The Story of My Life Part 22

I may mention that so strongly impressed was I with these views, that in an interview which I had with Mr. Secretary Stanley, a few days before the Clergy Reserve pet.i.tions were presented by Mr. Hume, I remarked that the people of Upper Canada, not being acquainted with public men in England, had sent them to the care of a gentleman of influence in the financial affairs of Great Britain, but that I was apprehensive that he was not the best qualified to advocate a purely legal and religious question. Mr. Secretary Stanley smilingly interrupted me by asking "Is it Hume?" I replied, "It is, but I hope this circ.u.mstance will not have the least influence upon your mind, Mr. Secretary Stanley, in giving the subject that important and full consideration which its great importance demands." Mr. Stanley replied: "No, Mr. Ryerson, be a.s.sured that the subject will not be in the least prejudiced in my mind by any circ.u.mstance of that kind; but I shall give it the most important and grave consideration."

_May 24th._--Within three months after Dr. Ryerson had stated these facts in regard to Mr. Hume, overwhelming evidence of the correctness of his statement that Mr. Hume was unfit to act as a representative, in the British Parliament, of the people of Upper Canada, was given by Mr. Hume himself in a letter addressed to Mr. W. L. Mackenzie, dated 29th March, 1834. In that letter Mr. Hume stated that Mr. Mackenzie's

Election to, and subsequent ejection from the Legislature, must hasten that crisis which is fast approaching in the affairs of the Canadas, and which will terminate in independence and freedom from the baneful domination of the mother country.

He also advised that

The proceedings between 1772 and 1782 in America ought not to be forgotten; and to the honour of the Americans, for the interests of the civilized world, let their conduct and the result be ever in view.

Dr. Ryerson added: There is no mistaking the revolutionary and treasonable character of this advice given to Canadians through Mr. W.

L. Mackenzie. Yet I have been denounced for exposing the designs of such revolutionary advisers!

The following is an extract from Mr. W. L. Mackenzie's remarks in the _Colonial Advocate_ on Mr. Hume's letter:--

The indignant feeling of the honest old Reformer (Hume), when he became acquainted with the heartless slanders of the unprincipled ingrate Ryerson, may be easily conceived from the tone of his letter.... Mr. Mackenzie will be prepared to hand the original letter to the Methodist Conference.

_June 4th._--In the _Guardian_ of this date, Dr. Ryerson replied at length to Mr. Hume's letter, pointing out how utterly and totally false were Mr. Hume's statements in regard to himself. He, in June, 1832, expressed his opinion of Mr. Hume (pages 118 and 123). He then said:--

That was my opinion of Mr. Hume, even before I advocated the Clergy Reserve pet.i.tion in England,--such it was after I conversed with him personally, and witnessed his proceedings,--such it is now,--and such must be the opinion of every British subject, after reading Mr. Hume's revolutionary letter, in which he rejoices in the approach of a crisis in the affairs of the Canadas, "which will terminate in independence and freedom from the baneful domination of the mother country!" I stated to Mr. Mackenzie more than once, when he called upon me in London, that I could not a.s.sociate myself with his political measures. But notwithstanding all my caution, I, in fact, got into bad company, for which I have now paid a pretty fair price.... I cannot but regard it as a blessing and happiness to the Methodist connexion at large, that they also, by the admission of all parties, stand so completely distinct from Messrs. Hume and Mackenzie, as to be involved in no responsibility and disgrace, by this premature announcement of their revolutionary purposes.

_Oct. 25th._--As to the final result of the agitation in regard to the "Impressions," Rev. John Ryerson, writing from Hallowell (Picton), at this date, says:--

The work of schism has been pretty extensive in some parts of this District. There have as the result of it left, or have been expelled, on the Waterloo Circuit, 150; on the Bay of Quinte, 40; in Belleville, 47; Sidney, 50; Cobourg, 32; making in all 320.

There have been received on these circuits since Conference 170, which leaves a balance against us of 150.

Remarks on the Result of the "Impressions."

The result (on the members.h.i.+p of the Societies) of this politico-religious agitation was more or less the same in other parts of the Connexion. The publication of the "impressions" was (to those who had for years been in a state of chronic war with the powers that be) like the falling of the thunderbolt of Jove out of a cloudless sky. It unexpectedly precipitated a crisis in provincial affairs. It brought men face to face with a new issue. An issue too which they had not thought of; or, if it had presented itself to their minds, was regarded as a remote, if possible, contingency. Their experience of the working of "British inst.i.tutions" (as the parody on them in Upper Canada was called), had so excited their hostility and embittered their feelings, that when they at first heard Dr. Ryerson speak in terms of eulogy of the working of these inst.i.tutions in the mother country, they could not, or would not, distinguish between such inst.i.tutions in England and their professed counterpart in Upper Canada. Nor could they believe that the great champion of their cause, who in the past had exposed the pernicious and oppressive workings of the so-called British inst.i.tutions in Upper Canada, was sincere in his exposition of the principles and the promulgation of doctrines in regard to men and things in Britain, which were now declared by Mr. W. L. Mackenzie to be heretical as well as entirely opposed to views and opinions which he (Dr. Ryerson) had hitherto held on these important questions. The novelty of the "impressions" themselves, and the bitterness with which they were at once a.s.sailed, confused the public mind and embarra.s.sed many of Dr.

Ryerson's friends.

In these days of ocean telegraphy and almost daily intercourse by steam with Britain, we can scarcely realize how far separated Canada was from England fifty years ago. Besides this, the channels through which that intercourse was carried on were few, and often of a partizan character.

"Downing Street [Colonial Office] influence," and "Downing Street interference with Canadian rights," were popular and favourite topics of declamation and appeal with the leaders of a large section of the community. Not that there did not exist, in many instances, serious grounds for the accusations against the Colonial Office; but they, in most cases, arose in that office from ignorance rather than from design.

However the causes of complaint were often greatly exaggerated, and very often designedly so by interested parties on both sides of the Atlantic.

This, Dr. Ryerson soon discovered on his first visit to England, in 1833, and in his personal intercourse with the Colonial Secretaries and other public men in London. The manly generosity of his nature recoiled from being a party to the misrepresentation and injustice which was current in Canada, when he had satisfied himself of the true state of the case. He, therefore, on his return to the Province, gave the public the benefit of his observation and experience in England.

In the light of to-day what he wrote appears fair and reasonable. It was the natural expression of pleased surprise that men and things in England were not so bad as had been represented; and that there was no just cause for either alarm or ill feeling. His comparisons of parties in England and in Canada were by extreme political leaders in Canada considered odious. Hence the storm of invective which his observations raised.

He showed incidentally that the real enemies to Canada were not those who ruled at Downing Street, but those who set themselves up--within the walls of Parliament in England and their prompters in Canada--as the exponents of the views and feelings of the Canadian people.

The result of such a proceeding on Dr. Ryerson's part can easily be imagined. Mr. Hume in England, and Mr. W. L. Mackenzie in Canada, took the alarm. They very properly reasoned that if Dr. Ryerson's views prevailed, their occupation as agitators and fomenters of discontent would be gone. Hence the extraordinary vehemence which characterized their denunciations of the writer who had so clearly exposed (as he did more fully at a later period of the controversy), the disloyalty of their aims, and the revolutionary character of their schemes.

This a.s.sault on Dr. Ryerson was entirely disproportionate to the cause of offence. Were it not that the moral effect of what he wrote--more than what he actually said--was feared, because addressed to a people who had always listened to his words with deep attention and great respect, it is likely that his words would have pa.s.sed unchallenged and unheeded.

I have given more than usual prominence to this period of Dr. Ryerson's history--although he has left no record of it in the "Story" which he had written. But I have done so in justice to himself, and from the fact that it marked an important epoch in his life and in the history of the Province. It was an event in which the native n.o.bility of his character a.s.serted itself. The generous impulse which moved him to defend Mr.

Bidwell, when maligned and misrepresented, and Sir Charles Metcalfe, whom he looked upon as unjustly treated and as a martyr, prompted him to do full justice to English inst.i.tutions, and to parties and leaders there, even at the expense of his own pre-conceived notions on the subject.

By doing so he refused to be of those who would perpetuate an imposition upon the credulity of his countrymen, and especially of those who had trusted him and had looked up to him as a leader of men, and as an exponent of sound principles of government and public policy. And he refused the more when that imposition was practised for the benefit of those in whom he had no confidence, and to the injury of those for whose welfare he had laboured for years.

Dr. Ryerson preferred to risk the odium of interested partisans, rather than fail to tell his countrymen truly and frankly the real state of the case--who and what were the men and parties with whom they had to do in England--either as persons in official life, or as members of Parliament, or writers for the press. He felt it to be his duty to warn those who would heed his warning of the danger which they incurred in following the unchallenged leaders.h.i.+p of men whose aim he felt to be revolution, and whose spirit was disloyalty itself, if not a thinly disguised treason.

After the storm of reproach and calumny had pa.s.sed away, there were thousands in Upper Canada who had reason to cherish with respect and love the name of one who, at a critical time, had so faithfully warned them of impending danger, and saved them from political and social ruin.

Such grat.i.tude was Dr. Ryerson's sole reward.

It would be impossible, within the compa.s.s of this "Story," to include any details of the speeches, editorials, or other writings of Dr.

Ryerson during the many years of contest for civil and religious rights in Upper Canada. The _Guardian_, the newspaper press (chiefly that opposed to Dr. Ryerson), and the records of the House of a.s.sembly contain ample proof of the severity of the protracted struggle which finally issued in the establishment on a secure foundation of the religious and denominational privileges and freedom which we now enjoy.

To the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, etc., who joined heartily with the Methodist leaders in the prolonged struggle, the grat.i.tude of the country must always be due.--J. G. H.

_March 7th._--In the midst of his perplexing duties as editor, and the storm of personal attack which his "impressions" had evoked, Dr. Ryerson received a letter from his Mother. It must have been to him like "good news from a far country." Full of love and grat.i.tude to G.o.d, it would be to him like waters of refreshment to a weary soul. His Mother said:--

With emotions of grat.i.tude to G.o.d, I now write to you, to let you know that the state of my health is as good as usual. Surely the Lord is good, and doeth good, and His tender mercies are over me as a part of the work of His hands. I find that my affections are daily deadening to the things of earth, and my desires for any earthly good decreasing. I have an increase of my desire for holiness of heart, and conformity to all the will of G.o.d. I can say with the poet,

"Come life, come death, or come what will, His footsteps I will follow still."

I long to say, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Besiege the throne of grace, dear Egerton, in my behalf. Pray that the Lord would finish his work, and cut it short in righteousness, and make my heart a fit temple for the Holy Ghost to dwell in. Oh, my son, be continually on your guard. You have need to believe firmly, to pray fervently, to work abundantly. Live a holy life, die daily; watch your heart; guide your senses; redeem your time; love Christ, and long for glory. Give my love to your wife, and to all whom who may enquire for me, and accept a share yourself, from your affection-mother,

Mehetabel Ryerson.

Charlotteville, March 4th, 1834.

After his return from England, Dr. Ryerson received a letter from Rev.

Wm. Lord, dated Manchester, 25th March, 1834, in which he referred to an incident of Dr. Ryerson's visit to his house while in England. He says:--

Your company, I am thankful to say, was very useful to several members of my family. The last time you prayed with us, an influence was received by one or two, the effects of which have remained to this day. I now allude more particularly to ----, who, more than twenty times since, has met me at the door, saying, "Have you a letter from Mr. Ryerson?"

FOOTNOTES:

[41] As an example of the manner in which the Union was hailed in some parts of the Province, a gentleman, writing from Merrickville on the 11th December, mentions a gratifying incident in regard to it. He says:--At one Quarterly Conference Love Feast, when the presiding Elder told the a.s.sembled mult.i.tude that they were for the first time about to partake of bread and water as a token of love under the name of British Wesleyan Methodists, a general burst of approbation proceeded from preachers, leaders, and members, and such a feeling seemed to pervade the whole a.s.sembly, as it would be difficult to describe.--H.

[42] See page 98.

[43] Rev. Messrs. David Wright, James Evans, William Griffis, jun., Henry Wilkinson and Edwy Ryerson. The protest was as follows: We, the undersigned ministers of the W. M. Church, desirous to avert the evils which may probably result to our Zion from "impressions" made by certain political remarks in the editorial department of the _Guardian_, take this opportunity of expressing our sentiments for your satisfaction, and to save our characters from aspersion. First. We have considered, and are still of the same opinion, that the clergy of the Episcopal Church ought to be deprived of every emolument derived from Governmental aid, and what are called the Clergy Reserves. Secondly. That our political views are decidedly the same which they were previous to the visit of the editor of the _Guardian_ to England, and we believe that the views of our brethren in the ministry are unchanged.

CHAPTER XII.

1834.

Events following the Union.--Division and Strife.