s of reform,
etc. At the close of the Session of 1835, Mr. W. L. Mackenzie, as
Chairman, brought in an elaborate Report which, without being read, was
ordered to be printed. In that Report, Mr. Mackenzie endeavoured to
create a diversion in his favour by showing that while Dr. Ryerson
professed to be opposed to Government grants to religious bodies, yet he
was willing to receive one for the Wesleyan Conference. The Report
stated that:--

The "British Wesleyan Methodist Conference," formerly the M.E.
Church, received L1,000 in 1833, and L611 in 1834, to be applied
... "to the erection, or repairing of chapels and school-houses,
and defraying the general expenses of the various missions."

This appropriation to the Methodists, as an Ecclesiastical
Establishment, is very singular. In the year 1826 ... Dr. Strachan
informed the Colonial Minister that the Methodist ministers
acquired their education and formed their principles in the United
States.... They appealed to the House of Assembly, which inquired
into and reported on the matter in 1828.

Upon another occasion they received a rebuke from Sir John Colborne
... in answer to the Address of the Conference requesting him to
transmit to His Majesty their Address on the Clergy Reserves.
Since, however, a share of public money has been extended to and
received by them, there seems to have been established a mutual
good understanding.

To this Report, Dr. Ryerson replied to the effect--

That the grant was made to the British Conference in England (over
which we had no control) and not to the Canada Conference; that the
grant in question was made by Lord Goderich, as part of a general
scheme agreed upon in 1832, to aid Missionaries in the West Indies,
Western, and Southern Africa, New South Wales, and Canada, "to
erect chapels and school-houses in the needy and destitute
settlements;" that the Rev. R. Alder had come from England, in
1833, to establish separate and distinct missions from those under
the Canada Conference with a view to absorb this grant; that when
the Union was formed, in 1833, the missions in charge of the Canada
Conference became the missions of the British Conference, and were
managed by their own Superintendent; that the Canadian Missionary
Society from that time became a mere auxiliary to the parent
So