son's long and eventful life.

His previous training for twenty years in the school of controversy in
relation to civil and religious rights; his personal intercourse with
leading statesmen in England on Canadian affairs; his contests for
denominational equality with successive Governors in Upper Canada, and
his counsels and suggestions, (offered at their request), to such
notable representatives of Royalty in Canada as Lord Durham, Lord
Sydenham, Sir Charles Bagot, and Sir Charles Metcalfe, put it beyond the
power of even the most captious to question the pre-eminent
qualifications of Dr. Ryerson to discuss, in a practical and intelligent
manner, the then unsettled question of responsible government as against
the prerogative--a question which had arisen between Sir Charles
Metcalfe and his late Councillors. In the chapter which Dr. Ryerson had
prepared for this part of the Story of his Life, he thus refers to his
intercourse with, and relations to, the distinguished Governors whom I
have mentioned. He said:--

In 1839 a Royal Commission was issued to Lord Durham to investigate the
affairs of Canada, and report thereon to Her Majesty. While engaged in
his important duty he sent for and conferred with me repeatedly, and
treated me with such consideration, as that on leaving him he would
accompany me to the door and open it for me, shaking hands with me most
cordially. After his return to England he sent me a copy of his famous
Report (addressed by himself) before it was laid on the table of the
House of Lords. On receiving in advance this report of Lord Durham I
published in the _Guardian_, with appropriate headings, extracts from
that part of it which related to the establishment of responsible
government and its administration in Canada, and then lent the extracts
and the type on which they were printed to Mr. (afterwards Sir) Francis
Hincks for insertion in the _Examiner_ newspaper, of which he was at
that time proprietor and Editor. I afterwards aided Lord Sydenham in
every way in my power to allay the party passions and animosities of the
past, and to establish responsible government upon liberal principles,
irrespective of past party distinctions, comprehending Hon. W. H. Draper
and Hon. Robert Baldwin in the same administration--a union or coalition
which did not long survive the life of Lord Sydenham--Mr. Baldwin
declaring his want of confidence in Mr. Draper, and retiring from the
government. Soon afterwards,