at least
my expenses should be paid out of the Indian subscriptions of $400.

[134] Lord Elgin always referred to Dr. Ryerson's library scheme in his
educational addresses, as the "Crown and Glory of the Institutions of
the Province."

[Illustration: The Ontario Education Department, and Normal and Model
Schools, Erected 1851.]

[Illustration: Education Department, showing Dr. Ryerson's Office for 25
Years, in the S. W. Angle of the Main Building in Front.]

CHAPTER LI.

1849.

The Bible in the Ontario Public Schools.

Early in 1849 an important crisis occurred in the history of our Public
School system, the evil effects of which were only prevented by the
prompt and emphatic protest on the part of Dr. Ryerson, and the equally
prompt measures taken by Hon. Robert Baldwin in the matter. The event to
which I refer was the hurried passage of a revolutionary School Bill at
the end of a Session of Parliament by parties hostile to Dr. Ryerson--a
Bill the effect of which would have been the exclusion of the Bible and
religious teaching and influence from our Public Schools. In regard to
that calamitous event, Dr. Ryerson stated that within three hours of
learning that such a Bill was law he informed Mr. Baldwin that the
office of Chief Superintendent of Education was at his disposal.

I was absent from Toronto at this time. Dr. Ryerson therefore wrote me a
letter on the subject, dated December, 1849, in which he said:--I am
happy to say the scandalous School Bill of last session is upset. The
members of the Government (including the Governor-General) have examined
my letter to Mr. Baldwin, of July last, and have come entirely into my
views. Mr. Malcolm Cameron is also out of office, and is striving to
create opposition against his former colleagues. Some of the extreme
radical papers (_Examiner_, _Mirror_, _Canada Christian Advocate_,
_Provincialist_, &c.,) all state that I had tendered my resignation, and
had been persuaded by one or two members of the Government to withdraw
it, and they speak piteously of the Government having succumbed to me.
The _Canada Christian Advocate_ says I have watched my opportunity to
get "Mr. Baldwin and the Government under my thumb." I have been
permitted to publish the correspondence of July last, and it has placed
me in this new and proud position. I thank God for His goodness in thus
opening before me a wider field of usefulness than ever, and for sealing
at so early a peri