During his controversy with Dr. Strachan he stated very clearly his attitude towards the Church out of whose fold he had come.

"Whatever remarks the Doctor's discourse may require me to make, I wish it to be distinctly understood that I mean no reflection on the doctrines, liturgy or discipline of the Church of which he has the honor to be a minister. Be assured I mean no such thing. I firmly believe in her doctrines, I admire her liturgy, and I heartily rejoice in the success of those principles which are therein contained, and it is for the prosperity of the truths which they unfold that I shall ever pray and contend. And, with respect to Church government I heartily adopt the sentiments of the pious and the learned Bishop Burnet, that that form of Church government is the best which is most suitable to the customs and circumstances of the people among whom it is established."

Shortly after the beginning of the Clergy Reserves controversy, in which he took such an active part, he was asked to accept ordination in the Church of England. He refused, as he felt he had a wider field of usefulness in the Methodist body. The struggle for religious liberty on which he had entered was by no means won. It is true the Legislative Assembly were, for the most part, with him, but the Legislative Council, the official class in the Province, and the Lieutenant-Governor was bitterly opposed to him. However, he was the kind of man whom opposition only made stronger and more determined. The cause he was advocating required a newspaper to advance its interests, and so the Christian Guardian was established in 1829; and he became its joint editor and shortly afterwards had entire editorial charge. He wrote ably in the interests of reform and the Methodist Church and gained many admirers especially among the Liberals of the Province.

He went to England on Church business and found that English public men were antagonistic to the Methodists. They had been mis-informed with regard to them and looked upon them as a class in the community un-British, indeed, disloyal to England and hoping for the advance of American institutions. He was able to disabuse the minds of those with whom he came in contact, and did not a little to pave the way for the work that was afterwards to be done by Lord Durham and Lord Sydenham. When

he returned from England he once more took over the editorship of the Christian Guardian and now began a series of articles dealing with his impressions of English public men. They were written in his usual vigorous style and with a good deal of feeling. He saw through most of the extremists who were professedly working in the interests of the Colony and vigorously denounced them. As a result of his utterances at this time he called down. upon him the wrath of William Lyon Mackenzie, who denounced him as an "apostate" to the cause of reform. Many readers of the Christian Guardian ceased looking to the paper for guidance and Dr. Ryerson gave up the editorship of it in June, 1835. After events proved that he was, for the most part, correct in his attitude towards public men and public questions. Through the columns of the Christian Guardian he tried to do what "Joe" Howe did by means of the Nova Scotian in the Maritime Provinces, and had there been many men of Dr. Ryerson's stamp in Upper Canada, the unhappy rebellion of 1837 might have been averted.

Although still a young man he had done admirable work for the Methodist Church. When he had entered the ministry there were but fortyone ministers in the Province and less than seven thousand church members. But in 1835 there were ninety-three ministers and fifteen thousand church members. He had really been the guiding spirit of Methodism since he began his ministry. When he gave up the editorship of the Guardian in his valedictory he stated his attitude towards State and Church.

"I have," he said, "no ill-will towards any human being. I freely and heartily forgive the many false and wicked things said of me, publicly and privately. I have written what I thought best for the cause of religion, the cause of Methodism, and the civil interests of the country. I have never received one acre of land, nor one farthing from Government, nor of any public money. I have never written one line at the request of any person connected with the Government. I count it to be the highest honor to which I can aspire to be a Methodist preacher; and in this relation to the Church and to the world I shall count it my highest joy to finish my earthly course."

After severing his connection with the Guardian he was stationed at Kingston. As Kingston was a Tory stronghold he expected to make many enemies there; but, as he was at this time held in ill-repute by the Radicals, his attitude on the Clergy Reserves seems to have been almost forgotten. At any rate he was kindly received by the people of Kingston and made many "warm friendships." He entered heart and soul into his ministry and met with the fullest measure of success. He was in every way a strong man, and whether he worked on his father's farm, entered into a controversy, contributed articles to the press or ministered the gospel, he did it with an energy that never failed of his purpose. He was not to remain long in Kingston. The rapidly growing Methodist body in Upper Canada demanded better educational facilities than they had at that time. They wished to have a college of their own in which their ministers might be trained. To bring this about it would be necessary to send a delegate to England to obtain a charter and raise funds. There could be no doubt as to what man should be sent. Egerton Ryerson was easily the ablest and shrewdest business man in the Methodist Church in Upper Canada, and so towards the end of 1836 he set out a second time for the Old Land. He was eminently successful in his mission, and before he left England, early in 1837, had succeeded in inducing the Imperial government to recommend a grant by the Upper Canada Legislature to Upper Canada Academy. He did not return to Canada until June, 1837. Affairs were in a very much disturbed condition. Rebellion broke out and was opposed by him from first to last, and his attitude did not a little to keep the men of Upper Canada loyal at a time when British institutions were threatened in North America.

He had been warned that it would be dangerous for him to visit Toronto, but when he arrived in the town about the middle of December the rebellion had already been put down. In a letter to his father he clearly sets forth his own attitude towards the "Patriots' War." He had been consistent from the commencement in his articles dealing with the revolutionary tendency in the Province and had now nothing to take back.

"It is remarkable," he wrote, "that every man, with very few exceptions, who has left our Church and joined in the unprincipled crusade which has been made against us, has either been an active promoter of this plot or so far connected with it as to be ruined in his character and prospects by the timely discovery and defeat of it. I have been deeply affected at hearing of some unhappy examples, among old acquaintances, of this description. I feel thankful that I have been enabled to do my duty from the beginning in this matter. Four years ago, I perceived and began, to warn the public of the revolutionary tendency and spirit of Mackenzie's proceedings. Perhaps you may recollect that in a long article in the Guardian, four years ago this winter, headed 'Revolutionary Symptoms,' I pointed out, to the great displeasure of even some of my friends, what has come to pass.

"It is also a matter of thankfulness that every one of our family and marriage connections, near and remote, is on the side of law, reason and religion in this affair. Such indications of the Divine goodness are a fresh encouragement to me to renew my covenant engagement with my gracious Redeemer, to serve Him and His cause with greater zeal and faithfulness."

Sir Francis Bond Head had been instructed by Lord Glenelg to bring the matter of the Upper Canada Academy before the Legislature. This was done, and the Assembly granted $16,400 to the Academy. The Legislative Council defeated the purposes of the bill. Sir Francis Bond Head delayed payment of the money, and it was not until after the return of Dr. Ryerson to Canada, and a vigorous advocacy of the cause of the Academy, that justice was finally done in this case.

He had not been in sympathy with the spirit of the rebellion, but signed a petition for the mitigation of the death sentence of Lount and Mathews. He vigorously defended Bidwell, who had made an enemy of Sir Francis Bond Head, and later in life was generous to even such an extreme Radical as William Lyon Mackenzie. After the suppression of the rebellion he was urged to once more take the editorship of the Guardian. This he did in July, 1838, and continued to write what he believed "to be the truth, leaving to others the exercise of a judgment equally unbiased and free."

He took charge of the Guardian at a critical time in the history of Canada, a time when a strong man was needed to assist in fighting the battle for representative institutions. It was a time when those who fought for representative government and against the exclusive claims of the representatives of the Church of England were denounced as rebels and republicans, and it was well that the Guardian had in its editorial chair a man whose loyalty could not be impugned, and who had so early in his career shown the sanity of his views on the question of reform.

Lord

In 1841 he was to enter upon a new sphere of usefulness. Sydenham gave the royal assent to a bill for the erection of Upper Canada Academy into a College with University powers. Dr. Ryerson, as the ablest man in the Methodist body, was appointed principal of the new (Victoria) College, and he was installed as principal in June, 1842. He continued to take an active part in public affairs, and during the struggle between Sir Charles Metcalfe and his constitutional advisers he took the part of Sir Charles and wrote a series of nine articles in his defence. He believed that his Excellency's exertions "would be crowned with a glorious victory to his own credit, the honor of the British Crown, the strengthening of our connection with the motherland and to the great future benefit of Canada." Dr. Strachan could hardly have written in a more loyal vein. Naturally many of the Reformers looked upon Dr. Ryerson as having gone over to the Tories; but they did not understand the man. The spirit that made him attack the extreme Radicals before the Rebellion was the same that made him rush to the defence of Sir Charles Metcalfe.

In 1844 Dr. Ryerson was appointed Superintendent of Public Schools in Upper Canada, and is truly the father of the Ontario Public School System. Until 1876 he continued to work energetically on behalf of the education of the Province. He made no fewer than five tours of inspection in Europe and the United States, and visited such centres of education as England, Belgium, France, Prussia, etc. As a result of his first visit he prepared a report on "system of public instruction for Upper Canada," and shows in this report that he had the true conception of education.