pretext more unfounded.... It will be seen by
the proceedings of our Conference-- ... and is even admitted in the
report of the ... English Conference--that no political party question
should, on any account, be suffered amongst us, ... or in our official
organ, and that we did not even desire the continued discussion of the
clergy reserve question.... But with even silent neutrality on all
questions of civil polity ..., the authorities of the English Conference
were not satisfied; they insisted that we should "admit and maintain,
even in this Province, the principle of Church and State Union"--a
question which has been the most exciting and baneful topic of party
feeling and party organization of any question which has ever been
discussed in Upper Canada. They also insisted that we should concede to
the Conference in England the right of an "efficient direction over the
public proceedings" of the Connexion in this province.... These are the
real grounds of the difference between the two bodies.

In a letter on this subject, written by Dr. Ryerson, 13th November, he
said:--

Herewith is a copy of a letter which I addressed to the late Rev.
Richard Watson in 1831 [see _Guardian_ of November 18th, 1840],
deprecating the interference of the London Committee with our work
in this province, and explaining our views and operations as a
body.... In going one day into the Wesleyan Mission House, when in
England in 1833, I found one of the clerks copying that letter into
the official books of the Committee. That letter is of some
importance on several accounts. It will show that we were just as
moderate, and as reasonable, and as constitutional in our views as
a body in 1831, as we have been from that time to this, and that
the representations to the contrary are the fabulous creations of
party feelings.... [It will also show] that [the London Committee]
fully understood our views on the question of a church
establishment in Upper Canada, respecting which they have not even
pretended that we ever made the slightest compromise; and that we
as a body were in a prosperous condition before the Union.

It was not, therefore, without full knowledge of Dr. Ryerson's views on
this subject, and of the state of the Methodist body in Upper Canada,
that the British Conference in 1833, and again in 1840, sought to
interfere with the work in this province and di