systems of popular
education, based upon the principle of free schools, were possible in
the republican American States, where the wide diffusion of education
was regarded as a prime necessity for the stability and success of
republican institutions, and, therefore, was fostered with unceasing
care. It was the theme on which the popular orator loved to dilate to a
people on whose sympathies with the subject he could always confidently
reckon. The practical mind of Dr. Ryerson, however, at once saw that the
American idea of free schools was the true one. He moreover perceived
that by giving his countrymen facilities for freely discussing the
question among the ratepayers once a year, they would educate themselves
into the idea, without any interference from the State. These facilities
were provided in 1850; and for twenty-one years the question of
free-schools _versus_ rate-bill schools (lees, &c.) was discussed every
January in from 3,000 to 5,000 school sections, until free schools
became voluntarily the rule, and rate-bill schools the exception. In
1871, by common consent, the free school principle was incorporated into
our school system by the Legislature, and has ever since been the
universal practice. In the adoption of this principle, and in the
successful administration of the Education Department, Dr. Ryerson at
length demonstrated that a popular (or, as it had been held in the
United States, the democratic) system of public schools was admirably
adapted to our monarchical institutions. In point of fact, leading
American educationists have often pointed out that the Canadian system
of public education was more efficient in all of its details and more
practically successful in its results, than was the ordinary American
school system in any one of the States of the Union. Thus it is that the
fame of Dr. Ryerson as a successful founder of our educational system,
rests upon a solid basis. What has been done by him will not be undone;
and the ground gone over by him will not require to be traversed again.
In the "Story of My Life," not much has been said upon the subject with
which Dr. Ryerson's name has been most associated. It was distinctively
the period of his public life, and its record will be found in the
official literature of his Department. The personal reminiscences left
by him are scanty, and of themselves would present an utterly inadequate
picture of his educational work. Such a history may one day be w