Practically these two Letters, written under peculiar circumstances, may fairly be regarded as epitomising in themselves the whole matter in dispute between the parties concerned and the Department, in regard to Separate Schools. For this reason, therefore, I insert only these two, out of the many, Letters included in the Return. The remaining ones can be seen in the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Assembly for 1852, 53, or in the Return, as printed in pamphlet form separately, by Order of the House of Assembly.

SCHEDULE OF LETTERS AND EXPLANATORY DOCUMENTS ACCOMPANYING THE CORRESPONDENCE IN THIS RETURN.

The following is the Schedule of the Eleven Letters which passed between the Roman Catholic Bishop of Toronto, and the Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, on the subject of Separate Common Schools in Upper Canada in 1852, and also a list of thirty-six accompanying explanatory Letters and Documents. The Schedule is as follows:

I. Letter from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Toronto, to the Chief Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada, dated Irishtown, (near Chatham, Upper Canada,) February 20th, 1852, soliciting attention to the case of the Roman Catholic Separate School in Chatham.

II. Letter from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Toronto to the Chief Superintendent of Education, dated London, Upper Canada, March 7th, 1852, containing additional remarks on the case of the Roman Catholic Separate School at Chatham.

III. Letter from the Chief Superintendent of Education, Toronto, dated March 13th, 1852, in reply to the foregoing.

ARRAIGNMENT OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM BY BISHOP DE CHARBONNEL.

Instead of publishing the whole of the Letters in this Separate School Return, I have inserted only two Letters of the Series, Numbers IV. and V., as they practically embody in themselves the gist of the matters in dispute, in regard to Separate Schools in 1850-1852. Letter Number IV. embodies Doctor de Charbonnel's complaint against the spirit and administration of the School Law of Upper Canada; while Letter Number V. contains an elaborate defense of this Law and its Administration by the Chief Superintendent of Education. Copies of the other Letters of the Series, and of the appended Documents, illustrative of this Separate School controversy, will be found in the Appendices to the Journals of the House of Assembly for 1852-1853.

IV. LETTER FROM THE ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOP OF TORONTO TO THE CHIEF SUPERINTENDEFT OF EDUCATION, DATED AT OAKVILLE, MARCH 24TH, 1852, EXPRESSING HIS VIEWS UPON THE OPERATIONS OF THE SCHOOL LAW AND SYSTEM OF PUBLIC ELEMENTARY INSTRUCTION IN UPPER CANADA.

In answer to my preceding Letters, you do not say a single word about my Two first Complaints, namely; the Coloured people better treated in Chatham than Catholics, and the ridiculous offer of Four pounds ten shillings, (£4. 10. 0.) out of about Three hundred pounds, (£300,) taxes raised,-for the Catholic Separate School of forty six children in the same Town.

NOT HONOURABLE TO USE DEFECTIVE WORKS IN SCHOOLS, SUCH AS GOLDSMITH'S HISTORY.

2. With regard to my Third Complaint, you grant on one hand, that Goldsmith's History is very defective, therefore, it does not do honour to the Teachers who make use of it, and

of other Books of the same defectiveness, to my knowledge, nor to the School Visitors who tolerate such Books in Public Schools, nor to the School System, under which such very defective Books may be used, not only against your sanction, but even legally.

3. For, you say on another hand, that there can be no reasonable complaint for reading that very defective Book in Mixed Schools, since the Fourteenth Section of the School Act provides, that no pupil shall be required, (Catholics are forced to do so in certain Schools,) to read in any Religious Book objected to by his parents, and thereby protects all Religious Persuasions.

SUPPOSED CASES OF THE USE OF CERTAIN CONTROVERSIAL WORKS BY CHILDREN.

4. Therefore, a Quaker Book abusing Baptism, a Baptist Book abusing Infant Baptism, a Methodist Book abusing the High Church, a Presbyterian Book abusing Episcopacy, a Unitarian Book devising the Trinity of Persons in God, a Socinian Book abusing all Mysteries, etcetera; all those Books may be read in the same Class Room of your Mixed Schools, as well as the anti-Catholic Goldsmith's History, and that legally, and, of course, without any reasonable complaint, because no pupil is forced to read the Book objected to by his parents, and, thereby, children of all Religious Persuasions are equally protected!

5. O Beautiful protection! Beautiful harmony! O Admirable means of teaching God and His ordinances Admirable way of making children improve in Religion, Faith, Piety, Unity, Charity, and in reading into the bargain!

6. And you are astonished, Reverend Doctor, at our demand of having nothing to do with such a Chimera, such a Mixture, such a regular School of Pyrrhonism, of Indifferentism, of Infidelity, and consequently of all Vices and Crimes !

THE BISHOP APPEALS AGAINST SUCH MONGREL INTERPRETATIONS OF RELIGIOUS TRUTH.

7. Please tell me, would you send your children to a School where your parental authority and family prescriptions would be interpreted in ten different ways, because none of your children would be forced to read those mongrel interpretations,—and, thereby, they would be protected in their filial respect and feelings towards ycu? Would the Government of Canada countenance Schools in which pupils could read Books respecting Annexationism, or any other Rebellionism, because no child would be forced to read the ism objected to by his parents, and, thereby, all children would be protected in their loyalty to the Country and to Her Majesty ?

8. No, most certainly no; and Religion alone, the basis of true individual domestic and social happiness, will be a mockery in our Public Schools; or, at least, a quite different object! And you call our demand a "scruple," an "omen of evil"! Say as well that good is evil, and evil good!

ROMAN CATHOLICS WILL TOLERATE MIXED SCHOOLS ON CONDITIONS.

9. Let your Mixed Schools be without immediate danger on the treble part of the Teachers, Books and Fellow-pupils for the respective faith of all the children,-which is seldom the case in this Sectarian Country, -and I will tolerate, even recommend them, as I do sometimes, through want of a better system, but always on the condition that children are Religiously Instructed at Home, or at Church; because Secular Instruction without a Religious Education is rather a scourge than a boon for a Country; witness, the United States, Scotland, Sweden, Prussia, etcetera, where, according to statistics, Infidelity, and Immorality are increasing in proportion to Godless Education.

BISHOP DE CHARBONNEL APPROVES OF THE NATIONAL SCHOOL SYSTEM OF IRELAND.

10. But, as long as most of our Mixed Schools shall be what they are, as distant from the Common Schools of Ireland, (justly praised in your answer,) as night is from the day; as long as most of your Mixed Schools shall be in danger for the Faith and Morals of our children, they and we, their temporal and spiritual parents, will act according to the doctrine of the God, unknown to your Schools, as He was in Athens;

"If thy hand, foot, eye, is an occasion of sin to thee, cut it off, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. What does it avail a man to gain the world, if he lose his soul? Seek first the Kingdom of God and His Justice."

THE BISHOP QUOTES LAING AND GUIZOT ON THE SCHOOLS IN ROMAN CATHOLIC COUNTRIES.

11. Now, as to the boasted system of School Buildings giving more security than our Separate Schools, -as if stones, or bricks would be better than Teachers and Books,-let the

Scotch Protestant Laing, in his recent "Notes of a Traveller," tell "the people of Upper Canada," alluded to in your answer, that,—

"In Catholic Countries, even in Italy, the Education of the Common People is at least as generally diffused and as faithfully promoted by the Clerical body, as in Scotland. Education is in reality not only not repressed, but is encouraged by the Popish Church, and is a mighty instrument in its hand and ably used."

Hence the celebrated Protestant Stateman, Guizot, published lately, that by far the best School of respect towards authority is the Catholic School.

12. "In every street in Rome," continues Laing, "there are, at short distances, Public Primary Schools for the Education of the children of the Lower and Middle Classes in the neighbourhood. Rome, with a population of one hundred and fifty eight thousand, six hundred and seventy eight souls, has three hundred and seventy two Primary Schools, (and some more according to the official statement,) with four hundred and eighty two Teachers, and fourteen thousand children attending them. Has Edinburgh so many Schools for the instruction of

those same classes?"

13. And you know Reverend Doctor, that Scotland is one of the boasted lands of Common Schools.

THE SCHOOL SYSTEM CONDEMNED AND MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS CLAIMED.

14. Therefore, since your School System is the ruin of Religion, and persecution of the Church; since we know, at least as well as any body else, how to encourage, diffuse, promote Education, (see Laing), and better than you, (see Guizot), how to teach respect towards authority; to God and His Church, to Parent and Government; since we are under the blessed principles of Religious Liberty and Equal Civil Rights, we must have, and we will have, the full management of our Schools, as well as have Protestants in Lower Canada; or the world of the Nineteenth Century will know that here, as elsewhere, Catholics, against the Constitution of the Country, against its best and most sacred interests, are persecuted by the most cruel, hypocritical persecution.

OAKVILLE, 24th March, 1852.

ARM'DUS. FR. MY., Bishop of Toronto.

V. REPLY OF THE CHIEF SUPERINTENDANT OF EDUCATION TO THE FORE

GOING LETTER, DATED APRIL, 24TH 1852.

1. The receipt of your Letter of the Twenty-fourth ultimo was promptly acknowleged by Mr. Hodgins in my absence; and continued official engagements, since my return, having prevented an earlier reply, I have now to observe, that, finding your allusions to the Coloured people of the Town of Chatham not sustained by a Communication from themselves, I did not deem it necessary to correct your mistake, or advert to the circumstance in my non-reply. Having received a complaint from the Coloured people of Chatham, respecting their affairs, I replied to them, and wrote to the Board of School Trustees in Chatham on the same subject. I did not, therefore, think it necessary to allude further to the subject in my reply to your Lordship.

2. As to my alleged omission in regard to the complaints respecting the Roman Catholic School in the town of Chatham, I received a Letter from the Trustees of that School, and enclosed to your Lordship a copy of my reply to their Communication.

THE CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT REPLIES TO BISHOP DE CHARBONNEL'S GENERAL COMPLAINTS.

3. In regard to Goldsmith's Elementary History of England, your Lordship did not intimate that the Roman Catholic children were compelled to use it contrary to the wishes of their parents, or guardians, but simply represented that it was used in the Mixed school; and it was to this point that my remark on the subject in reply were directed. I confined myself to general remarks on the point for another reason, namely; from the fact that their being a Separate Roman Catholic School in Chatham, the conductors of that School could have no personal interest, or concern, in regard to what Text books were used in the Mixed School, from all connection with which they had formally withdrawn.

4. As to the claim of the Trustees of the Separate School to share in the School Moneys of the town of Chatham for 1851, they could not be sanctioned by law, since the School was not applied for until March of that year, and the Nineteenth Section of the School Act of 1850 does not permit the alteration of any School Section, or the establishment of an Separate School before the Twenty-fifth of December in any one year.

THE SCHOOL SYSTEM HAS HITHERTO BEEN SUPPORTED BY CANADIAN ROMAN CATHOLICS.

5. Having thus replied to the complaints preferred by your Lordship, I would not avert to other topics, which your Lordship has introduced, were not my silence liable to misconstruction, and did I not feel it my duty to defend, as well as to explain and impartially administer, the Common School System, which the Legislature has established in Upper Canada ;—a System which has been in operation for Ten years; which was cordially approved of and supported by the late lamented Roman Catholic Bishop Power; which was never objected to, as far as I know, by a single Roman Catholic in Upper Canada, during the life of that excellent Prelate and patriot, nor until a recent period.

RISE IN CANADA OF THE NEW FOREIGN ELEMENT FROM THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE.

6. If your Lordship has thought proper, during the last twelve months, to adopt a different course, and to introduce from the Continent of Europe, a new class of ideas and feelings among the Roman Catholics of Upper Canada, in regard to Schools and our whole School Systein, I must still adhere to my frequent unqualified expressions of admiration at the opposite course pursued by your honoured and devoted predecessor, Bishop Power.*

DISINCLINATION OF CANADIAN ROMAN CATHOLICS TO ISOLATE THEMSELVES FROM THE SCHOOL

SYSTEM, AND THEIR REASONS.

7. While, I may note the facts, that, from only three neighbourhoods in Upper Canada have demands been made by Roman Catholics, in accordance with this new movement, not sanctioned by law; that the only Roman Catholic Member of the Legislative Assembly, elected in Upper Canada, has repeatedly declared himself opposed to the principle of Separate Schools; and the only County Municipal Council in Upper Canada, in which a majority of the Members are Roman Catholics, has adopted Resolutions against the Nineteenth Section of the School Act 1850, which permits the establishment of Separate Schools under any circumstances. The facts, that, out of three thousand Common Schools, not so many as fifty Separate Roman Catholic Schools have ever existed, or been applied for, in any one year, in Upper Canada, and that the number of such Separate Schools had gradually diminished to less than thirty, until within the last twelve months, and that during ten years but one single complaint, (and that during the present month,) has been made to this Department of any interference with the Religious Faith of Roman Catholic children; and that not a Roman Catholic child in Upper Canada is known to have been proselyted to Protestantism, by means of our Public Schools ;-these facts clearly show the general disinclination of Roman Catholics in Upper Canada to isolate themselves from their fellow-citizens in school matters, any more than in other common interests of the Country, and also the mutually just, Christian and generous, spirit in which the School, as well as other common, affairs, of the Country have been promoted by Government, by Municipal Councils, and by the people at large in their various School Sections. The exceptions to this pervading spirit of the people of Upper Canada have been "few and far between ;" and, in such cases, the provision of the School Law of 1850, permitting the establishment of Separ

*It may be appropriate here to quote the words of the able and patriotic Archbishop Ireland, uttered in 1890, on a question in the United States similar to this one. At a Meeting of the American National Education Association, held at St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1890, the question which the Archbishop proposed to discuss at that Meeting was "State Schools and Parish Schools: Is the union between them Impossible? He said :

I am the friend and advocate of the State School. I uphold the Parish School. I sincerely wish that the need of it did not exist. I would have all Schools for the children of the people State Schools.

The right of the State School to exist, I consider, is a matter beyond the stage of discussion. I fully concede it. To the child must be imparted instruction in no mean degree. The imparting of this is primarily the function of the child's parent. The Family is prior to the State. The State intervenes, whenever the Family can not, or will not, do the work that is needed. The place of the State, in the function of instruction is loco parentis. As things are, tens of thousands of children will not be instructed, if parents remain solely in charge of this duty. The State must come forward as an agent of instruction; else ignorance will prevail. Indeed, in the absence of State action, there never was that universal instruction which we have so nearly attained, and which we deem necessary. In the absence of State action, I believe universal instruction would never in any Country have been possible.

State action in favour of instruction implies free Schools. within the reach of all children.

In no other manner can we bring instruction

Blest, indeed, is that nation, whose vales and hill sides the [free School] adorns, and blest the generations upon whose souls are poured their treasures.

It were idle for me to praise the work of the State School of America in the imparting of secular instruction. It is our pride and glory.

The American people are naturally reverent and religious. Their Laws and Public Observances breathe forth the perfume of religion. The American School, as it first reared its log walls amid the Villages of New England, was religious through and through.

I would permeate the regular State School with the Religion of the majority of the children of the land, be it Protestant as Protestanism can be; and I would, as they do in England, pay for the secular instruction given in Denominacional Schools, according to results; that is, each pupil passing the examination before the State Officials, and in full accordance with the State programme, would secure to his School the cost of the tuition of a pupil in the State School.

(Extract from a Special Report, prepared for the Minister of Education in 1896, by J. G. H.)

ate Schools in certain circumstances, has been made use of, and just about as often by a Protestant, as by a Roman Catholic, minority in a Municipality.

SEPARATE SCHOOLS HITHERTO VIEWED BY CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS AS A MEANS OF PROTECTION.

8. But a provision in the law for Separate Schools was never asked, or advocated, until since 1850 as a theory, but merely as a protection in circumstances arising from the peculiar social state of neighbourhoods, or Municipalities. I always thought the introduction of any provision for Separate Schools in a Popular System of Common Education, like that of Upper Canada, was to be regretted and inexpedient; but finding such a provision in existence, and that parties concerned attached great importance to it, I have advocated its continuance, leaving Separate Schools to die out, not by force of legislative enactment, but under the influence of increasingly enlightened and enlarged views of Christian relations, rights and duties between different classes of the community. I have, at all times, endeavoured to secure to parties desiring Separate Schools, all the facilities which the law provides-though I believe the legal provision for Separate Schools has been, and is seriously injurious, rather than beneficial, to the Roman Catholic portion of the community, as I know very many intelligent Members of that Church believe as well as myself. I have as heartily sought to respect the feelings and promote the interests of my Roman Catholic fellow-citizens, as those of any other portion of the community; and I shall continue to do so, notwithstanding the personally discourteous tone and character of your Lordship's Communication.

EFFECT ON ROMAN CATHOLIC TEACHERS OF THE BISHOP DE CHARBONNEL'S DENUNCIATIONS.

9. There are, comparatively, few school divisions in Upper Canada, beyond the Cities and Towns, (where the Trustees have generally employed a fair proportion of Roman Catholic Teachers) in which it is possible for the Roman Catholic to maintain an efficient Separate School; and, if your Lordship persists in representing the Common Schools, maintained by the several Religious classes of the community, as fraught with "sceptism, infidelity and vice," the situation of Roman Catholics, sparely scattered throughout more than twenty-five hundred, of the three thousand, School Sections of Upper Canada, will be rendered unpleasant to themselves, and they will be encouraged to neglect the education of their children altogether. By the official returns for 1849, there were three hundred and thirty nine, (339), Roman Catholic School Teachers employed in Upper Canada; in 1850, their number was increased to three hundred and ninety, (390); and I have as cordially endeavoured to get situations for good Roman Catholic Teachers, as for good Protestant Teachers. It is clear that the greater part of the three hundred and ninety Roman Catholic Teachers have been employed by Protestant Trustees and parents; but, if the war of total separation in school matters, between the Protestants and Roman Catholics of Upper Canada, is commenced, as proclaimed by your Lordship, many of these worthy Teachers will be placed in painful circumstances, and a separation will soon begin to take place between the two portions of the community in other relations and employments.

BISHOP DE CHARBONNEL NOW DEMANDS FULL CONTROL OF THE SEPARATE SCHOOLS.

10. Your Lordship says, "We must have, and we will have, the full management of our Schools, as well as the Protestants in Lower Canada, or the World of the Nineteenth Century will know, that here, as elsewhere, Catholics, against the Constitution of the Country, against its best and most sacred interests, are persecuted by the most cruel and hypocritical persecution."

11. On this passage I remark, that I am not aware of Lower Canada presenting a better standard than Upper Canada of either Religious, or Civil, Rights in the managements of Schools by any portion of the community. A popular System of Education not yet being fully established in Lower Canada, the School System there is necessarily more despotic than here, and the Executive Government does many things there which appertain to elective Municipalities to do here; and to accomplish, what is indicated by your Lordship, would involve the subversion of the Municipal system and liberties of Upper Canada. From the beginning, Upper Canada and Lower Canada has each had its own School System. Of the annual Legislative School Grant of Fifty thousand pounds, (£50,000), Lower Canada has received Twenty-nine thousand pounds, (£29,000), per annum, until 1851, (when the Grant was equally divided,) and Upper Canada, Twenty-one thousand, (£21,000); which constituted the whole of the Legislative School Fund for Upper Canada for the establishment and support of the Normal, as well as the Common, Schools. Upper Canada has not attempted to interfere with Lower Canada in regard to its School System, nor has Lower Canada attempted to interfere with Upper Canada in regard to its School System; nor do I think the collision in school matters invoked by your