ed God, and speculated as to its author, little
suspecting that it was a young man who had been received on trial at the
late Conference (1825). We read again, and then devoutly thanked God for
having put it into the heart of some one to defend the Church publicly
against such mischievous statements, and give the world the benefit of
the facts of the case. The "Reviewer" proved to be Mr. Egerton Ryerson,
then on the Yonge Street Circuit. This was the commencement of the war
for religious liberty, pp. 83, 84. (See also page 143 of Dr. Ryerson's
"Epochs of Canadian Methodism.")--H.

For specimens of Dr. Ryerson's controversial style in this his first
encounter, see the extracts which he has given from the pamphlet itself
on pages 146--149, etc., of "Epochs of Canadian Methodism."--H.

CHAPTER VIII.

1829-1832.

Establishment of the "Christian Guardian"--Church claims resisted.

Dr. Ryerson takes up the Story of his Life at the period of the
Conference of 1829. He says that;--

At this Conference it was determined to establish the _Christian
Guardian_ newspaper. The Conference elected me as Editor, with
instructions to go to New York to procure the types and apparatus
necessary for its establishment.[24] In this I was greatly assisted by
the late Rev. Dr. Bangs, and the Rev. Mr. Collard, of the New York
Methodist Book Concern.

The hardships and difficulties of establishing and conducting the
_Christian Guardian_ for the first year, without a clerk, in the midst
of our poverty, can hardly be realized and need not be detailed. The
first number was issued on the 22nd November, 1829. The list of
subscribers at the commencement was less than 500. Three years
afterwards (in 1832), when the first Editor was appointed as the
representative of the Canadian Conference to England, the subscription
list was reported as nearly 3,000.

The characteristics of the _Christian Guardian_ during these three
eventful years (it being then regarded as the leading newspaper of Upper
Canada) were defence of Methodist institutions and character, civil
rights, temperance principles, educational progress, and missionary
operations. It was during this period that the Methodist and other
denominations obtained the right to hold land for places of worship, and
for the burial of their dead, and the right of their ministers to
solemnize matrimony, as also their rights to equal civil and religious
liberty, against a dominant church estab