s and
monetary circles. The Church of England was bound up in its interests.
The judiciary was more or less under its influence while judges were
appointed during pleasure and held seats in the councils. This governing
class was largely composed of the descendants of the Loyalists of 1784,
who had taken so important a part in the war with the United States and
always asserted their claims to special consideration in the
distribution of government favour. The old settlers--all those who had
come into the country before the war--demanded and obtained greater
consideration at the hands of the government than the later immigrants,
who eventually found themselves shut out of office and influence. The
result was the growth of a Liberal or Reform party, which, while
generally composed of the later immigrants, comprised several persons of
Loyalist extraction, who did not happen to belong to the favoured class
or church, but recognised the necessity for a change in the methods of
administration. Among these Loyalists must be specially mentioned Peter
Perry, who was really the founder of the Reform party in 1834, and the
Reverend Egerton Ryerson, a Methodist minister of great natural ability.

Unfortunately creed also became a powerful factor in the political
controversies of Upper Canada. By the constitutional act of 1791 large
tracts of land were set aside for the support of a "Protestant clergy",
and the Church of England successfully claimed for years an exclusive
right to these "clergy reserves" on the ground that it was the
Protestant church recognised by the state. The clergy of the Church of
Scotland in Canada, though very few in number for years, at a later time
obtained a share of these grants as a national religious body; but all
the dissentient denominations did not participate in the advantages of
these reserves. The Methodists claimed in the course of years to be
numerically equal to, if not more numerous than, the English
Episcopalians, and were deeply irritated at the inferior position they
long occupied in the province. So late as 1824 the legislative council,
composed of members of the dominant church, rejected a bill allowing
Methodist ministers to solemnise marriages, and it was not until 1831
that recognised ministers of all denominations were placed on an
equality in this respect. Christian charity was not more a
characteristic of those times than political liberality. Methodism was
considered by the governi