Chapter XXXIII

1838-1840.

The New Era--Lord Durham and Lord Sydenham.

In the midst of the gloom which overspread the Province, in consequence of the long continued exercise of irresponsible and arbitrary power on the part of the local executive, Dr. Ryerson, like many other loyal-hearted Canadians, rejoiced at the advent of Lord Durham,--a man possessed of plenary powers to inquire into and report on the grievances existing in Canada. Those who wished to perpetuate the reign of the ruling party, strongly deprecated Dr. Ryerson's advocacy of Lord Durham's schemes of reform. One of the most respectable organs[108] of that party (Neilson's Quebec _Gazette_) in a complimentary editorial on Dr. Ryerson (in May, 1839), expressed regret that a man "of his undoubted talents and great industry" should have endorsed Lord Durham's system of Responsible Government. In the _Guardian_ of the 5th June, Dr. Ryerson replied, pointing out the fair and equitable system of Responsible Government advocated by Lord Durham, as compared with the crude one put forth by Messrs. W. L. Mackenzie and L. J. Papineau. He then illustrates the necessity for the reform proposed by Lord Durham, by referring to the arbitrary and irresponsible acts of Sir Francis Head. He said:--

The published word of the Representative of Royalty had [until Sir F. B. Head's time] been sacred and inviolable in Upper Canada; the majority of the people believed him. In 1836 they elected a House of Assembly in accordance with his wishes. He fulfilled his pledges by dismissing many of the magistrates and militia officers, because they voted against his candidates at the elections, and finished his career by plunging the country into misery, and thereby insuring its ruin.

Now, where (he asked) was the "responsibility" under which ... such a Governor acts? He abuses the confidence reposed in him,--where is his censure? He disobeys the orders given him from England,--where is his punishment? He ruins men [Bidwell, etc.] whom he was ordered to appoint,--where is their redress, and his accountability? They are exiles, and he is made a Baronet! He disgraces and degrades numbers of persons without colour of reason, or justice, or law--yet they are without redress, and he is even without reproof. He tramples upon the orders from Her Majesty's Government, and attacks her ministers in their places--then returns to England, and boasts of his disobedience.... And there are those who tell us of the responsibility of our Governors to the Queen and Parliament!... The history of Sir F. B. Head's administration is enough to make the veriest bigot a convert to "Responsible Government."

For these and other important reasons it can be seen how the great question of the day (in 1839) was that of responsible government for these provinces. Dr. Ryerson and others had written freely on the subject, claiming that the government of the country should be administered, as it was then expressed--"according to the well understood wishes of the people." This could only be done by men representing their wishes, and responsible to the legislature for their exercise of power and for every official act of the Governor.

In October, Dr. Ryerson received a letter on this subject from a well-known advocate of the principle of responsible government in Nova Scotia--Hon. Joseph Howe. He said:--

May I beg your acceptance of a little work on responsible
government, the object of which is to advance the good cause in
which you have so heartily and with so much ability embarked. It is
a great satisfaction to the friends of responsible government here,
that the cause has been taken up in Canada by men about whose
intentions and loyalty there can be no mistake. So long as we
deprive the family compact of their only defence, which the folly
of rebels and sympathizers raised for them, and act together
without just cause for suspicion that we are anything but what we
say, there can be little doubt of ultimate success. Should your
electors return a majority favourable to responsibility at the next
election, and all the colonies unite in one demand, it will be
yielded. Our legislature, and any that can be chosen here, will
uphold the principle. So will the majorities in Newfoundland, and
Prince Edward Island, and New Brunswick. I cannot speak with
certainty, but hope they will soon understand the question
thoroughly in that province. It may be necessary for all the
provinces to send delegates at the same time to England, to claim
to be heard on the subject at the Bar of the Commons and Lords, and
to diffuse, through every fair channel, correct views of the
question. Think of this, and drop me a line at your leisure.

This Dr. Ryerson did in due time.

The coming of Lord Durham was the first harbinger of better days for Canada. His mission was one of enquiry, and for the suggestion of remedial measures. The mission of Mr. Poulett Thompson (who followed Lord Durham as Governor-General) was hailed with delight by the people generally. He came to give practical effect to pressing measures of reform--to unite the provinces, and to introduce a new element of strength into the administrative system of the country.

* * * * *

The year 1839 was noted for the enthusiasm with which "Durham Meetings" were held throughout Upper Canada. These meetings were for the purpose of endorsing the famous report of Lord Durham, and for approving of the many valuable reforms which that report suggested. Much opposition and even violence characterized these meetings; but they revived and again inaugurated the right of free speech on public questions. The only record which Dr. Ryerson has left of this period of his history is as follows:--

In 1838 I yielded to persuasion and remonstrances, and was again re-elected Editor, and continued as such until June, 1840, when I relinquished finally all connection with the Editorship of the _Christian Guardian_.

It was during this period, from 1833 to 1840, that the most important events transpired in Upper Canada; the controversy respecting the clergy reserves, and a church establishment, was steadily and earnestly maintained.

The constitution of Lower Canada was suspended for two years, and an Executive Council Government was established in its place. The dominant party in Upper Canada by liberal professions succeeded in the elections, in 1836; but, instead of adopting a just and liberal policy, they sought to exclude all Reformers from a share in the Government as virtual rebels, and set themselves to promote a high-church establishment policy, to the exclusion of the Methodists and members of other religious denominations.

This unwise, unjust, and inverted-pyramid policy laid the foundation for a new agitation. The Methodists were the only party capable of coping with the revived high-church policy to crush out the rights of other denominations and the liberties of the country, and to paralyze their influence. The Presbyterians being divided, the Canadian Conference was not to be deterred, or moved from its principles, avowed and maintained for more than ten years; the result was a contest between the English and Canadian Conferences, which culminated in 1840 in a separation of the two bodies, and a conflict of seven years--wholly political--for London Wesleyan, English superiority, and tory ascendancy on the one side, and Canadian Methodist and Canadian liberty on the other side.

* * * * *

It is not my purpose to enter into detail, except in so far as Dr. Ryerson became an actor in the new scenes and events which followed the appointment of Mr. Charles Poulett Thompson as Governor-General.

Mr. Poulett Thompson arrived in Quebec on the 19th October, 1839, and in Toronto on the 21st November. As Governor-General, he superseded both Sir John Colborne at Quebec and Sir George Arthur at Toronto.

On the 3rd December, the Governor-General opened the Upper Canada Legislature; and on that very day Dr. Ryerson addressed to him an elaborate letter on the chief object of his mission. In referring to the clergy reserve question, he said:--

For sixteen years this question has been a topic of ceaseless discussion; and one on which the sentiments and feelings of a very large majority of the inhabitants have been without variation expressed; notwithstanding that Governor has succeeded Governor, and party has succeeded party.... From the time when, at the elections of 1824, the sentiments of the country were first called forth to the present moment, its collective voice has demanded, what your Excellency has avowed on another subject, "equal justice to all of Her Majesty's subjects." This question is the parent of social discord in Upper Canada; all the other party questions have originated in this. The elevation of one class above all others in a community where there is little diversity of rank or intelligence, begets a necessity for special means to support that elevation. Hence partizan appointments to office; hence partizan administration of offices; hence party animosities, embittered by the jealousies of conscious weakness on one side, and a deep sense of unmerited exclusion and provocation on the other.... Hence on the one side a selfish, insolent, baseless ecclesiastical and political oligarchy, and, on the other side, an abused, an injured, and dissatisfied country.

* * * * *

The bill providing for the vesting of the proceeds of the reserves in the Imperial Parliament, to which I have referred in the preceeding chapter, was not sanctioned by Her Majesty. This was "a sore blow and a heavy discouragement" to those who had laboured so assiduously to carry such a bill through the local Legislature. The objection raised to it by Lord John Russell was twofold. The chief reason, however, was thus expressed:--

It appeared to Her Majesty's Government that strong objections
existed to this delegation to Parliament by a subordinate authority
of the power of legislation. The proceeding should have been by
address to the three estates of the Realm, asking them to undertake
the decision of the question.

Thus by a stroke of Lord John Russell's pen, the whole of the pet scheme of the ruling party, devised after three months' anxious local legislation, was irrecoverably lost. And yet it was not lost, for by the after careful manipulation of Lord John and his colleagues by Bishop Strachan, Lord Seaton (Sir John Colborne) and Sir George Arthur, that bill afterwards proved to be, for ten years, the basis of a far more sweeping and unjust measure than even the most reckless and partizan member of the Legislature in Upper Canada would have ventured to propose.

When it was known that Her Majesty had declined to sanction Sir George Arthur's bill, steps were taken by the Governor-General to devise such a measure as would meet with the approval of the great mass of the people in Upper Canada. To aid him in accomplishing this desirable end, Mr. Poulett Thompson privately sought the aid of leading public men in the Province. Having obtained their assistance, he, with the advice of his Council, prepared a compromise measure which was designed to be just and equitable to all parties concerned.

On the 6th January, 1840, the Governor-General sent a message to the House of Assembly, in which he thus outlines the measure which, with his sanction, Hon. Solicitor-General Draper submitted to the House:--

The Governor-General proposes that the remainder of the land should
be sold, and the annual proceeds of the whole fund, when realized,
be distributed [one half to the Episcopal and Presbyterian
Churches, and the other half among other religious bodies desiring
to share in it] for the support of religious instruction within the
Province, and for the promotion there, of the great and sacred
objects for which these different bodies are established or
associated.

On this bill, Dr. Ryerson remarked:--

From this message, the hopelessness of success in any further
attempts to get the annual proceeds of the reserves appropriated to
exclusively secular objects, is apparent.... Up to the present time
I have employed my best efforts, by every kind of argument,
persuasion and entreaty, to get the proceeds applied simply and
solely to educational purposes.... This is unattainable, and is
rendered so by an original provision of our Constitution (of 1791),
as stated by the Governor-General.

The bill was fiercely attacked by the then newly-appointed Bishop of Toronto. He denounced it as--

Depriving the National Church of nearly three-fourths of her
acknowledged property, and then, in mockery and derision, offering
her back a portion of her own, so trifling as to be totally
insufficient to maintain her present Establishment; it tramples on
the faith of the British Government by destroying the birthright of
all the members of the Established Church who are now in the
province, or who may hereafter come into it; it promotes error,
schism and dissent, and seeks to degrade the clergy of the Church
of England to an equality with unauthorized teachers, etc.

The Bishop then uttered, that which events proved to be a memorable and true prophecy, that the Church--

Need be under no great apprehension in regard to any measure likely
to pass the Provincial Legislature on the subject of the
reserves:--reckless injustice in their disposition will not be
permitted; although the Church may appear friendless and in peril,
from the defection and treachery of some professing members.... If
any of her children incline to despondency, let them turn their
eyes to England, where we have protectors both numerous and
powerful, watching our struggles, and holding out the hand of
fellowship and assistance. [See next page.]

Dr. Ryerson at once joined issue with the Bishop, and--

Confuted the pretensions of "John Toronto" by the doctrines and
statements of "John Strachan," who, when in England in 1827,
published a pamphlet in which he stated that "the provincial
legislatures have nothing to do, either directly or indirectly,
with the Romish Church; but the same legislatures may vary, repeal,
or modify the 31st Geo. III., cap. 31, as far as it respects the
Church of England."

Dr. Ryerson pertinently asked the Bishop--

How could a "birthright" be "varied, repealed, or modified," as he
had admitted that the constitutional act could do, "as far as it
respects the Church of England?" Can (he asks) the Legislature
"vary or repeal" the deeds by which individuals hold their
lands?--Which of the "dissenting" denominations recognized by law
is not as orthodox in doctrine as the Church of England, and far
more orthodox than those who endorse the Oxford "Tracts for the
Times?"

The bill was finally passed in the House of Assembly, by a vote of 31 to 7, and in the Legislative Council, by a vote of 13 to 4, notwithstanding a remarkably outspoken and defiant speech from the Bishop. In it he used the following language:

Feeling that the bill provides for the encouragement and
propagation of error; inflicts the grossest injustice by robbing
and plundering the National Church; that it attempts to destroy all
distinction between truth and falsehood; that its anti-Christian
tendencies lead directly to infidelity, and will reflect disgrace
on the Legislature, I give it my unqualified opposition.

The Bishop again utters his prediction, and stated that what he wanted would be secured in England. He said--

At the same time I have no fear of its ever becoming law. But it
may be useful, for its monstrous and unprincipled provisions will
teach the Imperial Government the folly of permitting a Colonial
Legislature to tamper with those great and holy principles of the
Constitution, on the preservation of which the prosperity and
happiness of the British Empire must ever depend.

Although it was almost impossible to reason with any one who would deliberately use such extravagant language, yet Dr. Ryerson replied to the Bishop's statements _seriatim_. With a touch of irony, he said:--

After penning such an effusion, the Bishop might well betake
himself to the Litany of his Church, and pray the good Lord to
deliver him--from all blindness of heart; from pride, vain glory
and hypocrisy; from envy, hatred and malice, and all
uncharitableness.

The fate of the bill is thus described in a statement on the subject, prepared by Dr. Ryerson. What he details clearly reveals the powerful and sympathetic influences which the Bishop of Toronto was able successfully to bring to bear upon "Henry of Exeter"--the then leader of the Bench of Bishops,--and, through him, upon the other Bishops in the House of Lords. Besides, Sir John Colborne (now Lord Seaton) took strong ground in the House of Lords in favour of the views of his old friend, Bishop Strachan, and aided the English Bishops in giving them practical effect. Thus the reiterated prophecy of the Bishop of Toronto was not uttered without abundant foreknowledge. It proved too true. Knowing this, he no doubt felt free to deal in strong language, both against the Legislature of Upper Canada, and the members of the Church of England in both Houses, who were too patriotic, just and reasonable, as well as far-seeing, to second his efforts to aggrandize the Church at the expense, and against the strongly-expressed and oft-repeated wishes, of the majority of the people, of Upper Canada. He said:

On the bill being sent to England (accompanied by a most energetic
despatch from the Governor-General, imploring Her Majesty's
Government not to disallow, but to sanction it), the Bishop of
Exeter moved in the House of Lords, that the question of the right
to the clergy reserve property in Canada should be referred to the
twelve Judges of England; but the decision of the Judges having
proved adverse to the exclusive pretensions of the Bishop of Exeter
and his party in England and Canada, the English Bishops then
conferred with Lord John Russell, in order to set aside Lord
Sydenham's Canadian bill, and introduce one into the Imperial
Parliament which would accomplish as far as possible the objects
aimed at by referring the question to the Judges. Lord John Russell
became a consenting party and agent in this unconstitutional act of
injustice and spoliation against the rights and feelings of a large
majority of the people of Upper Canada. It was against this act
that Messrs. W. and E. Ryerson (then in England), on behalf of the
Wesleyan Church in Canada, remonstrated in an elaborate and
strongly-worded letter to Lord John Russell--the only communication
of the kind made by any religious body in Canada against the bill
while it was before the British Parliament, or for several years
afterwards.

Knowing the strong influences which had been brought to bear upon Mr. Poulett Thompson against Dr. Ryerson, by Sir George Arthur (page 193), and against the Methodist body generally by interested parties in this discussion, Dr. Ryerson addressed a letter to the Governor-General on the 25th March, 1840, in which he reviewed the course of the _Guardian_ and his own attitude on public questions during the preceding ten years. The letter was evidently written with deep feeling, and under a keen sense of the injustice done to the Methodist people by means of the prolonged and persistent misrepresentation of these years. He said:--

I address your Excellency with feelings of the highest respect and
strong affection. You are the first Governor of Canada who has
exerted his personal influence and the authority of his station,
to accomplish that in Upper Canada which has been avowed and
promised by every Colonial-Secretary during the last ten
years--framing enactments and administering the Government for the
equal protection and benefit of all classes of Her Majesty's
Canadian subjects.... In doing so, your Excellency has been told
that you have patronized "republicans and rebels." ... The
_Guardian_, which you have been pleased to honour with an
expression of your approbation, has been charged with opposite
crimes from different quarters.... You have been told that the
ministers of the Wesleyan Methodist Church--whose rights you have
justly and kindly consulted--have formerly come from the United
States; and that the _Guardian_, during the first years of its
existence, was nothing but a vehicle of radicalism, disaffection,
and sedition.... As to the former, I may say that the Methodist
ministers have not come from ... the United States during the last
twenty years.... As to the latter, I furnish three columns of
extracts from the _Guardian_, ... from which the following may be
adduced:--

1. That in 1830 I entertained less friendship towards our American
neighbours than I do in 1840.

2. That in 1830 I advocated the very principles in the
administration of the Provincial Government that your Excellency
has declared to be the basis of your administration in 1840.

3. That in 1830 I was as strongly opposed to an exclusive, or
sectarian, spirit as I am in 1840.

4. That the very advice which I gave to the electors in 1830, as to
their rights and interests, I could now repeat with a view to
support your Excellency's administration.

5. That the very principles upon which your Excellency has
commenced your administration, ... were actually promised and
assured to the people of Upper Canada by a Tory Government in 1830.

In 1830 the Colonial-Secretary and Sir John Colborne proclaimed the
"good laws and free institutions," and the non-preference system
amongst religious denominations, which your Excellency is
determined to carry into practice.... When the hopes created by
these avowals have not only been deferred for these years, but
those who have indulged these hopes have been maligned and
proscribed for constitutionally seeking a realization of them, you
cannot be surprised if many of their hearts have been made sick,
and that confidence and hope has yielded to distrust and despair.

The Governor-General, through his private secretary, often requested Dr. Ryerson, while Editor of the _Guardian_, to correct misstatements which were made in regard to His Excellency's proceedings.[109]

After an interview with His Excellency, at his request, Dr. Ryerson, in a letter dated 4th April, 1840, made a practical suggestion as to the desirability of establishing the _Monthly Review_, as a means of disseminating the liberal views which he entertained in regard to the future government of this country, and also as an organ of public opinion in harmony with these views. It was at first proposed that Dr. Ryerson should edit the _Review_, but after fuller consideration of the matter he declined, and the editing and management of it was, at his suggestion, placed in the hands of John Waudby, Esq., Editor of the Kingston _Herald_. It was issued in Toronto early in 1841, but ceased on the death of Lord Sydenham, in September of that year. In Dr. Ryerson's letter to the Governor he said:--

About a fortnight after your Excellency left Toronto, I happened in
the course of conversation with Hon. R. B. Sullivan to mention the
subject of establishing a monthly periodical, such as I had
mentioned to you. Mr. Sullivan was anxious that something of the
kind should be undertaken; I stated to him that I understood that
your Excellency would highly approve of such a publication, if it
could be successfully established. Mr. Sullivan pressed me to
prepare a prospectus and submit it for your Excellency's
consideration. I drew up a prospectus, and got an estimate of the
cost, covering all expenses. Mr. Sullivan fully concurred in the
prospectus, except the first paragraph. He was afraid it might be
construed into an expression of opinion in favour of "responsible
Government," and proposed another paragraph in place of it. The one
was as acceptable to me as the other. A feeling of apprehension and
embarrassment at the responsibilities of such an undertaking, and
the course of exertion which a successful accomplishment of it
would require, has deterred me from forwarding, until now, the
accompanying prospectus for your Excellency's perusal and
signification of your pleasure thereon.[110]

I cannot but see that the public mind in this country is in a
chaotic state, without any controlling current of feeling, or fixed
principle of action, in civil affairs; but susceptible, by proper
management and instruction, of being cast into any mould of
rational opinion and feeling; yet liable, without judicious
direction, to fall into a state of "confusion worse confounded." I
know that now is the time--perhaps the only time--to establish our
institutions and relations upon the cheapest, the surest, and the
only permanent foundation of any system, or form of Government--the
sentiments and feelings of the population. But I alone have not the
means or the power of contributing to the accomplishment of these
objects. To the utmost of my humble abilities and acquirements, I
am willing to exert myself; and that without a shillings'
remuneration--although my present salary is less than £200 per
annum. I believe the government about to be established in these
provinces may be made the most enduring and loftiest memorial of
your Excellency's fame, and the greatest earthly blessing to its
inhabitants; and it will be to me a source of satisfaction to
contribute towards the formation and cementing of materials for the
erection of a monument at once so honourable to its founder, and so
beneficial to Her Majesty's Canadian subjects.

The personal influence of your Excellency in Lower Canada will be
required to induce two or three of the cleverest men in Lower
Canada to contribute to the columns of the _Review_; especially on
questions and subjects which grow out of the state and structure of
society in that province. Mr. Sullivan thinks he will be able to
contribute one, if not two, articles for each number. I am
acquainted with several other gentlemen who are competent to
contribute very ably on some subjects. I know from experience that
furnishing matter for any periodical, as well as giving it
character, must chiefly devolve upon the conductor of it. He must
give it soul, if it have any; he must combine, concentrate, and
direct its power. And such a publication, got up under so high and
favourable auspices, and properly conducted, and embodying the
productions of the leading minds of both provinces, cannot fail to
prove an engine of immense and even irresistible moral power in the
country; and must materially contribute to its intellectual as well
as political elevation.

As to my own views and feelings, I would greatly prefer retiring
altogether from any connection with the press in all discussions of
civil affairs in every shape and form, and I can consistently and
honourably do so in June. But if this course be not justifiable in
the present circumstances of the province; if it be deemed
expedient for me still to take a part in public matters, I am
sensible I ought to do more than I do now, or can do through the
organ of a religious body. The relation, character and objects of
the publication I now conduct, impose a restriction upon the topics
and illustrations which are requisite to an effective discussion of
political questions. Under such circumstances I can neither do
justice to myself, nor to the subjects on which I occasionally
remark, or might discuss.

I have felt the more disposed to make this communication, because
your Excellency's avowed system and policy of Government is but
carrying out and reducing to practice those views of civil polity
in Canada which have guided my public life, as your Excellency will
have observed from the articles and references which have appeared
in the _Guardian_. I have been defeated and disappointed
heretofore, because the local executive itself has been for the
most part rather the head of a party, than the Government of the
country, and the opposition, or "Reform" party, has often gone to
equal extremes of selfishness and extravagance; so that I have
occupied the unenviable and uncomfortable position of a sort of
break-water--resisting and checking the conflicting waves of mutual
party violence, convinced that the exclusive and absolute
ascendancy of either party would be destructive of the ends of just
Government, and public happiness; a position which, previously to
your Excellency's arrival in Canada, I had determined to abandon,
as I found myself possessed of no adequate means of accomplishing
any permanent good by occupying it.

I think the appearance in this province of Lord John Russell's
despatch on "Responsible Government" is timely. The "Reformers" are
too fully committed to Government to fly off; and a large portion
of the old "Conservative" party are glad of an excuse to change
their position. Neither party can triumph, as _both_ must concede
something. This mutual concession will prepare the way for mutual
forbearance, and ultimately for co-operation and union. Having
perceived that the Editor of the _Examiner_ was seeking, under the
pretence of supporting the Government, to get a House of Assembly
returned, consisting wholly of the old Reformers, who had
identified themselves in 1834-5-6, with the Papineau party of Lower
Canada, I thought it desirable to check such a design in the bud,
by insisting upon the support of Hon. W. H. Draper, and that he
should be returned upon the same grounds as those of Mr. Baldwin.
The elucidation and description of this one case will affect the
position of parties in the character of the elections throughout
the province, and make them turn, not upon Lord Durham's "Report,"
or any of the old questions of difference, but upon your
Excellency's administration. This, I have no doubt, with a little
care, will, in most instances be the case. Thus will the members
returned from Upper Canada, be isolated from the French
anti-unionists of Lower Canada, and be more fully, both in
obligation and feeling, identified with the Government. I have not,
therefore, been surprised at the _Examiner's_ indignation, as it is
so ultra, and thorough a partizan, and as it has some discernment,
though but little prudence.

In reply, the Private Secretary of the Governor-General said:

I am to express to you His Excellency's approbation of the plans
you have suggested, and he desires me to say that he requests that
you will visit Montreal, on your way to New York, as he is anxious
to see you on the subject contained in your letter.

The Special Council meets this day for the first time.

The Secretary further added:--

His Excellency agrees that the line which you have taken is most
judicious. There is no doubt that the gentleman to whom you refer
is doing very great mischief both to Hon. Robert Baldwin and the
Government, by the extremes to which he is pushing his cry for
responsible government, and his opposition to Hon. W. H. Draper.

Dr. Ryerson (who was on his way to the General Conference at Baltimore) in a note, dated Montreal, 4th May, said:--

The Governor-General having kindly invited me to visit him and
converse on matters relating to public affairs, I did so, and was
most cordially received by him. I also had a long interview with
him on Friday afternoon, and am desired to spend the evening with
him on Saturday. His Excellency has given every requisite
information as to his plans. I am thus enabled to accomplish the
object of my visit far beyond what I expected when I left home.

In a letter from New York (dated 9th May) Dr. Ryerson said:--Much to my surprise to-day, while in New York on my way to Baltimore, I received a note from the Governor-General's Secretary, T. W. C. Murdoch, Esq., as follows:--

By direction of the Governor-General I send you the enclosed bill
of exchange for £100 stg., the receipt of which I would request you
to acknowledge.

You will have seen the English papers which hold out every prospect
that both the Union and the Clergy Reserve Bills will be
satisfactorily settled. I feel that I may congratulate you, and
every friend of Canada, on such a result.

I acknowledged this kind and generous act, but at once returned the Bill of Exchange to His Excellency--at the same time respectfully assuring him, that under no circumstances could I receive anything for what I had done, or might do, to support the policy and administration of Her Majesty's Government, in the peculiar circumstances of the Province.

* * * * *

One of the chief points discussed in Upper Canada, in connection with the proposed union of the provinces, was the effect it would have on the Protestant character of the government and institutions of the county. Mr. John W. Gamble, a public man, and a leading member of the Church of England, in Vaughan, writing to Dr. Ryerson on the subject, said:--

I feel deeply the conviction that the time has now arrived when
Protestants must sink all points of minor consideration, and unite
in defence of our common faith. The union of the provinces will
most assuredly result in giving not only a preponderance, but a
large majority to the Roman Catholics in the united legislature;
and this taken in conjunction with the plans now in operation for
pouring a large Roman Catholic population into these provinces,
surely ought not only to excite the fears, but rouse the energies
of those who know and love the truth as it is in Jesus. I am
altogether ignorant of your opinion upon the union question, but I
call upon you as a Protestant to unite with me in endeavouring to
avert the threatened calamity.

Mr. Gamble was for many years afterwards an earnest opponent in the Legislature of United Canada of the extension of the Separate School system in the province.

* * * * *

Although greatly enfeebled in health, yet Dr. Ryerson's Mother was enabled to write to him occasionally. In a letter written by her in 1839, after returning from seeing him, she said:--

I suppose you are anxious to know the state of my mind. I yet feel
that the Lord is my trust, and I am waiting daily till my change
come. I feel that when the "earthly house of this tabernacle be
dissolved, I have a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens." Dear Egerton, I feel very much as I did when I left
you--a great deal of weakness. I am anxious to live to see you all
once more, perhaps for the last time. Do not neglect to come up,
one and all, as soon as convenient, if you only stay one day. When
you come fetch some books, such as you think would be profitable
for me, and one of your good-sized Bibles; also three of your
likenesses. I thought that your Father had brought them up when he
came. Do not fail to come up and see us. Don't let me be denied the
happiness of seeing you soon.

FOOTNOTES:

[108] The organs of that party in Upper Canada spoke of Dr. Ryerson's advocacy of Lord Durham's reforms with far less courtesy, and for obvious reasons.

[109] Thus in a note dated 8th April, 1840, the Private Secretary said:--I know that His Excellency would wish you to comment on Lord John's despatch in the sense in which it is treated in the Montreal _Gazette_. [This was done in the _Guardian_ of 15th April.] There is no doubt also that it is absurd in Hon. Henry Sherwood to pretend that he is supporting the Government when he opposes their own Solicitor-General, but not less so in the _Examiner_ to support him and oppose Mr. Draper, or to stand up for a kind of responsible government which both His Excellency and Lord John Russell have declared to be inadmissible. I know that His Excellency would wish you to do everything in your power to support both Mr. Draper and Mr. Baldwin. Should any article come out which you consider would interest His Excellency, may I request you to send me a copy.

[110] The following was the prospectus agreed upon and issued:--

A Monthly Review, Devoted to the Civil Government of Canada.

The Canadas have been united under an amended constitution; the foundation has been laid for an improved system of government. The success of that constitution will greatly depend upon a correct understanding and a just appreciation of its principles; and the advantages of the new system of government will be essentially influenced by the views and feelings of the inhabitants of the Canadas themselves. At a period so eventful, and under circumstances so peculiar, it is of the utmost importance that the principles of the constitution should be carefully analysed, and dispassionately expounded; that the relations between this and the Mother Country, and the mutual advantages connected with those relations, should be explained and illustrated; the duties of the several branches of the government and the different classes of the community, stated and enforced; the natural, commercial, and agricultural resources and interests of these Provinces investigated and developed; a comprehensive and efficient system[a] of public education discussed and established; the subject of emigration practically considered in proportion to its vast importance; the various measures adapted to promote the welfare of all classes of the people originated and advocated; and a taste for intellectual improvement and refinement encouraged and cultivated.

As the Editor's views on all the leading questions of Canadian policy accord with those of His Excellency the Governor-General, who has been pleased to approve of the plan of the _Monthly Review_, it will be enabled to state correctly the facts and principles on which the government proceeds; yet the writers alone will be held responsible for whatever they may advance.

[a] Dr. Ryerson, who wrote this prospectus, evidently had in view such a system of Education as he afterwards established.