em which was to diffuse
intellectual and moral light throughout his native country, to survey
the condition of that country as a whole, apart from its
political-religious dissensions, and ask what system could be devised to
enable it to take its position among the civilized nations of the
world?...

After giving expression to his views on what he conceived to be a proper
and suitable University system for the Province, he concluded with these
words:--It is perfectly well known to the Committee that its time, for
the last four or five days, has been occupied, not in the investigation
of these principles, but by attempts to destroy what is dearer to me
than life, in order to crush the cause with which I am identified; and a
scene has been enacted here, somewhat resembling that which took place
in a certain committee room, at Toronto, in regard to a certain
Inspector-General. Every single forgetfulness or omission of mine has
been magnified and tortured in every possible way, to destroy my
reputation for integrity, and my standing in the country. A newspaper in
Toronto, whose editor-in-chief is a man of very great notoriety, has
said, since the commencement of this inquiry, that, in my early days, I
made mercenary approaches to another church, but was indignantly
repelled, and hence my present position. I showed the other day that I
might have occupied the place of Vice-Chancellor of the University which
Mr. Langton now holds, had I desired (and the proposal was made to me
after my return from Europe in 1856), and I have similar records to
prove that in 1825, after the commencement of my Wesleyan ministry, I
had the authoritative offer of admission to the ministry of the Church
of England (see pages 41 and 206). My objection, and my sole objections
was, that my early religious principles and feelings were wholly owing
to the instrumentality of the Methodist people, and I had been
providentially called to labour among them; not that I did not love the
Church of England. Those were "saddlebag days," and I used to carry in
my saddlebags two books, to which I am more indebted than to any other
two books in the English language, except the Holy Scriptures, namely,
the Prayer Book and the Homilies of the Church of England. At this very
day, Sir, though I have often opposed the exclusive assumptions of some
members of the Church of England, I only love it less than the Church
with which I am immediately associated.

I have been