with Wesley on the lips, but implacable
hatred to him in the heart of its editor and his friends.... One of
two things remain for us, either to expel the Ryerson family and
their friends from our Society, who are the root of all our
misfortunes, or ... for all true Wesleyans to withdraw from them
and their wicked adherents, as the Israelites did from Egypt, or a
leper.

In Dr. Ryerson's effort to protect individuals who were oppressed, and
who had no means of defence, except in the columns of the _Guardian_, he
was often virulently assailed, and even his life threatened. On the 22nd
December, 1838, he received a letter of this kind from an influential
gentleman in Toronto, who threatened legal proceedings unless the name
of a writer in the _Guardian_ was given to him. He said:--

In reply to your letter of last evening, I have to say that the
writer of the communication in the _Guardian_, to which you refer,
is one of the "peaceable members of the Methodist Society," whose
character had been gratuitously and basely assailed by the Editor
of the _Patriot_ and his associate. He is a poor man, whose living
depends upon his daily industry. Were he a rich man, I might
consult with him on the subject of your letter; but being in those
circumstances of life which disable him from sustaining himself
against your wealth, and relentless persecution, I at once
determine to shield him from your power. I will not, therefore,
furnish you with his name.

In the published paragraph of his communication, the writer has
asserted that certain things were published some time since in the
_Patriot_, respecting the associate of its Editor, and an attempt
was made to blast the character and prospects of several
unoffending members of the Methodist Society--men, the daily bread
for whose families must be taken out of their mouths, if the
political or private character of their protectors is, in times
like the present, believed to be what this associate has
represented it to be. These men do not, like you, get rich upon
"wars and rumours of wars;" their high church zeal would not, like
yours, treble their business, and bring them into possession of a
tolerable fortune in a few years. It is to blunt the assassinating
dagger of a marked, and hitherto privileged slanderer, against the
charact