e." Lord Durham pointed out that Sir F. B. Head led the
people to believe "that they were called upon to decide the question of
separation [from Great Britain] by their votes."

Under such circumstances the clergy reserve question was subordinated to
those of graver moment. Besides, even if pledges had been given by
members before the election on the subject, they were not felt, as the
event proved, to be very sacred. Speaking of this Parliament, Dr.
Ryerson, in his letter to Mr. Draper, (already mentioned), said:--

The present Assembly at its first session adopted a resolution in
favour of appropriating the reserves for "the religious and moral
instruction of the Province." But its proceedings during the second
session were so vacillating that it is now difficult to say what
the opinions of the members are.

One explanation of this state of feeling was, that the political views
of a majority of the members were in harmony with those of the ruling
party in the country, and yet were at variance with the views of their
constituents on the clergy reserve question. Advantage was taken of the
existence of this political sympathy by the leaders of the dominant
party, with a view to secure the removal of the clergy reserve question
from the hostile arena of the Upper Canada Legislature to the friendly
atmosphere of the English House of Commons, and the still more friendly
tribunal of the House of Lords--where the bench of bishops would be sure
to defend the claims of the Church to this royal patrimony.[90]

Accordingly, at the third session of this Parliament, Mr. Cartwright, of
Kingston, introduced a bill "to revest the Clergy Reserves in Her
Majesty"--the first reading of which was carried by a vote of 24 to 5,
and passed through Committee of the whole by a vote of 29 to 12. As soon
as Dr. Ryerson, then in Kingston, got a copy of this bill he wrote the
following letter, on the 13th January, 1838, to the _Guardian_:--

The professed object of this bill is described by its title, but the
real object, and the necessary effect of it, from the very nature of its
provisions, is to apply the reserves to those exclusive and partial
purposes against which the great majority of the inhabitants of this
province, both by petition and through their representatives, have
protested in every variety of language during the last twelve years--and
that without any variation or the shadow of change. The bill even
p