"I submitted the clause first to Rev. Mr. Grasett. He quite approved of it, as he felt exceedingly anxious that there should be such an explicit recognition of Christianity in our school system. I then waited on the Roman Catholic Bishop, who examined it and concurred in it.... I showed it also to the Bishop of Toronto. After he had read the section he said he believed I had done all that could be done on that subject, and that ... he would write a circular to his clergy, recommending them to act as school visitors, and to do all in their power to promote the efficiency and usefulness of the Common Schools." In his report for 1847, Dr. Ryerson stated that he consulted other ministers on the subject. The Hon. Mr. Draper, in a private note to Dr. Ryerson, dated 1st January, 1847, said:-- "I am more gratified than I can express that you have so successfully met the difficulty about the religious instruction of children in Common Schools. You (to whom I expressed myself about three years ago on the subject of the importance of not dividing religion from secular instruction) will readily understand the pleasure I feel that in Common Schools at least the principle and promoted application of it, for mixed schools, has been approved by the Bishop of my own Church and by the Roman Catholic Prelate." In a letter to the late Hon. Robert Baldwin, written in 1849, Dr. Ryerson thus refers to the question of religious instruction and the Bible in school: "Be assured that no system of popular education will flourish in a country which does violence to the religious sentiments and feelings of the churches of that country. Be assured, that every such system will droop and wither which does not take root in the Christian and patriotic sympathies of the people--which does not command the respect and confidence of the several religious persuasions, both ministers and laity--for these in fact make the aggregate of the Christianity of the country."