Maps, including (in one series) those of Europe, Asia, Africa, America, British Isles, United States, The World, (in Hemispheres), Canaan and Palestine (in six sections); in ths second series, those of Europe, Asia, Africa and America and British North America; besides Globe Covers as follows: Three inch Globe, Six inch Globe, Twelve inch Globe; a Planetaxum, and a set of five engraved Merit Cards. These are all the property of the Department; but sales may be freely made of them to the public generally by the Publishers.

Thus we have been enabled to provide for the Schools a variety of Maps and Apparatus at a comparatively small cost. We have also successfully developed various branches of Canadian industry, in the manufacture of Maps, Globes and other Apparatus at low rates, and have thus saved to the Public and Grammar Schools large sums, which would otherwise have gone abroad for the purchase of these Requisites. As a sample, it may be stated, that English Maps at 12/- or 15/- each are sold at the Depository to Schools at $2.38, or $3 respectively; besides allowing one hundred per cent. on all local remittances from Trustees and Municipalities for these Maps. In regard to Prize and Library Books, the cost of an American Book at $1 is 80 cts.; and of an English 5/- Book, $1, and so on in proportion. It is now an assured fact that the Depository is self supporting, besides yielding a substantial profit each year.

* This Letter closed the correspondence on this subject, except the Letter given in a Note on page 75.

CHAPTER X.

SUPPLY OF LIBRARY AND PRIZE BOOKS AND MAPS AND APPARATUS BY THE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT.

CIRCULAR TO SCHOOL TRUSTEES IN REGARD TO THE SUPPLY OF PUBLIC SCHOOL LIBRARIES.

As the usual period of the year for establishing, or replenishing, Public School Libraries has now arrived, permit me to call your attention to the subject.

The approaching long winter evenings will afford ample leisure for reading as well as for study. The perusal of good Books will be at once a stimulus and a relaxation. as well as an intellectual advantage to the pupils themselves. It will doubtless also be no less a source of pleasure and profit to their Parents and other Rate-payers, who have the right of free access to the Public School Library, under the Regulations provided by law.

Painful evidence has already been afforded in Canada of the evil effects upon young persons of an acquaintance with that pernicious class of the lighter literature of the day only, which is everywhere so abundantly supplied, and which, in the absence of better tastes and some controlling influence against it, young people are too apt to seek out and to read with avidity.

Most of our Public Schools,-chiefly in Cities, Towns, and Villages,-have, by their excellence created, especially among the more advanced Pupils, a taste for reading and intellectual culture, which, after a time, the ordinary instruction in these Schools, without the aid of a suitable Library, does not fully meet. Having acquired in the School this taste for reading, these Pupils will necessarily seek to gratify it. How important is it, then, that this desire for reading should be rightly directed, or. what is better, gratified in a legitimate way in the School itself. It should be remembered, too, that Teachers labour under serious disadvantages, and are less effective in their instructions where they are unable to supplement their labours by means of a Library of reading and Reference Books. It is, therefore, the more necessary, both for Teachers and Pupils, that this indispensable adjunct to a good and successful School should not only be provided, but that it should be well kept up, with a continuous supply of the more valuable and attractive Books, as they issue from the press.

The facilities afforded by this Department for carrying out this important object are now most ample. An abundant supply of appropriate Books has been procured to meet the Winter's demand. The terms upon which they are furnished to Municipal and School Corporations are that one hundred per cent. will be added to any contribution of five dollars, or over, which may be made by the local School Authorities.

I would also call your attention to the "Departmental Notices" which have been issued, relating to School Maps, Apparatus, and Prize-books. The variety of Maps and Apparatus now manufactured in Canada, under the direction of this Department. is both extensive and excellent. A new Map of British North America, nearly 8 feet long by 4 feet wide, has just been completed, including Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, British Columbia and Vancouver Island, beside the extensive area of Country extending from Lake Superior to the Pacific Ocean, and embracing the most recent explorations and discoveries. J. GEORGE HODGINS, Deputy Superintendent.

TORONTO, 28th November, 1863.