The Story of My Life; Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada Part 52

_Sept. 18th--Berlin._--Employed the day in visiting the great schools of this magnificent city: Frederick William Gymnasium, Dorothean Higher City School, Royal Red School, embracing both the cla.s.sical and scientific departments; went over the establishment.

_Sept. 19th._--Visited the University and Picture Gallery; went through all the apartments of the City Trade School; the collection of apparatus and specimens to carry out the course of instruction is perhaps the most complete in Prussia, in schools of this cla.s.s.

_Sept. 20th._--Potsdam--a magnificent place; went into the Court, and visited several of the rooms of the Royal Military School--a n.o.ble establishment; visited the Normal School; witnessed the teaching of two of the pupil-teachers,--both used the blackboard, and both appeared thorough masters of what they were teaching, using no books,--other pupil-teachers were looking on; never saw a finer cla.s.s of young men.

_Sept. 23rd._--Berlin. Dined with the British Amba.s.sador, and had an interview with the Prussian Minister of Public Instruction; witnessed the semi-annual parade of the Prussian army--more than 10,000 men; saw also the King of Prussia and the Empress of Russia.

_Sept. 24th._--Hanover. Pa.s.sed through several towns.h.i.+ps; visited the Palace; saw the gold and silver plate, much of which belonged to former British Sovereigns; visited Herrenhausen, favourite residence of George I. and II. of England.

_Sept. 28th._--Cologne. Visited Cathedral and Churches; saw the tomb of Charlemagne, and the house in which Rubens was born.

_Oct. 1st._--Bonn. Saw the University buildings; saw the great Catholic Normal School, at Bright.

_Oct. 2nd._--Mayence. Ascended the Rhine from Bonn,--embracing all the magnificent scenery of this celebrated river.

_Oct. 3rd._--Visited Wiesbaden, capital of Hesse-Ca.s.sel; went to Frankfort; visited Burgher School there, 700 children. Birth-place and monument of Goethe.

_Oct. 5th._--Strasburg. Left Frankfort; pa.s.sed through Darmstadt; heard two sermons in French, and one in German; visited the magnificent Cathedral, and Normal School.

_Oct. 7th._--Zurich. Came to Bale yesterday; arrived here this morning; visited the great Cantonal Industrial School--n.o.ble building.

_Oct. 8th._--Cargon. Obtained much information from the director of the Gymnase, Real and Higher Burgher School here.

_Oct. 9th._--Berne. Travelled through a mountainous and picturesque country to Papiermuhle; walked three miles to the celebrated school of M. de Fallenberg; had the whole system explained--gymnasium, real, intermediate, poor, and limited to the number of thirty; dined at the Agricultural School,--situated on a gentle hill, in the midst of the valley of Switzerland, surrounded by mountains,--I have been abundantly repaid in spending a whole day in surveying such an establishment.

_Oct. 11th._--Lausanne. Fine view of the Alps; visited the garden where Gibbon finished his History on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.

_Oct. 12th._--Geneva. Arrived here in heavy rain; attended three services; visited the tomb of Sir H. Davy; had a fine view of Mt.

Blanc; left for Paris.

CHAPTER XLV.

1844-1857.

Episode in Dr. Ryerson's European Travels.--Pope Pius IX.

One of the many episodes in my European travels which I have been requested by many to narrate led to my presentation to Pope Pius IX., and is as follows:--

On my arrival in England on my first educational tour, near the end of 1844, I was invited to a Christmas dinner party at the house of an English clergyman, where I was introduced to a young Russian n.o.bleman, by the name of Dunjowski, who had attended lectures in several German universities, and came to England to learn the English language, in which he soon became a proficient. During his residence in England he became acquainted with a number of distinguished men, n.o.blemen and others; among whom were the late Rev. Dr. Chalmers. This young Russian n.o.bleman, having learned that I was on a tour of investigation of the educational inst.i.tutions of Europe, proposed before the close of the evening to join me in investigating the educational inst.i.tutions of western and central Europe, with a view to his writing an account of them on his return to St. Petersburg. I accepted his proposal; and in the course of a few weeks we commenced our tour through Holland and Belgium to Paris, of which some account will be found in the extracts from my Journal in the preceding Chapter.

At Paris my Russian friend conceived the idea of attending another course of lectures on some branch of Roman law at Tubigen. We parted, but he changed his mind, and instead of attending an additional course of lectures in a German university, he proceeded to Rome. A few weeks after my arrival there, I felt a tap on my shoulder at the dinner table, and, on looking up, I recognized my young Russian friend, who was already speaking Italian, with as much fluency as he had spoken English, French, and German, when we parted at Paris six weeks before.

We renewed our travels together, after having completed our tour of Rome, with its antiquities and inst.i.tutions; we proceeded to Naples by stage, where we spent several days in examining its College of n.o.bles and other educational inst.i.tutions, including its antiquities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, Vesuvius, etc. In the College of n.o.bles we met an American Priest, who was President of the Roman Catholic College at Georgetown, near Was.h.i.+ngton, and invited him to take a seat in our carriage the next day on an excursion to Herculaneum and Pompeii. In the course of the day a religious discussion took place between the American Priest and the Russian, who was very fond of controversy. I took no part in it, but I thought the Priest had rather the best of it. The result was, my Russian friend was persuaded to go into a house of retirement near Rome, and devote some weeks to solitary prayer, fasting, and meditation. I never afterwards saw him or heard from him for eleven years, though I remonstrated with him, and wrote him from Florence, entreating him to reconsider what he was doing; but he said that what I spoke and wrote rather confirmed him in his course, than diverted him from it.

When making my third educational tour on the Continent of Europe, I was, with my daughter, at Munich, in Bavaria, about the beginning of 1857, and while at dinner at our hotel, I felt two hands placed upon my shoulders; on looking up, I recognized, notwithstanding his present dress, my old friend, Dunjowski, who embraced and kissed me as a brother. After dinner we retired to the parlour, and talked over the past. I asked him what he had been doing these eleven years, how he had become transformed from a Russian n.o.bleman, scholar, and lawyer, into a Roman Catholic priest, in full canonicals. He told me that after we separated at Naples, eleven years before, he went into a house of retirement at Rome, and by prayer, fasting, and meditation, devoted himself to G.o.d and His Church, without reserve of rank, fortune, or country; that he had ultimately decided to be a Catholic; that he had studied theology four years in France; that he had been appointed a Missionary to the North, and had been some years a Missionary to the Lapps, and had preached before the Kings of Denmark and Sweden; that he was then Missionary Apostolic to all the Catholic Missions in Europe and America, north of lat.i.tude 60; and that he might yet visit Canada. This extraordinary man had mastered the languages of the various countries in which he had travelled and laboured, and gave my daughter specimens of his writing in twenty-seven different languages. I never knew a man of more disinterestedness, more devotion, and singleness of purpose, than Mr. Dunjowski. He was up and out at prayers to his church before five o'clock, in the terribly cold mornings the last of December and the beginning of January, in one of the coldest capitals of Europe.

On the other hand he asked me what I had been doing during the last eleven years. I replied that I had devised and brought into operation a system of public instruction, which had been approved by the Government and Legislature, and by the people at large, whom I had consulted, in the several counties of Upper Canada. He wished to know what I had done in respect to his co-religionists. I shewed him the provisions of our School Act, and the Regulations founded upon it in respect to Roman Catholics in Upper Canada. My Russian friend thought that nothing could be more just and fair than these clauses of the law and regulations, and requested permission to shew them to the Pope's Nuncio (an Italian Archbishop), at the Court of Bavaria. The Pope's Nuncio was so pleased with them, that he requested the loan of them until he got them translated into German, and published in the Bavarian newspapers, to shew how fairly the Roman Catholics were treated under the Protestant Government of Upper Canada. The Pope's Nuncio afterwards desired me to call upon him; and during the interview, after some complimentary remarks, requested me to be the bearer of a medal from the King of Bavaria to Cardinal Antonelli, at Rome. I readily accepted the honour and the office, and found the Pope's arms and seal a ready pa.s.sport when I got in a tight place among the avaricious Italian Custom House officers.

Dr. Ryerson thus describes his interview with Pope Pius IX.:

On my arrival at Rome I duly delivered my letters of introduction, and the King of Bavaria's medal to Cardinal Antonelli who received me with the utmost courtesy, offered me every facility to get pictures copied by my own selection at Rome, and proposed, if acceptable to me, to present me to His Holiness the Pope. I readily accepted the attentions and honours offered me; but told the Cardinal that I had a young daughter, and young lady companion of hers, whom I should wish to accompany me; His Excellency said, "By all means."

On the day appointed we went to the Vatican. Several foreign dignitaries were waiting in an ante-room for an audience with the Pope, but the Methodist preacher received precedence of them all.

"Are you a clergyman?" asked the Chancellor, who conducted me to the Pope's presence; "I am a Wesleyan minister," I replied. "Ah!

John Wesley. I've heard of him," said the Chancellor, as he shrugged his shoulders in surprise that a heretic should be so honoured above orthodox sons of the Church. We were then in due form introduced to the Pope, who received us most courteously, and stood up and shook hands with me and with whom I conversed (in French) for nearly a quarter of an hour; during the conversation His Holiness thanked me for the fairness and kindness with which he understood I had treated his Catholic children in Canada. Before the close of the interview, His Holiness turned to the young ladies (each of whom had a little sheet of note paper in their hands) and said, "My children, what is that you have in your hands?" The girls curtsied respectfully, and told His Holiness that they brought these sheets of paper in hopes His Holiness would have the condescension and kindness to give them his autograph. He smiled, and wrote in Latin the benediction: "Grace, mercy, and peace from G.o.d our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord," and then kindly gave them also the pen with which it was written.

Thus ended our interview with Pope Pins IX., of whose unaffected sincerity, candor, kindness, and good sense, we formed the most favourable opinion, notwithstanding the system of which he is the head.

Dr. Ryerson also mentions another interview which he had:--

In addition to my letters of introduction to Cardinal Antonelli, my Russian friend, Dunjowski, gave me a letter of introduction to Father Thyner, the keeper of the Archives at Rome, and an intimate personal friend of the Pope; in which letter he referred to the school systems of Upper Canada, in reference to Roman Catholics.

Father Thyner wished to see the Canadian school law and regulations, and shewed and explained them to the Pope, who afterwards spoke of their fairness and kindness, in my interview with His Holiness.

Father Thyner was once Librarian to the King of Prussia, and being a Roman Catholic, he went to Rome, where his varied learning and high character soon obtained him a high position at the Vatican.

He, as well as the Pope, in his early life was an enemy of the Jesuits, and was regarded by them as such throughout his whole life.

I had a severe illness of some weeks at Rome, during which Father Thyner visited me almost daily, but never said one word to me on the grounds of difference between Roman Catholics and Protestants.

During my last visit to England in 1876-7, I spent part of a day at the residence of the Rev. Wm. Arthur, A.M., who showed me the works in his library from which he had derived the princ.i.p.al materials of his masterly work on _The Pope and The People_. Among other works he shewed me some volumes written by Father Thyner, containing an account of the proceedings of the Council of Trent. "Why," I said, "I know Father Thyner personally," and related my acquaintance with him. Mr. Arthur said in reply, "This work is the chief source of my knowledge of the proceedings of the Councils of Trent;" and added, "Father Thyner having determined to publish an account (which had never before been published) of this Council, was forbidden to do so, and banished, or driven from Rome, when he went to Hungary, and published his great work on the Councils."

I have observed in the papers, that Father Thyner died in Hungary a year or two since. He was a man of profound learning, of fervent devotion, of great moderation in his views, of uncompromising integrity. I visited him in his convent, near Rome, and drank the juice of the grape grown in his own garden, and pressed by his own hand.

CHAPTER XLVI.

1844-1876.

Ontario School System.--Retirement of Dr. Ryerson.

Although I hope to be able to prepare a record of the private and personal history of the founding of our System of Public Education, and of the vicissitudes through which it pa.s.sed, as requested by Dr. Ryerson (page 350), yet in this chapter I give a brief outline of the principles of that System.

After his educational investigations in Europe, in 1844-1846, Dr.

Ryerson prepared an elaborate Report on a "System of Public Instruction for Upper Canada," which was published in 1846. In that report he says:--

By Education, I mean not the mere acquisition of certain arts, or of certain branches of knowledge, but that instruction and discipline which qualify and dispose the subjects of it for their appropriate duties and appointments in life, as Christians, as persons in business, and also as members of the civil community in which they live.

A basis of an educational structure adapted to this end should be as broad as the population of the country; and its loftiest elevation should equal the highest demands of the learned professions; adapting its gradation of schools to the wants of the several cla.s.ses of the community, and to their respective employments or professions, the one rising above the other--the one conducting to the other; yet each complete in itself for the degree of education it imparts; a character of uniformity, as to fundamental principles, pervading the whole: the whole based upon the principles of Christianity, and uniting the combined influence and support of the government and the people.

The branches of knowledge which it is essential that all should understand, should be provided for all, and taught to all; should be brought within the reach of the most needy, and forced upon the attention of the most careless. The knowledge required for the scientific pursuit of mechanics, agriculture, and commerce, must needs be provided to an extent corresponding with the demand, and the exigencies of the country; while, to a more limited extent, are needed facilities for acquiring the higher education of the learned professions.

With a view to give a summary sketch of Dr. Ryerson's exposition of the system of Public Instruction which he desired to establish, I give the following additional extracts from his first Report. After combating the objection which then existed in some quarters to the establishment of a thorough system of primary and industrial education, commensurate with the population and wants of the country, he remarked:--