Secretary Higginson said:--

The Reform League in Toronto are making unusual exertions, and as
you may have seen by their late resolutions, no longer conceal
their real object, but in defiance of all their machinations, and
they are not over scrupulous as to their means, truth and honesty
of purpose, backed by loyal hearts and liberal measures, must and
will prevail.

To this note Dr. Ryerson thus replied on the 12th April:--

I think the public feeling in Canada West is now stationary; or since
the rumour of my appointment as Superintendent of Education (and how it
got afloat I cannot imagine) is rather turning in favour of the
Governor-General. The reason seems to be this: The opponents of His
Excellency represent him as weak--as supported by nobody but a weak
ultra-party. It has been alleged by both my friends and enemies, that
whether the best or worst man in Canada, I have not hesitated to face in
succession the united press and councils of each of the two
ultra-parties in Canada, and succeeded in each instance to reduce them
from a large majority to a small minority--deriving no advantage from
the victories, except as some suppose, the pleasure of humbling my
enemies. It is the impression of great numbers of persons, and to an
extent and degree which has often amused me, that whatever cause I
espouse, be it good or bad, will succeed; and that I never undertake a
thing, however apparently impracticable, without a certainty of success.
Though such a feeling increases the difficulty of every step of a man's
career, it furnishes him with capital to begin with. My life having been
bound up with the two great principles of constitutional monarchy on the
one hand, and equal civil and religious principles in Canada on the
other, all who really desire such a government, without regard to the
domination of a party, ... seem to think the Governor-General will
succeed if I have resolved to espouse his government....

From this state of mind in the case of many Reformers, and from what I
have learned from other sources, I am satisfied that, notwithstanding
the efforts to inflame party spirit--to produce party blindness, and
create party organizations--there is still a spirit of candour and
enquiry (all I ask) amongst a large portion of the Liberal party which
will furnish an ample fulcrum for a lever that will overthrow the enemy.
I think that June will probably be the best time for the applica