mentary upon your
second similar imputation.

It is true that I am not of the high church school of politics, nor
of the Montreal _Herald_ school of bloodshed and French
extermination; but I, nevertheless, think there still remains
another basis of Scripture, justice, and humanity, on which may
rest the principles of a loyalty that will sacrifice life itself
in the maintenance of British supremacy, in perfect harmony with a
vigorous support of the constitutional rights of the
subject,--unmoved at one time by the fierce denunciations of
revolutionists, and unshaken at another time by the imputations of
ultra-sycophantic partizanship.

Twice have the leading members of the Methodist Society in Montreal
had the opportunity of insulting (and if their influence could have
done it, of injuring) me--and twice have they improved it,--in May,
1834 [see page 148], when I was in Montreal; and in December,
1838--a juncture when a stain might be inflicted upon the character
and reputation of any vulnerable minister of the Church that would
tarnish his very grave. It is a pleasing as well as singular
circumstance, and one that will be engraved upon the tablet of my
heart while memory holds her seat, that when in 1834 I was insulted
in Montreal, I was invited to preach in Quebec; and now that I am
honoured from Montreal a second time in a similar way, I have this
day received from Quebec a second token of "respect for my
character and love to Methodism" of ten new subscribers to the
_Guardian_, with a promise "ere long of from ten to twenty
more."[74]

On the other hand, Dr. Ryerson, in the _Guardian_ of October 17th, 1838,
exposes the kind of warfare which was carried on against him by the high
church party:--

I have been informed, upon the authority of creditable eye
witnesses, that the number of the _Patriot_ which contained four or
five columns of attacks on the Editor of the _Guardian_ in his
private and public relations, has been carried from house to house
for the edification of Methodists; that in one instance the wife of
a rector had carried and read the _Patriot_ to members of the
Methodist Church and friends of the Editor, and then asked if they
could be led by such a man as Egerton Ryerson?

In the _Guardian_ of the 31st October, Dr. Ryerson says:--