ties, and hence, as a "family compact," they were enabled to
act together as one man. This class, with few exceptions, were members
of the Church of England. They regarded her--apart from her inimitable
liturgy and scriptural standards of faith--with the respect and love
which her historical prestige and assured status naturally inspired
them. They maintained, without question, the traditional right of the
Church of England to supremacy everywhere in the Empire. They,
therefore, instinctively repelled all attempts to deprive that Church of
what they believed to be her inalienable right to dominancy in this
Province.

2. Those who had the courage, and who ventured to oppose the Church
claims put forth by the clerical and other leaders of the dominant
party of that time, were sure to be singled out for personal attack.
They were also made to feel the chilling effects of social
exclusiveness. The cry against them was that of ignorance, irreverence,
irreligion, republicanism, disloyalty, etc. These charges were repeated
in every form; and that, too, by a section both of the official and
religious press, a portion of which was edited with singular ability; a
press which prided itself on its intelligence, its unquestioned
churchmanship and exalted respect for sacred things, its firm devotion
to the principle of "Church and State"--the maintenance of which was
held to be the only safeguard for society, if not its invincible
bulwark. An illustration of the profession of this exclusive loyalty is
given by Dr. Ryerson in these pages. He mentions the fact that the plea
to the British Government put forth by the leaders of the dominant
party, as a reason why the Church of England in this Province should be
made supreme and be subsidized, was that she might then be enabled "to
preserve the principles of loyalty to England from being overwhelmed and
destroyed" by the "Yankee Methodists," as represented by the Ryersons
and their friends!

3. The two branches of the Legislature were divided on this subject. The
House of Assembly represented the popular side, as advocated by Dr.
Ryerson and other denominational leaders. The Legislative Council (of
which the Ven. Archdeacon Strachan was an influential member,)
maintained the clerical views so ably put forth by this reverend leader
on the other side.

4. Except by personal visits to England--where grievances could alone be
fully redressed in those days--little hope was entertained by t