ly and consistently resisted these claims, had,
for the same political reasons, as sensibly and as seriously declined.

These facts were well known to every one in Upper Canada at the time.
They imposed a double burthen upon those who had the courage (or, it
might be said, audacity) to question the righteousness of claims,
which--not to speak of the invaluable services and inviolable loyalty of
the claimants themselves in the crisis of the rebellion--were by words
of the statute, as interpreted by the law officers of the Crown, so
clearly given to those claimants.

Such was the position of parties, and the condition of affairs in Upper
Canada, when Dr. Ryerson was called to the editorial chair of the
leading newspaper in the Province. That he was possessed of the
requisite ability and firmness to maintain the rights of a discouraged
minority, and resist the then almost unquestioned will of a powerful
majority, few doubted. The bold defence of the supposed exiled rebel,
Bidwell, proved that neither courage nor talent was wanting. The bitter
hatred of the revolutionary party, as expressed in the threat that,
should they succeed, their first victim would be Egerton Ryerson, showed
that in the new crusade he would have no help (if not covert opposition)
from that extreme section of his former friends. Nor, as events proved,
could he reckon on any support from the British missionary section of
the Methodist community. Indeed, they were hostile to his views, as will
be seen in a subsequent chapter.

In entering into this contest, therefore, Dr. Ryerson found that he
would have to encounter a threefold enemy--each section of it able,
resolute and influential, especially that one practically in possession
of the reserves--fighting, as it was, for its very existence, and acting
entirely on the defensive.

Soon after Dr. Ryerson entered on his editorial duties he published in
the _Guardian_ an elaborate series of letters on "The Clergy Reserve
Question, as a matter of History, a Question of Law, and a Subject of
Legislation," addressed to Hon. W. H. Draper, Solicitor-General. After
reviewing the proceedings of the Government and Legislature on the
subject down to the end of the session of 1838, he summed up the leading
facts which he had established, in the following words:--

I have stated that the Government has been administered for
fourteen years in utter contempt of the wishes of the inhabitants,
constitu