n the other side.

* * * * *

It is not my purpose to enter into detail, except in so far as Dr.
Ryerson became an actor in the new scenes and events which followed the
appointment of Mr. Charles Poulett Thompson as Governor-General.

Mr. Poulett Thompson arrived in Quebec on the 19th October, 1839, and in
Toronto on the 21st November. As Governor-General, he superseded both
Sir John Colborne at Quebec and Sir George Arthur at Toronto.

On the 3rd December, the Governor-General opened the Upper Canada
Legislature; and on that very day Dr. Ryerson addressed to him an
elaborate letter on the chief object of his mission. In referring to the
clergy reserve question, he said:--

For sixteen years this question has been a topic of ceaseless
discussion; and one on which the sentiments and feelings of a very large
majority of the inhabitants have been without variation expressed;
notwithstanding that Governor has succeeded Governor, and party has
succeeded party.... From the time when, at the elections of 1824, the
sentiments of the country were first called forth to the present moment,
its collective voice has demanded, what your Excellency has avowed on
another subject, "equal justice to all of Her Majesty's subjects." This
question is the parent of social discord in Upper Canada; all the other
party questions have originated in this. The elevation of one class
above all others in a community where there is little diversity of rank
or intelligence, begets a necessity for special means to support that
elevation. Hence partizan appointments to office; hence partizan
administration of offices; hence party animosities, embittered by the
jealousies of conscious weakness on one side, and a deep sense of
unmerited exclusion and provocation on the other.... Hence on the one
side a selfish, insolent, baseless ecclesiastical and political
oligarchy, and, on the other side, an abused, an injured, and
dissatisfied country.

* * * * *

The bill providing for the vesting of the proceeds of the reserves in
the Imperial Parliament, to which I have referred in the preceeding
chapter, was not sanctioned by Her Majesty. This was "a sore blow and a
heavy discouragement" to those who had laboured so assiduously to carry
such a bill through the local Legislature. The objection raised to it by
Lord John Russell was twofold. The chief reason, however, was thus
expressed:--

It appeared to Her Majes