GENTLEMEN :

I shall not fail to transmit to the Secretary of State your Memorial addressed to the King. In returning my best thanks to you for your good wishes, I may venture to affirm that the assurances of your desire and determination to promote the interests of pure religion will afford general satisfaction, because a very unfavorable impression has been made from one end of the Province to the other as regards an imported secular interference on the part of your Preachers, -an impression, I am afraid, that must tend to counteract the salutary effects that ought to result from the active piety and zeal of your Society. I refer with reluctance to the public opinion formed of the doctrines inculcated by Ministers of any denomination of Christians, or of the principles which they are said to espouse; but, on this occasion, I think it right to acquaint you that, although the character of your Ministers is probably aspersed, and although they may not, as it is said, take advantage of the influence acquired by their sacred office, to conduct the political concerns of the people committed to their care to be instructed only in the words of eternal life, yet I cannot imagine that, if there were not some grounds for the imputation of their inconvenient attention to secular concerns, a desire for the return of the British Wesleyan Missionaries, to resume their pastoral labours in this Province, would not have been generally expressed. This conclusion may be erroneous; but I am in some measure led to it from the reports which I have received of the absurd advice offered by your Missionaries to the Indians, and their officious interference, if any reliance can be placed on the statements of the Indians themselves, the civilization of whom the Superintendents of the Indian Department are endeavouring to accomplish.*

With our excellent Constitution, in this Province, I trust we shall always find a sufficient number of the supporters of civil and religious freedom, without the interference of the Ministers of the Gospel.

Your Preachers, whether they are brought from the United States, or from any other foreign country, will, I hope, experience, while they act honestly and respect British institutions, the same protection, encouragement and freedom which all Americans enjoy, who have found an asylum among us, and choose to live under the British Government in this Province, and securely enjoy the rights of our own colonists which are assured to every denomination, party, sect or persuasion.

Your dislike to any church establishment, or to the particular form of Christianity which is denominated the Church of England, may be the natural consequence of the constant success of your own efficacious, organized system. The small number of our Church of England members is to be regretted, as well as that the organization of its ministry is not adapted to supply the present wants of the dispersed population in this new country; but you will readily admit that the sober minded of the Province are disgusted with the accounts of the disgraceful dissensions of the Episcopal Methodist Church and its separatists, recriminating memorials and the warfare of one church with another. The utility of an establishment depends entirely on the piety, assiduity and devoted zeal of its Ministers, and on their abstaining from a secular interference, which may involve them in political disputes.

The labours of the clergy of established churches, in defence of moral and religious truth, will always be remembered by you who have access to their writings and benefit by them, in common with other Christian societies. You will allow, I have no doubt, on reflection that it would indeed, (with the inconsiderable population in the Province,) be imprudent to admit the right of societies to dictate, on account of their present numerical strength, in what way the lands set apart as a provision for the Clergy shall be disposed of. Ample information on the question has been laid before the Imperial Parliament, and no inconvenience, while it is pending, can arise in respect to the occupation of these lands, for there are more acres now offered for sale than purchasers can be found for them.

In a few years the Province will be peopled by millions of our own countrymen, and many of the arrangements of His Majesty's Government will have reference naturally to the population of the Mother Country destined to occupy the waste lands of the Crown.

The system of education which has produced the best and ablest men in the United Kingdom will not be abandoned here to suit the limited views of the leaders of societies who perhaps

* It is not necessary in this Work to refer to this part of Sir John Colborne's charges against the Methodist Missionaries for their alleged "absurd advice" and "officious interference," further than to say, that these charges were fully met and inquired into, as stated in the Reverend Doctor Ryerson's 'Story of My Life," (which I edited in 1883. See page 99 of that Book.) Doctor Ryerson, who was Editor of the Christian Guardian at that time, closes his account of the matter with these words: "The

66

effect of this controversy was very salutary. His Excellency, having reconsidered the case, gave merited reproof and suitable instructions to the officers of the Indian Department in regard to their treatment of the Methodist Missionaries." Doctor Ryerson further adds: "We had no trouble thereafter on the subject."

have neither experience nor judgment to appreciate the value or advantages of a liberal education; but the British Government will, I am confident, with the aid of the Provincial Legislature, establish respectable schools in every part of the Province, and encourage all societies to follow their example.

A Seminary, I hope, will not be styled exclusive that is open to everyone, merely because the classical Masters are brought from our own Universities.

It may be mentioned, without giving offence to the members of any church, or persuasion, that there are few individuals who think that Ministers of the Gospel can conduct political journals and keep themselves unspotted from the world, and put away all bitterness and wrath and clamor and evil speaking, which the attacks of their adversaries may engender; or that their avocation will not force them to spend their time like the Athenians in their decline in nothing but "either to tell or hear something new." I am persuaded that the friends of religion will strongly recommend Ministers of the Gospel to labour to increase the number of Christians, rather than the number of their own sects or persuasions; to close their churches and chapels against all political meetings, and indeed, all meetings for the transaction of secular business, and never to permit their consecrated places to be profaned by the party spirit of the hour.

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

YORK, December, 1831.

J. COLBORNE.

THE REVEREND EGERTON RYERSON'S REJOINDER TO SIR JOHN COLBORNE.

This reply of His Excellency called forth a spirited rejoinder from the Reverend Egerton Ryerson; which occupied several columns of the Christian Guardian of the 21st of December, 1831. The following is an extract from this rejoinder. It was in the form of a letter, addressed to Mr. Edward McMahon, Acting, Secretary to the Lieutenant-Governor, on the 15th December, 1831. In that rejoinder was pointed out the objections to the constitution and management of Upper Canada College, which, as Mr. Ryerson said, had been established "without even consulting the popular branch of the Colonial Legislature":

His Excellency has thought proper to taunt the Methodist Clergy with their supposed ignorance, with having "neither experience nor judgment to appreciate the value and advantages of a liberal education." To the advantages of a university education the Methodist Clergy may not make pretensions, nor may many of the Episcopal Clergy, nor may hundreds of other Ministers of the Gospel, who have shown by their works that they were more thoroughly versed in the essential qualifications of able Ministers of the New Testament, than those who could pompously boast of their long residence in College halls. No ministry in the Province is more successful than that of the Methodists; nor are any congregations larger and more numerous or more intelligent. At least one-fourth of the population have shown a preference for the ministrations of those, on whose incapacity His Excellency has seen fit to reflect. If exertions to extend the advantages of a liberal education" indicate a "judgment to appreciate" them, the Methodist Clergy are, at this very hour, employing their utmost energies for the promotion of that great object among the youth of the Province. The only opinion expressed by the Methodist Conference in regard to a system of education, is, that it might be such as the local knowledge of the Provincial Legislature, in respect to the circumstances of the Province, might dictate. No objection that I am aware of has ever been made to classical masters from English Universities; but, when Seminaries are established and placed under the sole direction of the Clergy of one Church, without even consulting the popular branch of the Colonial Legislature, I cannot see how they are justly entitled to the character, confidence, or patronage of free public institutions.

*

* Lord Goderich, in the latter part of section two of his Despatch of the 2nd of November, 1831, states that Upper Canada College was established for the benefit of "various classes of the community," "as well as for that of the Church of England." (Page 55).

CHAPTER II.

PRESBYTERIAN EDUCATIONAL PROCEEDINGS, 1830, 1831.

On the 11th of January, 1830, a meeting of the Presbytery was held at Brockville, at which, (says a notice in the Christian Guardian):

The Committee on a Literary and Theological Institution in reporting the result of their enquiries, are happy in informing the Presbytery, that the erection of a Literary Institution, embracing a course of appropriate studies for such as are assigned for the Christian Ministry, meets with the most decided and individual approbation of the friends of Christ, and of the public generally. The Reverend Doctor Gregg, in his "History of the Presbyterian Church in the Dominion of Canada, from the Earliest Times to 1834," (1885), states that at a meeting of the Presbytery, held at Brockville, on the 1st of June, 1830, at which were present, the Reverends William Smart, Robert McDowall, William Bell, Robert Boyd and Robert Lyle, it had petitioned the Legislature :

Complaining of the exclusiveness in the appointment of Trustees of the District (Grammar) Schools, and that a report on their Petition had been made by a Committee of the Legislative Council, etc.*

PRESBYTERIAN LITERARY AND THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 1830, 1831.

At the same meeting of the Presbytery, communications were submitted from the "Canada Education and Home Missionary Society in Montreal," with reference to which it was resolved "That the Committee of the Presbytery on the Literary and Theological Seminary, (the Reverend Messieurs Smart, Bell and Boyd,) be directed to enter into a further and more particular correspondence with the Committe appointed for that purpose by the above mentioned Society." Another meeting of the Presbytery was held in South Gower, on the 26th and 27th of January, 1831, at which it was resolved: "That a respectful and immediate application be made to His Excellency the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir John Colborne, requesting him to procure for the United Presbytery of Upper Canada the privilege of choosing a Professor of Divinity in King's College, to sit in the Council, and in every respect to be on an equal footing with the other Professors in the said College." (Pages 374 and 376 of Reverend Doctor Gregg's History).

In June, 1831, the United Presbytery of Upper Canada issued an appeal for aid to establish a Literary and Theological Seminary at Pleasant Bay, Hillier, in Prince Edward County, and deputed Mr. Eliakim Cory, of that County to collect subscriptions in the United States and Canada. The New York Evangelist of the 13th of August, 1831, issued the following notice on the subject, which was copied into the Christian Guardian of September the 3rd, 1831 (see page 1):

We would invite the attention of our readers to the appeal of the United Presbytery of Upper Canada, which we publish below. We cannot but think that the interests of sound doctrine, and of vital religion in Canada, are very intimately connected with the establishment of the proposed Institution. We hope that the Christian public will contribute liberally for an object of so high importance. Mr. Cory appears before the public with well attested credentials, as the Agent of the Presbytery to collect donations. We understand that, in a few weeks, he will be in this City on his agency, when our citizens will have the privilege of contributing of their substance to promote another great and good object. The Appeal of the United Presbytery of Upper Canada, is as follows:

"The bearer hereof, Eliakim Cory, Esquire, of Pleasant Bay, Township of Hillier, County of Prince Edward, Province of Upper Canada, having been appointed Agent, on behalf of the Literary and Theological Academy, about to be erected in that place, to collect funds, books, etc., for this object, in such parts of the Province and United States, as Providence may direct him. The United Presbytery of Upper Canada most earnestly and affectionately recommend Mr. Cory and the object of his mission to the generous and sympathizing consideration of our Christian friends, and trust that the appeal now made to them on behalf of this infant and

*This Petition, and the Report thereon, and the criticism by the Presbytery on this Report, will be found on pages 298, 299; 307-310; 315 and 316 of the First Volume of this Documentary History.

overlooked country, will not be in vain. The Presbytery feels deeply convinced that such an Institution as is now contemplated, is of vital importance, not only to the prosperty of religion in that part of the country, but to the Province at large, especially as there is no public Seminary in the Province, where young men, as Presbyterians, can be trained for the work of the Gospel Ministry. In the intended Institution at Pleasant Bay, provision will be made for such pious and devoted young men, as may give themselves to the work of the Lord, in the public ministry of His Word in Canada."*

An Institution, such as is contemplated by the friends of the Redeemer, at Pleasant Bay, is essentially necessary for the spread of the Gospel in Upper Canada-yet, however desirable and important such an Institution is believed to be, it cannot be carried into effect without the kind aid and co-operation of the friends of science and religion in the Province and the United States. Mr. Cory, therefore, and the object of his mission, are commended to the care and blessing of the Great Head of the Church, and to the kind offices, attention and liberality, of all good men. WILLIAM SMART, ANDREW BELL,

Clerk of the Presbytery.

Dated at Brockville, Upper Canada, this 16th of June, 1831.

Moderator.

At a meeting of the "United Synod of Upper Canada," held on the 19th June, 1832, a matter of importance, which was brought before the Synod at this meeting, was the subject of Theological Education. This subject had previously engaged the attention of the United Presbytery, which had petitioned the Government for leave to choose a Professor of Divinity in King's College, and which had also entertained a proposal to establish a Literary and Theological Seminary at Pleasant Bay, Hillier, in Prince Edward County, was now submitted; regulations for its management were adopted; and a Committee was appointed to secure a legal title to the proposed site, and to solicit subscriptions throughout the Province, to assist in completing the necessary buildings. (History of the Presbyterian Church, etc., by Reverend Doctor Gregg, pages 444 and 445, 1885.)

A second session of the Synod, in connection with the Church of Scotland, was held in Kingston the 18th of August, 1832. A reference from the Presbytery of York respecting King's College, and an Overture from the Reverend William Rintoul on the training of young men for the ministry, were laid before the Synod. The substance of the Overture was that the Synod recognize the great importance of a Seminary for educating and training of young men for the ministry within the bounds of the Synod; that the Synod should make an immediate and urgent application to the Government to found an Institution, or to endow professorships in connection with the Synod; and that, in the event of the Government not founding, or indefinitely delaying to found an Institution, or professorships, the Synod should take into serious consideration the importance of adopting a permanent measure for the education and training of ministers The Synod resolved to adopt the first two articles of the Overture, and appointed a Committee to prepare a Memorial on the subject to the King.-Page 466 of the Reverend Doctor Gregg's History.

The Reverend Doctor George Bell, Registrar of Queen's University, Kingston, in his address at the Semi-Centennial celebration of that University in 1889, said: The Presbyterian Church discussed the question of establishing a College from 1831 onward. The idea kept growing, but the undertaking seemed too great. A few students for the ministry were in Hamilton under the direction of Doctor Rae, Grammar School Master, in charge of the Presbytery of Hamilton.

Sanford Fleming, Esquire, C.E., C.M.G., Chancellor of Queen's University, in his address on the same occasion said:

The Church of Scotland in Canada . . . took every means to promote the establishment of a College, which would be generally accessible to all classes of the people, and which would command the confidence and support of all denominations of Christians.

In commenting on the recent educational proceedings in Upper Canada, (in 1830-1831,) the Editor of the New York Christian Advocate and Journal, thus summarized what had been done in this direction:

In the meantime, we would just remark that the Government have recently established a College at York, the capital of Upper Canada; and that the Methodists have for some time past been pursuing measures for the establishment of a Literary Institution, we believe at Cobourg, in the Newcastle District. We hope these, together with the one now in contemplation by the Presbytery of that Province, may all be founded on good principles, and succeed in diffusing the lights of science and religion.

* In this commendation of Mr. Cory, Upper Canada is spoken of as "this infant and overlooked country.'

CHAPTER III.

EDUCATIONAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE UPPER CANADA LEGISLATURE IN 1831.

On the 8th of January, 1831, His Excellency, Sir John Colborne, LieutenantGovernor, opened the first session of the Eleventh Parliament of Upper Canada, with the usual Speech from the Throne. In it he made no reference to the subject of Education, or Schools.

NEW AND PROMINENT MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY.

This being a new Parliament forty-nine members were elected to the House of Assembly, representing twenty-eight constituencies. Of the new members the most noted were, Messieurs Christopher Alexander Hagerman, George Strange Boulton, William Botsford Jarvis, William Benjamin Robinson, Charles Ingersoll, Allan Napier Macnab, John Brant and Henry John Boulton. Of these, Messieurs C. A. Hagerman and H. J. Boulton afterwards became Judges, and A. N. Macnab, Speaker of the House, and leader of the Royal Volunteer Forces in putting down the Rebellion of 1837. Mr. W. B. Robinson, brother of Chief Justice Robinson, was afterwards a Minister of State, after the Union of the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in 1840.

The members of the House of Assembly who took part in its educational proceedings were, Messieurs Mahlon Burwell, Rowsell Mount, Duncan. McCall, Reuben White, Jesse Ketchum, Bartholomew C. Beardsley, Alexander Fraser, John Clark, William Morris, William Buell, junior, Christopher Alexander Hagerman (Solicitor-General), William Berczy, Alexander Martin, Charles Ingersoll, William Crooks, Allan Napier Macnab, Marshall S. Bidwell, John Campbell, Philip Vankoughnet, John Philip Roblin, James Hunter Samson, William Chisholm, William Botsford Jarvis and Stephen Randal.

10th January, 1831.—Mr. Mahlon Burwell gives notice that he will, on to-morrow, move for leave to bring in a Bill to repeal the law which requires that the District (Grammar) School for the London District shall be opened and kept at the Town of Vittoria, and that the said District (Grammar) School shall in future be opened and kept in the Town of London, in the London District.

Mr. William Lyon Mackenzie gives notice that he will, on to-morrow, move an Address to His Excellency for information relative to the estate of the late Mr. William Weekes.

12th January, 1831.-Agreeably to the Order of the Day, the Petition of Mr. Ira Schofield, and one hundred and forty others of the London District, setting forth that no School house was ever erected in the Town of Vittoria, and that the Public District (Grammar) School has not been kept at the said Town of Vittoria since the destruction of the Gaol and Court House by fire, although the Statute, 59th George III., Chapter 4, so directs; and as the District Town has been removed from Vittoria to London, and, as a very convenient House has been erected