Ryerson from Hon. R. B. Sullivan, dated Kingston, 21st
July, 1843, is somewhat interesting. Mr. Sullivan had placed one of his
sons under Dr. Ryerson's care at Victoria College. After referring to
matters relating to the education of youth, Mr. Sullivan proceeded:--"I
hope that our friendship will be a sufficient inducement to you to teach
my boy that upon his own good conduct under Providence his future
happiness depends, and to give him that steadfastness of mind which lads
naturally want. In asking these things of you, I place myself under no
common obligation. There is no man in Canada of whom I would ask the
same. My doing so of you arises from a respect and regard for you
personally, which has grown as we have been longer acquainted, and which
no prejudices on the part of those with whom I have mixed, and no
obloquy heaped upon you by others, have ever shaken."

* * * * *

It is pleasant to get a kind word from those who approve of one's
course. It is pleasanter to get it from those who have been indifferent,
or even hostile. Thus, in a letter from Rev. Matthew Holtby to Dr.
Ryerson, written in March, 1842, he said:

Soon after I arrived here from England, I became acquainted with
you and your writings, and ever since, I have watched your course,
often with painful and prayerful anxiety. It is long since I
doubted the propriety of your public conduct, or the justice of
your cause; but as I observed the storm gathering around you, and
the winds blowing into a hurricane, from all the cardinal points at
once, I have had my fears, that you might faint in the apparently
unequal conflict. Thank God, he has delivered you--he has enabled
you to stand at the helm, and to steer the Old Ship into smoother
water. But we may rest assured that our foes are not dead. I only
wish you may manifest as much nautical skill in a calm, as you have
in the long storm, and I doubt not but all will be well.

FOOTNOTES:

[119] This memorable prophecy as to the future of our educational system
was evidently made by Dr. Ryerson under the conviction that the verbal
promise made to him by Lord Sydenham in 1841,--that he should have the
superintendence of that system--would have been carried out by his
successor, Sir Charles Bagot. There was no written promise, however, on
the subject, and he and his friends were greatly surprised at the
singular app