The Story of My Life Part 59

As the agitation increased, Dr. Ryerson, who was in England in 1845, addressed a letter to Lord Stanley, Colonial Secretary, in January, on the injustice to the non-episcopal churches of the Act of 1840. He said:--

There is a subject which, in connection with transpiring circ.u.mstances in Canada, deeply involves the future condition of the government of Canada, and which can be considered by your Lordship alone: I refer to the withholding, to the present time, from the Wesleyan Methodist body in Upper Canada all benefit of the Act pa.s.sed for the settlement of the clergy reserve question--a question which certain parties in Canada propose to re-open, with a view of depriving the Church of England of what is considered a disproportionate share of the proceeds of the clergy reserves. The advantage afforded by such a subject of agitation would be eagerly seized upon by the leaders of the opposition in Parliament. The Wesleyan Methodist body in Upper Canada (now numbering 131 regular ministers, and 24,000 communicants), has for many years possessed and does still possess the casting vote between the contending political parties in that country; and should they join in the agitation contemplated, nothing but military power will prevent the wresting out of the hands of the Church of England their--the chief--pecuniary advantages which it derives from public sources.

Hitherto the leading members of the Wesleyan Methodist body have declined any public agitation on the subject--though solicited by influential parties--contenting themselves with private communication to the Government until they should find them hopelessly unsuccessful. Should not their case be considered? I have reason to believe that they will at their next annual meeting, to be held in June, commence an appeal to the public and to the Local Legislature on the injustice done them; as they have ascertained that all the leading lawyers in Upper Canada of both parties, as well as three successive Governors considered them wronged in the manner in which they alone, of the four great leading denominations of the country, have been excluded from the benefits of an act, to the basis of which Lord Sydenham never could have obtained the consent of the Canadian Legislature without their most decided support.

I should deeply lament the re-agitation of the clergy reserve question in Canada. Such a step, on the part of the great Wesleyan body there, would doubtless be attended by the strengthening of the opposition in the Legislature, and to probable withdrawal of the support of several members from the present Government. In an interview with the official Committee of the Wesleyan body, shortly before I left Canada, I promised them to bring the subject before your Lordship during my stay in England. They, therefore, deferred appealing to the Local Legislature to interpose in their behalf, until they should learn the result of such an appeal to your Lordship....

I cannot suppose that it has been the wish of your Lordship, any more than the intention of the Crown officers, to perpetuate the exclusion of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada from their confessedly-just claim of which they have already been deprived for a period of four years. The amount of the claim is less than one-half of what has been secured to the Roman Catholic Church in Upper Canada--less than one-third of the amount paid the Church of Scotland, and less than one-tenth of what has been guaranteed to the Church of England. The Wesleyan body, whose members in Upper Canada have increased eight thousand during the last four years, will be satisfied on the payment of the sum admitted in their behalf. And I submit that the sanctioning of it by your Lordship will, in my humble opinion, be far better, even as a matter of policy--apart from higher considerations--than affording just ground for an agitation, the consequences of which cannot be easily foreseen.

No relief was, however, afforded by a change in the administration of the Act of 1840. The Act itself remained unrepealed until 1853.

FOOTNOTES:

[128] In process of time, the necessities of his Church compelled the Bishop to adopt a new financial scheme, which he laid before his clergy in 1841, one main feature of which was to incorporate the voluntary principle with a system of moderate grants--such as has been the rule adopted for some years by the Mission Board of the Diocese of Toronto.

[129] In sending a copy of this pamphlet some years ago to the Editor of this volume, Archdeacon Fuller (now Bishop of Niagara), said:--This able and interesting doc.u.ment ... was drawn out from the late Bishop by the growing dissatisfaction amongst the clergy and laity, in consequence of Bishop Strachan managing the whole of the clergy reserve fund, without consulting anybody, and managing to get several thousand pounds of arrears paid to himself, as Bishop, and his protege, the present Bishop [Bethune], made Archdeacon of York, with a salary of 365 a year as Archdeacon, while he could not find means to pay the missionaries more than 100 a year.

CHAPTER XLIX.

1846-1848.

Re-Union of the British and Canadian Conferences.

During and before the period of the Metcalfe Controversy events were transpiring in Methodist circles in which Dr. Ryerson took an active part, and in which he was deeply interested.[130]

Important correspondence on the relations to each other of the British and Canadian Conferences took place in 1842. But as the issue of the contest between these Conferences was so prolonged, and involved so many important questions--religious and public--I think it desirable to give a brief preliminary outline of the origin of the difficulties between the two bodies. This is the more necessary, as Dr. Ryerson's own personal history and conduct became, from a variety of circ.u.mstances, most prominently mixed up with these controversies. His letters to the Government on the subject, and to the Missionary Secretaries, now first published, are also valuable Methodist historical doc.u.ments--although they partake largely of a personal character--as he was the foremost figure in all of these connexional contests. They are highly characteristic of the courage and self-sacrifice of the writer.

Methodism, after its introduction into Upper Canada in 1790, was organized into a Church by preachers from the United States. In 1811, when Upper Canada was on the eve of being the theatre of war with the United States, several American preachers who had been appointed to Canada declined to come, while those here (Messrs. Roads and Densmore) applied to the Canadian Government in 1812 for leave to return to their own country.[131] Nevertheless, after the war, and on the representation of persons prompted by high churchmen, the London Wesleyan Missionary Society sent out missionaries to four of the larger towns in Upper Canada. This schismatical policy was pursued by the British Conference until 1820, when the American General Conference sent Rev. John (afterwards) Bishop Emory, as a deputation to that Conference to remonstrate. The result was that the following resolutions were pa.s.sed by the British Conference in that year (1820):--

1. That as the American Methodists and ourselves are but one body, it would be inconsistent with our unity, and dangerous to that affection which ought to characterize us in every place, to have different societies and congregations in the same towns and villages, or to allow of any intrusion on either side into each other's labours.

2. That this principle shall be the rule by which the disputes now existing in the Canadas, between our missionaries, shall be terminated.

In transmitting these and several other resolutions on the subject to the British Missionaries in Canada, the Secretaries (Rev. Joseph Taylor and Rev. Richard Watson) said:--

We know that political reasons exist in many minds for supplying even Upper Canada, as far as possible, with British Missionaries; and, however natural this feeling may be to Englishmen, and even praiseworthy when not carried too far, it will be obvious to you that this is a ground on which, as a Missionary Society, and especially as a Society under the direction of a Committee which recognizes as one with itself the American Methodists, we cannot act.

The British Conference loyally observed this compact from 1820 until 1833. At that time (Dr. Ryerson says) the advocates of a dominant church establishment, though in a small minority in the House of a.s.sembly, were all powerful in the Executive and Legislative Councils, and employed very naturally all the resources at their command to perpetuate their supremacy. For this purpose they appealed to the Wesleyan Missionary Committee in England, and solicited them upon the ground of their loyalty to the Church of England and to the Throne to send out Missionaries to Upper Canada, offering $4,000 per annum out of the Crown revenues to a.s.sist in so loyal a work. The English Wesleyan Missionary Committee sent out a representative agent, who contended that the engagement into which the English Conference had entered with the American General Conference in 1820, through Dr. Emory, to leave Upper Canada to the Canadian preachers, was no longer binding since the Conference in Canada has become separate from that in the United States, and the English Committee was therefore free to send missionaries into any part of Upper Canada. The Canadian Conference was thus confronted by a double danger--the danger of division in their congregations, and the danger of increased power against their claims to equal rights and privileges; and a two-fold duty devolved upon them--to prevent division if possible, and, at the same time, to secure the attainment of their own const.i.tutional rights.

In the meantime other disturbing influences occurred. In 1824, an agitation was commenced, with a view to take the appointment of the Presiding Eldership out of the hands of the Bishops, and make the office elective by the annual Conferences. The Presiding Elders of Upper Canada (Rev. Henry Ryan and Rev. William Case) opposed this change, and, in consequence, failed in their election by the Genesee Annual Conference as delegates to the General Conference. Mr. Ryan was chagrined at this result, and on his return to Upper Canada commenced to agitate for an entire separation from the American Church. A memorial to that effect was sent to the General Conference. The request was not granted, but the Canadian work was set off to itself as the "Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada." This was not what Mr. Ryan wanted, and it displeased him. The theme of his complaint was "the domination of republican Methodism and the tyranny of Yankee Bishops."

He therefore, set himself again to agitate for entire independence.

Finally, after having been the means of stirring up personal strife all through the Connexion, the Conference of 1827 directed that he should be reproved and admonished by Bishop Hedding in presence of the Conference.

This was done. Next day Mr. Ryan withdrew from the Conference. (See chapter vii.)

The high-church party encouraged Mr. Ryan in his disaffection; and when he withdrew, and set up a separate church organization, Dr. Strachan actually sent Mr. Ryan $200 to a.s.sist him in his schismatical efforts!

(Epochs, page 305.) Hon. John Willson, Speaker of the House of a.s.sembly, and formerly a Methodist, joined the high-church party, and did all he could to aid and encourage Mr. Ryan. Thus, in addition to the 50 sent to Mr. Ryan by Ven. Archdeacon Strachan, to aid him in his schismatical crusade against the Conference, a Government grant of 666 ($2,664) was made to the new organization at the instance of Mr. Willson in 1833, and 338 ($1,352) in 1834. (Epochs, page 359.)

The cry of disloyalty having been again raised, the Government and clerical party (for they were one under the control of the Archdeacon of York), lost no time, therefore, in maturing a plan to induce the British Conference again to undertake the occupancy of Upper Canada as missionary ground, and forthwith to send missionaries into the province for that purpose. A correspondence was opened between the head of the Canadian Executive Government, Sir John Colborne, and the Wesleyan Missionary Committee, on the subject of the new missionary enterprise into Upper Canada. (Epochs, page 305.) The result was, that in May, 1832, without notice, an intimation was received that the Rev. Robert Alder, and twelve missionaries were to be sent out to Canada. With a view to avert the calamity of again having hostile Methodist camps in every city and town in Upper Canada, Rev. John Ryerson suggested to Dr.

Ryerson that the Canada Conference should endeavour to form a union with the British Conference, and thus secure harmonious action instead of discord and disunion. This was done, and provisional arrangements were made with Dr. Alder at the Hallowell Conference of 1832, subject to the ratification of the British Conference. This ratification was made, and took effect in 1833, and the union continued for four or five years only.

About the year 1840, a considerable controversy arose in regard to the payment of an annual grant of 900 by the Government, in aid of the general work of the Church. It may be well, therefore, to state the circ.u.mstances under which this grant was made, and then point out the personal causes which intensified the feeling of estrangement between the English and Canadian Conferences.

In a letter on this subject to the Provincial Secretary, dated 28th December, 1842, Dr. Ryerson said:--

Rev. Robert Alder was in Upper Canada in the spring and summer of 1833, negotiating on the subject of the grant and the union, which Sir John Colborne was anxious to promote. The Canadian Conference, aided by Dr. Alder's counsels, agreed to propose certain articles of union with the English Conference. Those articles contemplated a financial, as well as ecclesiastical union; and Dr. Alder expressed his conviction that the English Conference would grant 1,000 per annum out of its Contingent Fund, to aid our Conference, besides the aid granted out of the Mission Fund, in aid of Missions in Upper Canada. A copy of these proposed articles of union was forthwith laid before Sir John Colborne by Dr. Alder, and published in the _Guardian_, of the 29th August, 1832, five days after which Sir John Colborne wrote to Lord Ripon, recommending a grant to the Wesleyan Committee of 900 per annum [on terms of the comprehensive scheme mentioned on page 155]. But the Government delayed making any payment until October, 1833, after the ratification of the union by both bodies. In the meantime, however, the English Conference declined granting any aid out of their Contingent Fund, and had a clause inserted in the Articles of Union against any claims upon the funds of the English Conference on the part of the Canadian Preachers. Of this clause in the Articles of Union the Government seems never to have been made aware until Lord Sydenham came to Upper Canada in 1839.

In a long and valuable historical letter to Mr. Murdoch, Chief Secretary to Sir Charles Bagot, dated May, 1842, Dr. Ryerson further said:--

The first payment of the grant was made in October, 1833, a few days after the final ratification of the Articles of Union by the Canadian Conference; so that every payment of the grant was made and applied according to the "usage" prescribed by the Articles of Union....

Dr. Ryerson then discussed various matters relating to their "usage,"

and the articles of Union, and proceeded: Some weeks after Lord Sydenham's arrival in Toronto, His Lordship sent for me--as I was afterwards informed, at the recommendation of Sir Allan MacNab, Receiver-General Dunn, and others--but the interview, and one or two subsequent ones, related entirely to the objects of his Lordship's mission, in accomplishing which, he desired all the aid I could give him. The last week of the year 1839, and the first week of 1840, Lord Sydenham spent in seeing various parties and concerting a measure on the clergy reserve question. He sent for the Rev. Messrs. Stinson and Richey (agents of the London Wesleyan Committee) as well as for me. As all the present difficulties grew out of these interviews of the London Wesleyan Committee's agents and myself, with Lord Sydenham, I think it important to state the substance of them, and the evidence on which I make my statement.

First as regards myself. The proposed measure being intended to secure a continued payment of grants already made out of the Casual and Territorial Revenue, and the Clergy Reserve Fund, to the parties receiving them, I submitted to Lord Sydenham that, as the three princ.i.p.al denominations (Church of England, Church of Scotland, and Roman Catholics) received large aid out of one or both of these funds, it was clear that unless some a.s.sistance was granted to the Wesleyan Methodist Church before the pa.s.sing of the Clergy Reserve Bill, and transferred with other charges by the provisions of the Bill, we would be effectually excluded from obtaining any aid for a series of years. I submitted to Lord Sydenham an application, which I had been directed to make, in behalf of the Upper Canada Academy--now Victoria College. His Lordship acceded to the justice of my views, but replied that aid was given to us also in the form of an annual grant. I replied, and sought to impress upon his Lordship, that the grant referred to by him had not been made to the Canadian Conference, and did not operate to its advantage, but to the sole advantage of the Wesleyan Missionary Society in England; and, at his request, I prepared a statement of the case in writing. It will be seen by the date of my letter that these communications took place January 2nd, 1840. It is perfectly clear, therefore, that up to that time there could have transpired between Lord Sydenham and myself, nothing relative to the transfer of the grant.

On the same day, Rev. Messrs. Stinson and Richey (agents of the Wesleyan Committee) had an interview with Lord Sydenham. They told him that the union between the English and Canadian Conferences was not likely to continue; and prayed (in their memorial, written the day after) "that the sum intended for the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada, should be given to the Wesleyan Methodists, who are now, and who may be hereafter, connected with the British Wesleyan Conference." I believe Lord Sydenham's laconic reply was, that he had to do with religious bodies in Canada, not in England.

It will be seen that the communication of Messrs. Stinson and Richey, as well as mine, served to impress Lord Sydenham that there was not an ident.i.ty of interests between the English and Canadian Conferences, as he had supposed, and, as His Lordship said, Her Majesty's Government also supposed.

A day or two after Messrs. Stinson and Richey's interview with Lord Sydenham, I waited upon him, when I was given to understand that a memorial had been presented to him in behalf of the British Conference, on the ground of an antic.i.p.ated dissolution of the Union. My feelings of surprise and indignation, and my remonstrances against such a monstrous proposition, may be easily conceived. It is known that Lord Sydenham, from the very first, viewed such a proposition with disapprobation; it was on this occasion also that His Lordship apprised me of the conclusions he had come to on the subject of any proposition for a grant to the Canadian Conference, previously to pa.s.sing the Clergy Reserve Bill; that he was satisfied that the Canadian Conference had a just claim to a.s.sistance; that it did not derive any practical benefit from the grant to the London Committee, but that it ought to do so, as such were the original intentions of the Government in making it. Lord Sydenham stated his recollection of the intention of the Government in 1832 to be--and perhaps the recollections of Lord Stanley may be to the same effect--that it was supposed by the Government, from communications from Upper Canada, that the Wesleyans here were not quite as (conservatively) loyal as was desirable; that it being understood they were willing to unite with the English Conference, the Government thought it advisable to enable the English Conference to a.s.sist them, as it would exert a salutary influence upon their feelings and usefulness. Thus was the grant made; but from the peculiar nature of the articles of Union, the leading objects of the grant had never been accomplished, as the Canadian Conference had to support all its own members and inst.i.tutions--except a few missions--as much since, as before the Union. He had, therefore, determined to write to Lord John Russell, and recommend a different distribution of the grant; believing that to accomplish the original and benevolent objects in Canada, it ought to be placed under the entire control of the Canadian Conference.

In these views I did, of course, gratefully concur, although I never fully understood until then the intentions of the Imperial Government in making the grant. I also thought the course proposed would defeat the intimated project of breaking up the Union, and furnish real aid to the Church of which I was appointed advocate and representative. Leaving the matter in the hands of Lord Sydenham, I had no intention of saying anything more upon the subject, until, nearly a fortnight afterwards, when His Lordship requested me--as I was so familiar with the subject--to furnish him with a written statement of the financial relations of the English and Canadian Conferences, in regard to the grant, etc., as it would aid him in preparing his despatch to Lord John Russell. I did so. The letter, written at the request of Lord Sydenham, was intended as a memorandum for his Lordship. But he thought it best to transmit a copy of it with his own despatch to Lord John Russell, by whom it was enclosed to the Wesleyan Committee; and hence the present controversy. That letter is dated 17th January, 1840.

I cannot but feel that I labour under great disadvantages in the present discussion, from the numerous representations and statements which the Wesleyan Committee have made to the n.o.ble Secretary of State to my disadvantage. My standing, as a public man, is my all, and therefore, however small relatively, is as important to me as a kingdom to a monarch.

As the Wesleyan Committee have made me so prominent a subject in this affair, I have offered to submit to His Excellency, Sir Charles Bagot, or to the Executive Council--or to His Excellency and the Executive Council--or to the Lord Bishop of Toronto; or to the Moderator of the Synod of the Church of Scotland in Canada--or to the Lord Bishop of Toronto and the Moderator of the Scotch Synod--and to bind myself in any penalty to abide by the decision of such tribunal. When the Wesleyan Committee are accusers, judge, and jury in their own case, it is not likely they will be very impartial; but if there is a shadow of truth or justice in their accusations and statements, I have given them full opportunity to secure the confirmation of them, by the highest tribunals, in the country of my life and labours.

The Wesleyan Committee declined to refer the matter in dispute to an independent tribunal, and Dr. Alder wrote to members of the Canadian Conference impugning Dr. Ryerson in the strongest terms, insisting upon his withdrawal of certain things which he had written, and making various threats. Dr. Ryerson decided then to address a final letter to Rev. Messrs. Bunting, Beecham and Hoole, Missionary Secretaries. This he did on the 19th October, 1842. This letter, and the preceding letter, are doubly valuable from the fact that they embody a number of interesting details of the interviews and correspondence between Lord Sydenham and Dr. Ryerson, and also between Sir Charles Bagot and Dr.

Ryerson, which have not hitherto been published. There is a tone of manly dignity and independence in this letter which commends itself, and which were characteristic of Dr. Ryerson in his best moods as a controversialist. From the letter, which extends to thirty-four foolscap pages I make the following extracts. He said:--

I wish the most extended success to the general labours of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, however much they have sought to r.e.t.a.r.d those of the Canadian Conference; nor have I ever objected to their labours among the "dest.i.tute white settlements" and heathen tribes of Canada; I only object to their works of schism, and division.... Did you ever think of sending missionaries, or of employing your money and men, in our regular circuits, before the breaking up of the Union?--Kingston, or Belleville, or Toronto, or Hamilton, or Brantford, or London, etc.?--places where there is no more need of missionary men or missionary money than there is in City Road, or Great Queen street circuits in London--places in which it is notorious that the soul, body, and strength of your societies consists, not in converts from the world, but in secessions from the Canadian Conference. When, therefore, four-fifths of your missionaries (so called) in Western Canada are employed on regular circuits of the Canadian Conference, is it surprising that I should complain, remonstrate, and condemn?

The burden of Dr. Alder's letter is that I have been the first, gratuitous, and wanton aggressor upon the character and motives of those "to whom the British Conference has entrusted the transaction of its most important business;" and, as such, the author and fomenter of the difficulties between the British and Canadian Conferences. And it has been more than once intimated on your part that if I, the Jonah, were thrown overboard, the commotion of the Methodistic element of Western Canada would soon cease, and mutual confidence and joy would be restored to the whole ship's company.... Need I add, that in the columns of your _Watchman_ newspaper, and in the pages of pamphlets, and in your _Wesleyan_ in Canada, not only my public conduct, but my character, my motives, my principles, have been impugned without delicacy or restraint? Need I add, that the Canada Conference and myself have been the defendants, and you the a.s.sailants, throughout? That in Dr. Alder's letter to Lord John Russell the proceedings of the Canada Conference are represented as revolutionary?

I am also impeached in almost every form of phraseology--the Christian integrity and loyalty of my brethren and myself have been impugned by your agents throughout this country--our fields of labour have been invaded, and our flocks divided, while our principles and feelings have been resented as dangerous to the safety and interests of the State. Yet Dr. Alder complains of the occasional exposure of these things in the _Guardian_, and is rampant at the application of the word divisionists, to those of your missionaries who are dividing our regular societies, and establishing rival congregations on our regular circuits!... But, in reply, there may be opposed to the unanimous resolutions of your Conference, adopted in Liverpool, in 1820, and the whole tenor and spirit of the New Testament, especially the writings of St. Paul, who denounces partialities for Peter, or Paul, or Apollos, as pretext for schisms in the Church of G.o.d.

Then as to my desire to protract litigation. Does my having done all in my power to have the affair referred to a third party--to any impartial tribunal you might prefer--evince the truth of such a charge? Or does your refusing to agree to any such reference look most like desiring to protract hostilities? Great Britain and other civilized nations have more than once submitted their differences to the decision of a third party; ancient churches did the same; I have advocated the same; you refuse; your refusal does not certainly argue a consciousness that you are right, or a desire for peace, whatever else it may argue.

Furthermore, as to my own feelings and conduct, I will let the following memorandum, which I presented at the late session of the Canada Conference, speak in reply to your various allegations:--

I hereby resign my seat in the Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada.

I do not resign my membership in the Conference, but I resign all privilege and right to take part in its deliberations, or even to be present at its sittings. I hold myself as much as ever responsible and subject to the Conference, and am as ready as ever to do all in my power to defend the Conference and Inst.i.tutions of the Church when necessary; but I voluntarily relinquish partic.i.p.ating in any way whatever in its Executive or Legislative Councils. The following are the considerations which have induced me to take this step:--