e further mixed up
with the question--that I was now on good terms with all
parties--had thus great facilities for usefulness--that party
agitation in Canada was becoming violent--two extreme parties,
uniting against the Ministerial measure. I told him that I would
furnish him with a memorandum, with all the chief points of the
question on which he was likely to be opposed. He seemed to be
disappointed, but said if I thought my Department would suffer by
my longer absence, he would not insist upon my staying. I told him
that all parties would approve of my staying for the Great
Exhibition, and that I thought a memorandum, such as I would
prepare on the question of the clergy reserves, would be as
serviceable as my presence, etc.

Memorandum on the Clergy Reserve Question.

The following is the memorandum which Dr. Ryerson prepared for Lord Grey
on the clergy reserve question, and to which he refers in his letter to
me of the 9th May, 1851:--

Fully concurring in the remark of the Bishop of London, in a late reply
to the deputation of the inhabitants of St. George's, Hanover Square,
that "there is no kind of intestine division so injurious in its
character and tendency as that which is grounded on religious
questions;" and firmly believing, as I do, that the long continuance of
Canada as a portion of the British Empire depends upon the proceedings
of the British Parliament on the question of the clergy reserves, I
desire, as a native and resident of Upper Canada, as a Protestant and
lover of British institutions, to submit the following brief
observations on that question, in order to correct erroneous impressions
in England, and to induce such a course of parliamentary proceedings as
will conduce to the honour of Great Britain, and to the peace and
welfare of Canada:--

1. My first remark is, that this is a question agitated for more than
twenty-five years, almost exclusively among Protestants in Canada, and
the agitation of which, at the present time, has not, in any way
whatever, been promoted by Roman Catholic influence. An attempt has been
made in some quarters to create a contrary impression in England; but
that I am correct in my statement will, I think, appear from the
following facts:--First, though the question of the clergy reserves
nominally relates to Lower as well as Upper Canada (since the union of
the two Canadas under one Legislature), it