The Story of My Life; Being Reminiscences of Sixty Years' Public Service in Canada Part 58

The Canada Conference was sound in the faith, and well affected to primitive Wesleyan discipline, and when it came of age, the Methodist Episcopal Connexion allowed them, and aided them, to go to housekeeping by themselves. We knew of no objection on either subject, when we, with the kindest of feelings, have now hinted at the possibility of an amicable arrangement between our British and Canadian brethren.

CHAPTER L.

1846-1854.

Miscellaneous Events and Incidents of 1846-1854.

After his return from England, Dr. Ryerson was engaged in the preparation of his Report on a "System of Public Instruction for Upper Canada," from which I have given extracts on page 368. In that report he gave the broad outlines of his proposed scheme of education, and fully explained the principles of the system which he proposed to found. He also prepared a draft of a Bill designed to give effect to some of the most pressing of his recommendations.

In a letter to a friend, dated 18th April, 1846, he said:--My report on a system of public elementary instruction occupies nearly 400 pages of foolscap. It will explain to all parties what I think, desire, and intend. But I would not hesitate to resign my situation to-morrow, and take my place and portion as a Methodist preacher, if I thought I could be as useful in that position to the country at large. My travels have added to my limited stock of knowledge, but they have not altered my principles, or changed my feelings.

To another friend he wrote about the same time:--As the science of civil government is the most uncertain of the uncertain sciences, if I should fail in my exertions--if counteracting influences should intervene which I cannot now foresee, and give success to the opposition against me, or paralyze my influence--I would not remain in office a day, or would I retain it any longer than I could render it a means of strength to our system of government as well as of good to the country. I would rather break stones on the street than be a dead weight to any government, or in any community.

It may be of interest at the present time to learn what was Dr.

Ryerson's opinion of Mr. Gladstone in 1845. Writing in the _Guardian_ of March 18th, 1846, in reply to strictures on that statesman, Dr. Ryerson said:--During my late tour in Europe, I was one evening present at the proceedings of the British House of Commons, and heard Mr. Gladstone, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, avow a change in his opinions in regard to ecclesiastical and educational matters. Sir Robert Peel's Government had determined to establish several colleges in Ireland, not connected with the Established Church. Mr Gladstone, in his book on "Church and State," had maintained that the National Church was the only medium through which the Legislature ought to instruct the nation in every department of knowledge.... There was, therefore, a complete antagonism between Sir Robert Peel's policy and Mr. Gladstone's book. On the night I was present, Mr. Gladstone ... frankly stated that he had written a book advocating an opposite policy to that which Her Majesty's Government had deemed it their duty to pursue, in establis.h.i.+ng secondary colleges in Ireland; that further reflection and experience had convinced him that his views were not correct; that he fully concurred in the policy of the Government in respect to those colleges, and should, as an individual member of Parliament, give it his support; but that should he do so as a Minister of the Crown, after having publicly avowed very different sentiments, he would not be in a position to place his motives of action above suspicion. To exonerate himself, therefore, from the imputation, or suspicion, of being actuated by a love of office or power, to support, as a Minister of State, what he condemned as an author, he resigned his office; and to do justice to his present convictions of what he conceived the interests of Ireland demanded, he avowed his change of opinion, and his determination to support the Irish policy of Sir Robert Peel, with whom he declared he cordially concurred in every measure which had been discussed in the Cabinet.

Sir Robert Peel followed in a beautiful and touching speech--appealing to the sacrifice which the Cabinet had made in the loss of so able a member as Mr. Gladstone, as a proof of the sincerity of the Government, and the strength of its convictions in its Irish educational policy.

The conduct of those two distinguished statesmen (Dr. Ryerson adds) towards each other on that occasion, presented one of the finest examples of strong personal friends.h.i.+p between two public men that I ever witnessed.

No man excelled Dr. Ryerson in his respect and love for his parents.

This was apparent from many incidents, and from the tone of his mother's and father's letters to him, as given in this volume. He generally wrote to them at the beginning of each year. His letter dated Toronto, 1st January, 1847, is, however, the only one which I have. It is as follows:--

My Dear and Most Venerated Parents,--

As heretofore, the first work of my pen is employed in presenting to you my filial respects, and offering you my dutiful and affectionate congratulations at the commencement of another year,--lifting up, as I most earnestly do, my heart to Almighty G.o.d, that, having brought you at so advanced an age to the beginning of this year. He will make it the happiest, as well as the holiest of your lives! I cannot but regard the lengthening out of your earthly pilgrimage so much beyond the ordinary period of human life--so much beyond what I expect to reach--as a special means and call of G.o.d to become fully ripe for heaven. You stand a long time on the margin of eternity--may that margin prove the verge of eternal glory! As the body grows feeble, may the soul grow strong! As the bodily sight becomes dim, may the heavenly vision become brighter, and the heavenly aspirations and a.s.surances stronger! How great the privilege, and how soul-cheering the thought, especially at the approach of death, to know that "your life is hid with Christ in G.o.d." It is in safe keeping, and the disclosure of it bye-and-bye will be glorious beyond conception; for "when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, shall we then appear like Him in glory." The sufferings of the present life, however severe and protracted, are not worthy to be compared with the glory which that life shall reveal. O, my dear parents, may that glory be yours in all the fulness of its splendour, and in all the perfection of its beat.i.tudes!

I thankfully acknowledge the receipt of the two pairs of socks--the last of the many like tokens of my Mother's affection, and the work of her own hands. I scarcely ever put them on without a gush of feeling which is not easily suppressed. They every day remind me of the hand which sustained my infancy and guided my childhood, and the heart which has crowned my life with its tenderest solicitudes, and most fervent and, I believe, effectual prayers. Praised be G.o.d above all earthly things, for such a Mother! May I not prove an unfaithful son!

We are all well. I was at brother George's to-day. I hope to see you in the course of the winter. Each of the family unite with me in expressions of dutiful respect and affection to you. Please remember me to all those who reside with you, and to all relatives, and old acquaintances and neighbours.

With daily prayers at the family altar for your health, comfort and happiness, and anxiously desirous of hearing from you, I am, my most honoured Parents, your affectionate son,

Toronto, 2nd January, 1847.

Egerton Ryerson.

Between Dr. Ryerson and Rev. Peter Jones a life-long friends.h.i.+p existed.

In a note to Dr. Ryerson, dated Credit, Nov. 1st, 1847, Mr. Jones says: I had the pleasure of receiving a set of your School Reports, for which I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I trust I shall receive much valuable information which may prove beneficial in our Indian School schemes.[133] My brother, I thank you for all the kindness you have ever shown to me and my dear family, and I hope and pray that the friends.h.i.+p which was formed between us many years ago will last for ever. Pray for us. Rev. Peter Jones had been an inmate of Dr. Ryerson's house during his last illness in 1856. As the crisis approached he desired to return to his own home in Brantford. After he reached there, Ven. Archdeacon Nelles visited him, and in a note to Dr. Ryerson, dated 25th June, said:--Mr. Jones has been gradually sinking ever since his return from Toronto. He enjoys great peace of mind, and I believe truly trusts on that Saviour whom he has so often pointed out to others as the only refuge and hope of poor sinners. May my last end be like his.

After the change of administration, consequent on the result of the recent elections, it was confidently stated that Dr. Ryerson would be removed from office. Having written to his brother John on the subject, his brother replied, on the 9th of February, 1847, as follows: It is quite certain that combined and powerful efforts are being made against you by certain parties, no doubt with a determination to destroy you as a public man, if they can. The feeling of the "radical" party is most inveterate. They are determined, by hook or by crook, to turn you out of the office of Chief Superintendent of Education. All the stir among the District Councils, and about the school law, etc., are but the schemes and measures set on foot by the party in power for the purpose of compa.s.sing the great object in view of ousting the "Superintendent of Education."

In a letter which I received from Dr. Ryerson, while at the Belleville Conference, dated June 13th, 1848, he said:--Every distinction has been shown me in the appointments and arrangements of the Conference; and I believe the great body of the preachers will sustain me in all future contingencies.

The Conference thus far has been the most delightful I ever attended. I took the evening service of yesterday, and preached with considerable freedom to an immense congregation; text, John xvii. 17--first part of verse.

There has been an advancement in every department of the interests of our Church during the year. This is very encouraging, and a ground of special thankfulness.

Judge then of Dr. Ryerson's surprise and of mine on seeing the following paragraph in the _Globe_ newspaper, about the same time:

It is said that Egerton Ryerson is trying to get the Methodist Conference to deprive him of his clerical standing, because of his holding a permanent Government situation.

In the course of his reply, Dr. Ryerson said:--When the situation in connection with elementary education was offered to me, in February, 1844, before replying to the offer, I laid the letter containing it before the large Executive Committee of the Wesleyan Conference, and was authorized by that disinterested body to accept of the appointment.

When, in the latter part of the May following, I placed the appointment again at the disposal of the Government, as absolutely as if no offer had ever been made or accepted, and determined in June not to accept it under any circ.u.mstances, should the offer again be made, a written address was got up to me, numerously signed by the Wesleyan ministers of the Conference which a.s.sembled that month, requesting me not to refuse it, should the offer be again made; and it is to the influence of that judgment, in which I confided more than in my own feelings, that the _Globe_ and some other papers are indebted for the opportunity and privilege of abusing me in my present position these last four years.

Sir, the Wesleyan Conference is as incapable of entertaining such a proposition as you have attributed to me, as I am indisposed to make it; and, though I am not insensible to the honour and importance of my educational office, I hold it as in all respects consistent with my relations and obligations to the Church, through whose instrumentality I have received infinitely greater blessings than it is in the power of any civil government to bestow.

At the proper time I shall be prepared to show, that I was personally as disinterested (whether right or wrong) in what I wrote in 1844, as in what I wrote in 1838 and 1839 in connection with the names of Marshall S. Bidwell and J. S. Howard, Esquires. I have ever maintained since 1827 what appeared to me right and important principles, regardless of man in high or low places, and favour or oppose what party it might. I have never borrowed my doctrines from the conclaves or councils of party, nor bowed my neck to its yoke; nor have I made my office subservient to its interests in any shape or form, but to the interest of the country at large, so far as in my power, irrespective of sect or party. I should contemn myself if I could perform one act or say one word to court party favour, or avert party vengeance, if such exists. I shall do as I have done, endeavour faithfully to perform the duties and fulfil the trusts imposed upon me, and leave the future, as well as the past, to the judgement of my native country, for the equal rights of all cla.s.ses of whose inhabitants I contended in "perilous times," and for years before the political existence of the chief public men of any party in Canada, with the exception of the Hon. William Morris.

The question, incidentally raised by the _Globe_ newspaper, after the Conference of 1848, as to Dr. Ryerson's retaining a ministerial _status_, while holding and administering a civil office was brought up at the next Conference, held at Hamilton, in June, 1849. In a letter to me from the Conference, dated 11th of the month, he said:--I brought my position before the Conference in consequence of a remark from one of the preachers, saying, while Mr. Playter's case was under consideration, "that there was a general opposition among the members of the Conference, occupying the position that Mr. Playter did, or a civil situation." Several of the senior members of the Conference spoke in a very complimentary way respecting me; and a strong satisfaction was expressed from all parts of the Conference with my position--the manner in which I had filled it, and consulted the interests of the Church--expressing their earnest desire that I would continue in it.

In a letter to Dr. Ryerson from his brother, Rev. E. M. Ryerson, from Brantford, on July 2nd, 1848, it would appear, from the foregoing, that some hostile movement was being generally formed against him. His brother said:--I found upon my return from Conference to Brantford that the general topic of conversation was your dismissal from your present office. When I told them it was not the case, some rejoiced, while silent grief and disappointment were visible on the countenances of others.

Dr. Ryerson having been called to Montreal on educational matters, in April, 1849, wrote a letter to me from that city, dated 27th of the month, in which he gave a graphic account of the state of the city during the crisis at that time:--You may well imagine my surprise and regret, on reaching Lachine yesterday, to learn that the Parliament House had been burnt, together with a n.o.ble library of 25,000 volumes, containing records of valuable books which can never be replaced. On arriving in Montreal, I found nothing but confusion and excitement, which, instead of subsiding, are increasing, and it is apprehended that to-morrow will be a more serious day than any that has preceded it.

Yesterday, the court of the Government House was filled with soldiers, while the street in front of it was crowded with a mult.i.tude, who saluted every appearance of any members of the Executive Council, or any of their Parliamentary supporters with hisses and groans. This continued from one o'clock until eight or nine o'clock in the evening. Mr.

Lafontaine came out in care of Colonel Antrobus and soldiers, to get into a cab, and he was pelted with eggs and stones. Not one of the Ministers can walk the streets. Last night Mr. Lafontaine's house was sacked, and his library destroyed; and Mr. Hincks' house was also sacked, but he had removed nearly all of his furniture, as well as his family. The scene of to-day was similar to that of yesterday. This afternoon a meeting of several thousands of persons was held in the Champs de Mars. I heard some of the speeches. They were moderate in tone, but the feelings of disgust and contempt for Lord Elgin exceed all conception. There have been two vast a.s.semblages this evening--the one French, the other British--in different parts of the city. Companies of soldiers have been stationed in the streets between them, preventing persons going from one party to the other. I have heard their shoutings since I commenced this letter.

The next day Dr. Ryerson wrote to me again to say:--Nothing has occurred in the city since last night, worth noticing. Soldiers meet you at every turn almost. Two companies of soldiers were stationed to-day in the building in which the Legislative a.s.sembly met. There was a long debate on the causes of the recent disturbances, and strong protestations from all sides of the House against "annexation."

An opportunity to appoint Hon. M. S. Bidwell to the Bench in Upper Canada having occurred, Dr. Ryerson, on the 3rd September, 1849, addressed the following letter to Hon. Robert Baldwin, urging the appointment:--There is one subject I take the liberty of mentioning, although it is contrary to my practice to interfere in any matter of the kind; but the peculiarity of it may excuse me on the present occasion. I allude to the appointment of Mr. Bidwell as one of the new judges in Upper Canada. The recent history of Europe affords many ill.u.s.trations of circ.u.mstances being seized upon by despots to compel the departure of valuable and dreaded men from their own country. You know that it was under such circ.u.mstances that Mr. Bidwell was compelled to leave Canada.

You know that it was the order of the Imperial Government to elevate Mr.

Bidwell to the Bench, that prompted Sir Francis Head to adopt the course towards him that he did. You know, likewise, how long, and faithfully, and ably, Mr. Bidwell laboured to promote the principles of civil and religious liberty which are now established in Upper Canada; and that at a time when great responsibility and obloquy attached to such advocacy. Mr. Bidwell was the author, as well as the able advocate of the laws by which the religious denominations in Upper Canada hold Church property, and by which their ministers solemnize matrimony. I believe he has never altogether abandoned the hope of returning to Canada; but I believe he has felt that he was ent.i.tled to the offer of that position, which the Home Government contemplated conferring upon him in 1837. I felt it too delicate a question to propose to Mr. Bidwell when I saw him the other day; but my friend Mr. Francis Hall, of the New York _Commercial Advertiser_ (who sees and converses with him every week), expressed his full conviction that Mr. Bidwell would accept a Judges.h.i.+p in Upper Canada--that Mr. Bidwell had constantly taken the Canadian Law Reports, and procured the Canadian and English Statutes, and kept up his reading of them as carefully as if he had lived in Canada. I believe the appointment of Mr. Bidwell would be an honour to the Canadian Bench, and an act of moral and political grat.i.tude most honourable to any party, and of great value to Upper Canada. You are aware of the reasons for which I feel a deep interest in this subject, and which will, I trust, excuse in your mind the liberty I take--believing, as I do, that it will be as grateful to your feelings as it will be n.o.ble in your character, to remember a man to whom our common country is so much indebted.

To this letter Mr. Baldwin replied, on the 20th September

With respect to the princ.i.p.al object of your letter, you need not, I a.s.sure you, have made any excuse for introducing it, even independently of the part taken by you formerly with reference to the case of my friend Mr. Bidwell, and which alone would give you a just claim to address me. I can never feel any suggestion, no matter from what quarter, having his good for its object, to be an intrusion on me, and be a.s.sured that nothing could have afforded me greater pleasure than to have had it in my power to have advised his appointment to the Bench. Nor have I ever ceased to do all that I could with propriety to get him to put himself in the position which might lead to such a result. You are aware of the steps I took in 1843 to have his pledge to Sir Francis Head cancelled. I sent you, I think, the correspondence respecting it. (See page 308.) On that being done, I wrote him a letter of which I preserved a copy, from which I send you one. By this you will see how earnestly I pressed him to return then. Had he come in, as I suggested, it was my intention to have offered him the Crown business on whichever of the Circuits he might have chosen. I have subsequently, as often as I felt I dared to do so, urged his return. But it has been felt impossible, until he had placed himself in the position of a pract.i.tioner, as formerly, at our own, and not at a foreign, Bar, to advise his appointment to the Bench of the Province. For myself, although friends.h.i.+p might have led me to have overlooked, or overstepped, this difficulty, my judgment, when appealed to, forced me to admit, with my colleagues, that the objection was insuperable.

I am not acquainted with the income he realizes from his profession in New York, but I doubt not it is much beyond what could be obtained in Toronto. Still, if he really does wish to return to Canada, the time is most propitious as far as professional prospects are concerned. Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Blake, and Mr. Esten being taken from the Bar leaves a s.p.a.ce to be filled that, I should say, offers the best possible opening.

Had Mr. Bidwell been in his proper professional position here when the Government was called upon to appoint to the places now filled, or on the eve of being filled, by those gentlemen, there is not one of those high judicial positions to which it would not have been at once a pride and a pleasure both to myself and my colleagues to have advised his appointment. Vice-Chancellor Jameson's health, too, will probably ere long lead to his retirement. When that time arrives, will our friend's continued absence be still a barrier to the gratification of our wishes?

If the affairs of the Province shall be then conducted by the same Councils as now sway them, I may say, with almost the same confidence of that future as I do of the past, that it will be the only obstacle to such gratification. I should add, too, that last winter one of my colleagues who, as well as myself, has always taken a particular interest in Mr. Bidwell's return to the Province, wrote to him, informing him of the Judiciary measures intended to be introduced by the Administration, and giving him to understand as distinctly as could properly be done, that, if he had returned to this country when those measures were to go into operation, it would afford us and our colleagues the greatest pleasure to have it in our power to advise his being placed in a situation alike agreeable to his tastes, deserving of his talents, and satisfactory to the public at large. And though, when he wrote first, he expressed some doubt of the Bills becoming law during the last session, yet shortly after, when it was felt expedient to carry them through, he again wrote to inform Mr. Bidwell that this would be done if the sanction of Parliament was obtained to the measures. Whether, in my letters to Mr. Bidwell, on the subject of his return, I have appeared to him not to speak with sufficient warmth, I know not. It has, at all events, not been from indifference to the object. I certainly have felt that, in the uncertainty that must for the future attach to political power, there was a great responsibility in urging one in good business elsewhere to leave that and throw his fortunes again in with us here. I am naturally cautious, and my caution may have led me to speak less warmly than I felt, particularly when I found my first appeals unsuccessful. But he ought, and I hope, does, appreciate my motives. It is true his ear may be poisoned by having had unjust suspicions poured into it. I know I have never afforded any just grounds for such suspicions, and I feel confident that his generous nature would have been far above conceiving any such, had they not been suggested by others. I am, however, perhaps doing wrong. It may be that none such have ever been thought of by anyone. I trust it is so. If otherwise, it is but just to myself to say that they are the foulest, basest and most malignant that mortal ever breathed.

Rev. Dr. Bangs attended the Conference at Brockville in 1850, as a delegate from the American General Conference. On his return to New York he wrote a letter to Dr. Ryerson on the 3rd July:--