ussion for which I felt myself poorly
prepared, I had little appetite or sleep. At length roused to a sense of
my position, I felt that I must either flee or fight. I decided upon the
latter, strengthened by the consciousness that my principles were those
of the British Constitution and in defence of British rights. I devoted
a day to fasting and prayer, and then went at my adversaries in good
earnest. In less than four years after the commencement of this
controversy, laws were passed authorising the different religious
denominations to hold land for churches, parsonages, and burying
grounds, and their Ministers to solemnize matrimony; while the
Legislative Assembly passed, by large majorities, resolutions, and
addresses to the Crown against the exclusive pretensions of the Church
of England to the Clergy Reserves and being the exclusive established
Church of Upper Canada, though the Clergy Reserve question itself
continued to be discussed, and was not finally settled until more than
ten years afterwards.

Several months after the commencement of this controversy I paid my
first annual visit to my parents, and for the first two days the burden
of my Father's conversation was this controversy which was agitating the
country. At length, while walking in the orchard, my Father turned
short, and in a stern tone, said, "Egerton, they say that you are the
author of these papers which are convulsing the whole country. I want to
know whether you are or not?" I was compelled to acknowledge that I was
the writer of these papers, when my Father lifted up his hands, in an
agony of feeling, and exclaimed, "My God! we are all ruined!"

The state of my own mind and the character of my labours during this
first year of my ministry, may be inferred from the following brief
extracts from my diary:--

_October 4th_,--I have this evening arrived on my Circuit at York.
I feel the change to be awfully important, and entirely inadequate
to give proper instruction to so intelligent a people. The Lord
give me his assisting grace. I am resolved to devote my time, my
heart, my all, to God without reserve. I do feel determined, by
God's assistance, to rise early, spend no more time than is
absolutely necessary, pray oftener, and more fervently, to be
modest and solemn in the discharge of my public duties--to improve
every leisure moment by reading or meditation, and to depend upon
the assistanc