"The Department of Public Instruction shall be under the management of a member of the Executive Council, to be designated 'Minister of Public Instruction,' who shall be an _ex officio_ member of the Toronto University and of the Council of Public Instruction, and who, in addition to the powers and functions vested in the Chief Superintendent of Education, shall have the oversight of all educational institutions which are or may be, aided by public endowment or legislative grant, to inspect and examine, from time to time, personally or any person appointed by him, into the character and working of such institution; and by him shall all public moneys be paid in support or aid of such institutions, and to him they will report at such times and in such manner as he shall direct.... "Our system of public instruction has acquired such gigantic dimensions, and the network of its operations so pervades every municipality of the land, and is so interwoven with our municipal and judicial systems of government, that I think its administration should now be vested in a responsible Minister of the Crown, with a seat in Parliament; and that I should not stand in the way of the application to our varied educational interests of that ministerial responsibility, which is sound in principle and wise in policy. During the past year I have presented a report on school systems in other countries, with a view of improving my own; and the Legislative Assembly has appointed a Select Committee for the same purpose. I have, therefore, thought this was the proper time to suggest the modification and extension of the Department of Public Instruction.... "While, in addition to the duties imposed upon me by law as Chief Superintendent of Education, I have voluntarily established a system of providing the municipal and school authorities with libraries, text-books and every description of school furniture and school apparatus--devising and developing their domestic manufacture. I have thus saved the country very many thousands of dollars in the prices as well as the quality of the books, maps, etc., etc. I can truly say that I have not derived one farthing's advantage from any of these arrangements, beyond the consciousness of conferring material, intellectual and social benefits upon the country."... To this letter the Government of the Hon. J. Sandfield Macdonald replied, through Provincial Secretary Cameron, on the 30th of January, 1869, as follows:--