establishment of military
government in Canada (an impossibility), or the severance of that great
country from Great Britain. On the other hand, if the reasonable demand
and constitutional rights of the people of Canada be regarded in this
question, I believe Canada will remain freely and cordially connected
with the Mother Country for many years, if not generations, to come. I
will conclude these observations in the expressive words of Lord
Stanley, to the spirit of which I hope every British statesman will
respond. On the 2nd of May, 1828, in a speech on this subject, Lord
Stanley expressed himself in the following terms:--

That if any exclusive privileges be given to the Church of England,
not only will the measure be repugnant to every principle of sound
legislation, but contrary to the spirit and intention of the Act of
1791, under which the reserves were made for the Protestant clergy.
I will not enter further into it at present, except to express my
hope that the House will guard Canada against the evils which
religious dissensions have already produced in this country and in
Ireland, where we have examples to teach us what to shun. We have
seen the evil consequences of this system at home. God forbid we
should not profit by experience; and more especially in legislating
for a people bordering on a country where religious intolerance and
religious exclusions are unknown--a country to which Parliament
looked in passing the Act of 1791, as all the great men who argued
the question then expressly declared. It is important that His
Majesty's Canadian subjects should not have occasion to look across
the narrow boundary that separates them from the United States, to
see anything there to envy.

FOOTNOTES:

[137] Since the foregoing was written, it has been ascertained that the
Wesleyan Methodists number 142,000, or more than one-fifth of the entire
population (1850).

[Illustration]

CHAPTER LIV.

1854-1855.

Resignation on the Class-Meeting Question.--Discussion.

The last important connexional discussion in which Dr. Ryerson was
engaged was on the Class-Meeting Question. For years he had objected,
chiefly privately, amongst his brethren, clerical and lay, to making
attendance at class-meeting a condition of membership in the Wesleyan
Methodist Church of Canada. For various reasons, few members of the
Conference