The Story of My Life Part 63

Judge then of Dr. Ryerson's surprise and of mine on seeing the following paragraph in the _Globe_ newspaper, about the same time:

It is said that Egerton Ryerson is trying to get the Methodist Conference to deprive him of his clerical standing, because of his holding a permanent Government situation.

In the course of his reply, Dr. Ryerson said:--When the situation in connection with elementary education was offered to me, in February, 1844, before replying to the offer, I laid the letter containing it before the large Executive Committee of the Wesleyan Conference, and was authorized by that disinterested body to accept of the appointment.

When, in the latter part of the May following, I placed the appointment again at the disposal of the Government, as absolutely as if no offer had ever been made or accepted, and determined in June not to accept it under any circ.u.mstances, should the offer again be made, a written address was got up to me, numerously signed by the Wesleyan ministers of the Conference which a.s.sembled that month, requesting me not to refuse it, should the offer be again made; and it is to the influence of that judgment, in which I confided more than in my own feelings, that the _Globe_ and some other papers are indebted for the opportunity and privilege of abusing me in my present position these last four years.

Sir, the Wesleyan Conference is as incapable of entertaining such a proposition as you have attributed to me, as I am indisposed to make it; and, though I am not insensible to the honour and importance of my educational office, I hold it as in all respects consistent with my relations and obligations to the Church, through whose instrumentality I have received infinitely greater blessings than it is in the power of any civil government to bestow.

At the proper time I shall be prepared to show, that I was personally as disinterested (whether right or wrong) in what I wrote in 1844, as in what I wrote in 1838 and 1839 in connection with the names of Marshall S. Bidwell and J. S. Howard, Esquires. I have ever maintained since 1827 what appeared to me right and important principles, regardless of man in high or low places, and favour or oppose what party it might. I have never borrowed my doctrines from the conclaves or councils of party, nor bowed my neck to its yoke; nor have I made my office subservient to its interests in any shape or form, but to the interest of the country at large, so far as in my power, irrespective of sect or party. I should contemn myself if I could perform one act or say one word to court party favour, or avert party vengeance, if such exists. I shall do as I have done, endeavour faithfully to perform the duties and fulfil the trusts imposed upon me, and leave the future, as well as the past, to the judgement of my native country, for the equal rights of all cla.s.ses of whose inhabitants I contended in "perilous times," and for years before the political existence of the chief public men of any party in Canada, with the exception of the Hon. William Morris.

The question, incidentally raised by the _Globe_ newspaper, after the Conference of 1848, as to Dr. Ryerson's retaining a ministerial _status_, while holding and administering a civil office was brought up at the next Conference, held at Hamilton, in June, 1849. In a letter to me from the Conference, dated 11th of the month, he said:--I brought my position before the Conference in consequence of a remark from one of the preachers, saying, while Mr. Playter's case was under consideration, "that there was a general opposition among the members of the Conference, occupying the position that Mr. Playter did, or a civil situation." Several of the senior members of the Conference spoke in a very complimentary way respecting me; and a strong satisfaction was expressed from all parts of the Conference with my position--the manner in which I had filled it, and consulted the interests of the Church--expressing their earnest desire that I would continue in it.

In a letter to Dr. Ryerson from his brother, Rev. E. M. Ryerson, from Brantford, on July 2nd, 1848, it would appear, from the foregoing, that some hostile movement was being generally formed against him. His brother said:--I found upon my return from Conference to Brantford that the general topic of conversation was your dismissal from your present office. When I told them it was not the case, some rejoiced, while silent grief and disappointment were visible on the countenances of others.

Dr. Ryerson having been called to Montreal on educational matters, in April, 1849, wrote a letter to me from that city, dated 27th of the month, in which he gave a graphic account of the state of the city during the crisis at that time:--You may well imagine my surprise and regret, on reaching Lachine yesterday, to learn that the Parliament House had been burnt, together with a n.o.ble library of 25,000 volumes, containing records of valuable books which can never be replaced. On arriving in Montreal, I found nothing but confusion and excitement, which, instead of subsiding, are increasing, and it is apprehended that to-morrow will be a more serious day than any that has preceded it.

Yesterday, the court of the Government House was filled with soldiers, while the street in front of it was crowded with a mult.i.tude, who saluted every appearance of any members of the Executive Council, or any of their Parliamentary supporters with hisses and groans. This continued from one o'clock until eight or nine o'clock in the evening. Mr.

Lafontaine came out in care of Colonel Antrobus and soldiers, to get into a cab, and he was pelted with eggs and stones. Not one of the Ministers can walk the streets. Last night Mr. Lafontaine's house was sacked, and his library destroyed; and Mr. Hincks' house was also sacked, but he had removed nearly all of his furniture, as well as his family. The scene of to-day was similar to that of yesterday. This afternoon a meeting of several thousands of persons was held in the Champs de Mars. I heard some of the speeches. They were moderate in tone, but the feelings of disgust and contempt for Lord Elgin exceed all conception. There have been two vast a.s.semblages this evening--the one French, the other British--in different parts of the city. Companies of soldiers have been stationed in the streets between them, preventing persons going from one party to the other. I have heard their shoutings since I commenced this letter.

The next day Dr. Ryerson wrote to me again to say:--Nothing has occurred in the city since last night, worth noticing. Soldiers meet you at every turn almost. Two companies of soldiers were stationed to-day in the building in which the Legislative a.s.sembly met. There was a long debate on the causes of the recent disturbances, and strong protestations from all sides of the House against "annexation."

An opportunity to appoint Hon. M. S. Bidwell to the Bench in Upper Canada having occurred, Dr. Ryerson, on the 3rd September, 1849, addressed the following letter to Hon. Robert Baldwin, urging the appointment:--There is one subject I take the liberty of mentioning, although it is contrary to my practice to interfere in any matter of the kind; but the peculiarity of it may excuse me on the present occasion. I allude to the appointment of Mr. Bidwell as one of the new judges in Upper Canada. The recent history of Europe affords many ill.u.s.trations of circ.u.mstances being seized upon by despots to compel the departure of valuable and dreaded men from their own country. You know that it was under such circ.u.mstances that Mr. Bidwell was compelled to leave Canada.

You know that it was the order of the Imperial Government to elevate Mr.

Bidwell to the Bench, that prompted Sir Francis Head to adopt the course towards him that he did. You know, likewise, how long, and faithfully, and ably, Mr. Bidwell laboured to promote the principles of civil and religious liberty which are now established in Upper Canada; and that at a time when great responsibility and obloquy attached to such advocacy. Mr. Bidwell was the author, as well as the able advocate of the laws by which the religious denominations in Upper Canada hold Church property, and by which their ministers solemnize matrimony. I believe he has never altogether abandoned the hope of returning to Canada; but I believe he has felt that he was ent.i.tled to the offer of that position, which the Home Government contemplated conferring upon him in 1837. I felt it too delicate a question to propose to Mr. Bidwell when I saw him the other day; but my friend Mr. Francis Hall, of the New York _Commercial Advertiser_ (who sees and converses with him every week), expressed his full conviction that Mr. Bidwell would accept a Judges.h.i.+p in Upper Canada--that Mr. Bidwell had constantly taken the Canadian Law Reports, and procured the Canadian and English Statutes, and kept up his reading of them as carefully as if he had lived in Canada. I believe the appointment of Mr. Bidwell would be an honour to the Canadian Bench, and an act of moral and political grat.i.tude most honourable to any party, and of great value to Upper Canada. You are aware of the reasons for which I feel a deep interest in this subject, and which will, I trust, excuse in your mind the liberty I take--believing, as I do, that it will be as grateful to your feelings as it will be n.o.ble in your character, to remember a man to whom our common country is so much indebted.

To this letter Mr. Baldwin replied, on the 20th September

With respect to the princ.i.p.al object of your letter, you need not, I a.s.sure you, have made any excuse for introducing it, even independently of the part taken by you formerly with reference to the case of my friend Mr. Bidwell, and which alone would give you a just claim to address me. I can never feel any suggestion, no matter from what quarter, having his good for its object, to be an intrusion on me, and be a.s.sured that nothing could have afforded me greater pleasure than to have had it in my power to have advised his appointment to the Bench. Nor have I ever ceased to do all that I could with propriety to get him to put himself in the position which might lead to such a result. You are aware of the steps I took in 1843 to have his pledge to Sir Francis Head cancelled. I sent you, I think, the correspondence respecting it. (See page 308.) On that being done, I wrote him a letter of which I preserved a copy, from which I send you one. By this you will see how earnestly I pressed him to return then. Had he come in, as I suggested, it was my intention to have offered him the Crown business on whichever of the Circuits he might have chosen. I have subsequently, as often as I felt I dared to do so, urged his return. But it has been felt impossible, until he had placed himself in the position of a pract.i.tioner, as formerly, at our own, and not at a foreign, Bar, to advise his appointment to the Bench of the Province. For myself, although friends.h.i.+p might have led me to have overlooked, or overstepped, this difficulty, my judgment, when appealed to, forced me to admit, with my colleagues, that the objection was insuperable.

I am not acquainted with the income he realizes from his profession in New York, but I doubt not it is much beyond what could be obtained in Toronto. Still, if he really does wish to return to Canada, the time is most propitious as far as professional prospects are concerned. Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Blake, and Mr. Esten being taken from the Bar leaves a s.p.a.ce to be filled that, I should say, offers the best possible opening.

Had Mr. Bidwell been in his proper professional position here when the Government was called upon to appoint to the places now filled, or on the eve of being filled, by those gentlemen, there is not one of those high judicial positions to which it would not have been at once a pride and a pleasure both to myself and my colleagues to have advised his appointment. Vice-Chancellor Jameson's health, too, will probably ere long lead to his retirement. When that time arrives, will our friend's continued absence be still a barrier to the gratification of our wishes?

If the affairs of the Province shall be then conducted by the same Councils as now sway them, I may say, with almost the same confidence of that future as I do of the past, that it will be the only obstacle to such gratification. I should add, too, that last winter one of my colleagues who, as well as myself, has always taken a particular interest in Mr. Bidwell's return to the Province, wrote to him, informing him of the Judiciary measures intended to be introduced by the Administration, and giving him to understand as distinctly as could properly be done, that, if he had returned to this country when those measures were to go into operation, it would afford us and our colleagues the greatest pleasure to have it in our power to advise his being placed in a situation alike agreeable to his tastes, deserving of his talents, and satisfactory to the public at large. And though, when he wrote first, he expressed some doubt of the Bills becoming law during the last session, yet shortly after, when it was felt expedient to carry them through, he again wrote to inform Mr. Bidwell that this would be done if the sanction of Parliament was obtained to the measures. Whether, in my letters to Mr. Bidwell, on the subject of his return, I have appeared to him not to speak with sufficient warmth, I know not. It has, at all events, not been from indifference to the object. I certainly have felt that, in the uncertainty that must for the future attach to political power, there was a great responsibility in urging one in good business elsewhere to leave that and throw his fortunes again in with us here. I am naturally cautious, and my caution may have led me to speak less warmly than I felt, particularly when I found my first appeals unsuccessful. But he ought, and I hope, does, appreciate my motives. It is true his ear may be poisoned by having had unjust suspicions poured into it. I know I have never afforded any just grounds for such suspicions, and I feel confident that his generous nature would have been far above conceiving any such, had they not been suggested by others. I am, however, perhaps doing wrong. It may be that none such have ever been thought of by anyone. I trust it is so. If otherwise, it is but just to myself to say that they are the foulest, basest and most malignant that mortal ever breathed.

Rev. Dr. Bangs attended the Conference at Brockville in 1850, as a delegate from the American General Conference. On his return to New York he wrote a letter to Dr. Ryerson on the 3rd July:--

I think my trip to Canada was one of the most pleasant tours I ever made, and shall reflect upon it with peculiar delight. I have commenced, as you will perceive by the _Christian Advocate_, to give the public an account of my visit to your Conference.

The pleasure we enjoyed in our visit to Canada, and especially your hospitality at Toronto, makes us feel truly thankful to G.o.d for such hallowed friends.h.i.+ps, and reminds us more forcibly than ever of that eternal union which the spirits shall enjoy in a future world.

Dr. Ryerson made a second educational trip to Europe in October, 1850.

Writing to me from London on the 8th November, he said:--The day before yesterday, I left Lord Elgin's note of introduction, with my card, at the Colonial Office; the same evening I received a note, appointing yesterday for an interview. Mr. (afterwards Sir B.) Hawes, the Under-Secretary was present. It was most agreeable and gratifying. Lord Grey seemed much delighted with what had been done, educationally, in Upper Canada; and of which he was until then, entirely ignorant. Mr.

Hawes asked if I had published any report of my tour in Europe, or the results of it; and as I happened to have a copy of each of the doc.u.ments I brought with me, I presented Lord Grey with copies of them. He seemed surprised that he had not seen them before, and said he must write to Lord Elgin to send him a copy of each of them for the office. The conversation extended to the United States--our system of Government as contrasted with theirs, etc. Lord Grey and Mr. Hawes appeared entertained and pleased. His Lords.h.i.+p offered to aid me in any way, in his power, that I might devise; and asked me to dine with him.

Last evening, I received from Lord Grey letters of introduction to the Marquis of Lansdowne (President of the Privy Council Committee of Education) to the Rt. Hon. T. B. Macaulay, and Mr. Lingard, successor of Sir J. P. Kay Shuttleworth, and an unsealed letter of introduction from Mr. Hawes, to Sir Henry Ellis, Librarian of the British Museum, in which he said: This will be presented to you by Dr. Ryerson, of Canada, who has rendered great services to the cause of education, not only by his writings, but by his great exertions.

Both Lord Grey and Mr. Hawes seemed to know something about me; and the above copy of note shows the spirit in which they are desirous of aiding me. I shall now commence my work here in good earnest.

Lord Grey introduced the subject of the Toronto University, and of the Bishop of Toronto's Mission to this country, and when he found that I had a copy of the amended University Bill, and the proceedings of the Wesleyan Conference on the subject, he requested them for perusal. In my next interview with His Lords.h.i.+p I shall introduce the subject of the clergy reserves.

I have been very cordially received at the Wesleyan Mission House. I was affected to see Dr. Bunting's great bodily weakness, and surprised to see his intellect clear, quick, and powerful as ever. When he walks, he can only step about six inches at a time. I expect to hear him on Sunday morning, in the same Chapel (Spitalfields Chapel--a once French church, in which the eloquent Saurin has preached, and made a collection for the refugee Huguenots to the amount of 3,000) in which I preached last Sunday, and aided in administering the Lord's Supper.

On the 10th January, 1851, Dr. Ryerson addressed the following note to Sir Benjamin Hawes, from Paris: I saw Cardinal Wiseman on the strength of your kind note of introduction. He appeared to be pleased with the compliment which my call involved--invited me to hospitalities which I think it would not be prudent for me to accept, and promised to have a list of popular (but not denominational) reading books prepared, and the books selected for my inspection on my return to London.

I most fervently hope that you will be prepared to bring before Parliament, early in the approaching session, a Bill to settle the Canadian clergy reserve question--the only remaining obstacle to the social harmony of Canada, and to its affectionate and permanent union with the Mother Country.

In 1852, the new buildings of the Education Department and Normal School, as shown in the accompanying engravings were completed. For Dr.

Ryerson's Office see page 422.

Being in England in 1853, Dr. Ryerson wrote to me there:--

I was glad to learn that Lord Elgin was to go in the same steams.h.i.+p with you from Boston. I have no doubt it will have proved interesting to him as well as to you, and perhaps useful to you. I miss you very much from the office, but I do not like to employ any more aid without sanction of the Government, though I could get no one to take your place. I would wish you to write me what Lord Elgin may have thought or said as to our doings and plans of proceeding. If the Library plan succeeds, it will achieve n.o.ble results.[134] I feel that our success and happiness in the Department are inseparably united.

In 1854 Dr. Ryerson was appointed a member of Commission to enquire into matters connected with King's College, Fredericton, N.B. His fellow-commissioners were Hon. J. H. Gray, Dr. Dawson, Hon. J. S.

Saunders, and Hon. James Brown. Mr. Grey the Chairman, in transmitting the Report of the Commission to the Provincial Secretary of New Brunswick, said:--

I beg to express, with the full conscience of my fellow-commissioners, our acknowledgment of the very valuable a.s.sistance offered us by Dr. Ryerson. His great experience, and unquestioned proficiency in all subjects connected with Education, justly ent.i.tles his opinions to great weight.

FOOTNOTES:

[133] Being a member of the Conference Committee appointed to confer with the Government on the establishment of Manual Labour Schools for the Indians, Rev. Peter Jones, in writing to Dr. Ryerson from the Credit, on the subject, in September, 1844, said:--You will be glad to see that our Indian brethren have subscribed liberally, which shews their ardent desire to have Manual Labour Schools established amongst them. We forwarded a copy to the Governor-General, and His Excellency was pleased to approve of the liberality of the Indian tribes. From the manner in which His Excellency has always spoken of Indian Manual Labour Schools, I am sure that he will take great pleasure in aiding their establishment. As you have access to the ears of our Great Father at Montreal, may I beg the favour of your explaining to him the object of my visit to England, and the necessity of His Excellency's sanctioning the payment of my expenses. As I intend to visit England for the purpose of augmenting the funds of the Manual Labour Schools, I think at least my expenses should be paid out of the Indian subscriptions of $400.

[134] Lord Elgin always referred to Dr. Ryerson's library scheme in his educational addresses, as the "Crown and Glory of the Inst.i.tutions of the Province."

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Ontario Education Department, and Normal and Model Schools, Erected 1851.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Education Department, showing Dr. Ryerson's Office for 25 Years, in the S. W. Angle of the Main Building in Front.]

CHAPTER LI.

1849.

The Bible in the Ontario Public Schools.

Early in 1849 an important crisis occurred in the history of our Public School system, the evil effects of which were only prevented by the prompt and emphatic protest on the part of Dr. Ryerson, and the equally prompt measures taken by Hon. Robert Baldwin in the matter. The event to which I refer was the hurried pa.s.sage of a revolutionary School Bill at the end of a Session of Parliament by parties hostile to Dr. Ryerson--a Bill the effect of which would have been the exclusion of the Bible and religious teaching and influence from our Public Schools. In regard to that calamitous event, Dr. Ryerson stated that within three hours of learning that such a Bill was law he informed Mr. Baldwin that the office of Chief Superintendent of Education was at his disposal.

I was absent from Toronto at this time. Dr. Ryerson therefore wrote me a letter on the subject, dated December, 1849, in which he said:--I am happy to say the scandalous School Bill of last session is upset. The members of the Government (including the Governor-General) have examined my letter to Mr. Baldwin, of July last, and have come entirely into my views. Mr. Malcolm Cameron is also out of office, and is striving to create opposition against his former colleagues. Some of the extreme radical papers (_Examiner_, _Mirror_, _Canada Christian Advocate_, _Provincialist_, &c.,) all state that I had tendered my resignation, and had been persuaded by one or two members of the Government to withdraw it, and they speak piteously of the Government having succ.u.mbed to me.

The _Canada Christian Advocate_ says I have watched my opportunity to get "Mr. Baldwin and the Government under my thumb." I have been permitted to publish the correspondence of July last, and it has placed me in this new and proud position. I thank G.o.d for His goodness in thus opening before me a wider field of usefulness than ever, and for sealing at so early a period, with His approbation, adherence to great principles of Christian truth and social advancement, irrespective of men or parties. I shall commence the New Year with new courage and hope, and I am anxious to see you that we may together devise and prosecute the best means to promote our great work.