which the Union was hailed in some
parts of the Province, a gentleman, writing from Merrickville on the
11th December, mentions a gratifying incident in regard to it. He
says:--At one Quarterly Conference Love Feast, when the presiding Elder
told the assembled multitude that they were for the first time about to
partake of bread and water as a token of love under the name of British
Wesleyan Methodists, a general burst of approbation proceeded from
preachers, leaders, and members, and such a feeling seemed to pervade
the whole assembly, as it would be difficult to describe.--H.

[42] See page 98.

[43] Rev. Messrs. David Wright, James Evans, William Griffis, jun.,
Henry Wilkinson and Edwy Ryerson. The protest was as follows: We, the
undersigned ministers of the W. M. Church, desirous to avert the evils
which may probably result to our Zion from "impressions" made by certain
political remarks in the editorial department of the _Guardian_, take
this opportunity of expressing our sentiments for your satisfaction, and
to save our characters from aspersion. First. We have considered, and
are still of the same opinion, that the clergy of the Episcopal Church
ought to be deprived of every emolument derived from Governmental aid,
and what are called the Clergy Reserves. Secondly. That our political
views are decidedly the same which they were previous to the visit of
the editor of the _Guardian_ to England, and we believe that the views
of our brethren in the ministry are unchanged.

CHAPTER XII.

1834.

Events following the Union.--Division and Strife.

Dr. Ryerson has left nothing in his "Story" to illustrate this period of
his personal history, nor the strife and division which followed the
consummation of the union of the British and Canadian Conferences. These
untoward events are, however, fully described in the "Epochs of Canadian
Methodism," pages 247-311: They arose chiefly out of the differences
which disturbed the British and Canadian Methodist Societies in Kingston
and other places, and the separation in the Societies generally, caused
by the establishment of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1834.

I have already given, in chapter xi., page 128, an extract of a letter
to Dr. Ryerson, from his brother John, indicating the causes of strife
between the British and Canadian Societies. I give the following letter,
also from the same gentleman, written from Hallowell early in November,
1833, in which he sa