there was
no disposition or intention on the side of the Episcopal clergy to
yield a single iota any further than they were compelled. It was
not until all these circumstances had transpired, that we
reluctantly determined to appeal against the exclusive and unjust
pretensions of the Episcopal clergy, to the bar of public
opinion--a power recognized by our free constitution, and which no
party or administration can successfully resist many years.

The reply of the Governor was friendly and conciliatory; but in it he
expresses his

Surprise to find that his appeal on a late occasion to the Wesleyan
Methodists, to give the Church of England their most cordial
support, had been misunderstood and construed into an expression of
sectarian preference. By inviting the Methodists to such a course
of conduct, His Excellency thought that he was only appealing to a
feeling of attachment for the Church of England, which he had
always been induced to consider--especially from personal
observation--as a badge of "legitimate Wesleyan Methodists" all
over the world.

Dr. Ryerson in his remarks on this reply, said:--

The questions at issue about the clergy reserves do not involve the
principle of "attachment for the Church of England" from the well
known fact that many respectable members of that Church, in every
district throughout the Province, concur in the views advocated in
the _Guardian_ on that question--therefore an appeal to "attachment
for the Church of England" as the rule of judgment in this
controversy, much less as a "badge of legitimate Wesleyan
Methodists," is the very climax of absurdity.

The discussions on the clergy reserve question up to the time when the
House reassembled (27th February, 1839), must have convinced the
dominant party that it was, and ever would be, hopeless, in the face of
the determined opposition which their schemes encountered, to obtain
that which they wanted from the local legislature. They could not again
openly bring in a bill (as they did last year) to revest the reserves in
the Crown, in the face of the declarations of the Colonial Secretary,
that--

Imperial Parliamentary Legislation on any subject of exclusively
internal concern, in any British colony possessing a representative
assembly is, as a general rule, unconstitutional. It is a right of