ty's Government that strong objections
existed to this delegation to Parliament by a subordinate authority
of the power of legislation. The proceeding should have been by
address to the three estates of the Realm, asking them to undertake
the decision of the question.

Thus by a stroke of Lord John Russell's pen, the whole of the pet scheme
of the ruling party, devised after three months' anxious local
legislation, was irrecoverably lost. And yet it was not lost, for by the
after careful manipulation of Lord John and his colleagues by Bishop
Strachan, Lord Seaton (Sir John Colborne) and Sir George Arthur, that
bill afterwards proved to be, for ten years, the basis of a far more
sweeping and unjust measure than even the most reckless and partizan
member of the Legislature in Upper Canada would have ventured to
propose.

When it was known that Her Majesty had declined to sanction Sir George
Arthur's bill, steps were taken by the Governor-General to devise such a
measure as would meet with the approval of the great mass of the people
in Upper Canada. To aid him in accomplishing this desirable end, Mr.
Poulett Thompson privately sought the aid of leading public men in the
Province. Having obtained their assistance, he, with the advice of his
Council, prepared a compromise measure which was designed to be just and
equitable to all parties concerned.

On the 6th January, 1840, the Governor-General sent a message to the
House of Assembly, in which he thus outlines the measure which, with his
sanction, Hon. Solicitor-General Draper submitted to the House:--

The Governor-General proposes that the remainder of the land should
be sold, and the annual proceeds of the whole fund, when realized,
be distributed [one half to the Episcopal and Presbyterian
Churches, and the other half among other religious bodies desiring
to share in it] for the support of religious instruction within the
Province, and for the promotion there, of the great and sacred
objects for which these different bodies are established or
associated.

On this bill, Dr. Ryerson remarked:--

From this message, the hopelessness of success in any further
attempts to get the annual proceeds of the reserves appropriated to
exclusively secular objects, is apparent.... Up to the present time
I have employed my best efforts, by every kind of argument,
persuasion and entreaty, to get