ome of the ablest defenders of the University. I shall not
enter into detail, but will give the opening and concluding parts of Dr.
Ryerson's great speech, which he made before the Committee of the
Legislature on the 25th and 26th of April, 1860:--

I am quite aware of the disadvantage under which I appear before you
to-day. I am not insensible of the prejudices which may have been
excited in the minds of many individuals by the occurrences of the last
few days; ... I am not at all insensible of the fact that the attempt
has been made to turn the issue, not on the great question which demands
attention, but upon my merits or demerits, my standing as a man, and the
course which I have pursued. This subject, of very little importance to
the Committee, ... possesses a great deal of importance to myself. No
man can stand in the presence of the Representatives of the people; no
man can stand, as I feel myself standing this morning, not merely in the
presence of a Committee, but, as it were, in the presence of my native
country, the land of my birth, affections, labours, hopes, without
experiencing the deepest emotion. But how much more is that the case
when attempts have been made, of the most unprecedented kind, to deprive
me of all that is dear to me as a man, as a parent, as a public officer,
as a minister of the Christian Church. More especially do I thus feel
because reading and arranging the papers on this subject, to which my
attention has been called, occupied me until five o'clock this
morning....

Sir, the position of the question which demands our consideration this
day, is one altogether peculiar, and, I will venture to say,
unparalleled in this or any other country. The individuals connected
with myself--the party unconnected with what may be called the National
University of the country, stand as the conservators of a high standard
of education, and appear before you as the advocates of a thorough
course of training that will discipline, in the most effectual manner,
the powers of the mind, and prepare the youth of our country for those
pursuits and those engagements which demand their attention as men,
Christians, and patriots, while the very persons to whom has been
allotted this great interest, this important trust, stand before you as
the advocates of a reduction, of a puerile system which has never
invigorated the mind, or raised up great men in any country; which can
never lay deep and broad the foundati