od, with His approbation, adherence to great
principles of Christian truth and social advancement, irrespective of
men or parties. I shall commence the New Year with new courage and
hope, and I am anxious to see you that we may together devise and
prosecute the best means to promote our great work.

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):--

From 1846 to 1849 a host of scribblers and would-be school legislators
appeared, led on by the _Globe_ newspaper. It was represented that I had
plotted a Prussian school despotism for free Canada, and that I was
forcing upon the country a system in which the last spark of Canadian
liberty would be extinguished, and Canadian youth would be educated as
slaves. Hon. Malcolm Cameron, with less knowledge and less experience
than he has now, was astounded at these "awful disclosures," and was
dazzled by the theories proposed to rid the country of the enslaving
elements of my Prussian school system. Mr. Cameron was at length
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 for my official acts, and that, thus judged,
I had done nothing worthy of evil treatment. The party hostile to me
then thought that, as I could not be turned out of office by direct
dismissal, I might be shuffled out by legislation; and a School Bill was
prepared for that purpose. That Bill contained many good, 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. Cameron was selected to submit it to his colleagues, and get
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, amid the smoking ruins of a
Parliament House and national library, looked over it, and thought from
the representations given him of its popular objects, and a glance at
the synopsis of its provisions, that it might be an improvement on the
then existing law, while the passing of it would gratify many of his
friends. On examining the 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 Mo