ate the value or
advantages of a liberal education....

Such was the spirit in which the Governor in those days replied to the
respectful address of a large and influential body of Christians. He
even went further in another part of his reply, and referred to "the
absurd advice offered by your missionaries to the Indians, and their
officious interference."[29] Such language from the lips of Her
Majesty's Representative, if at all possible in these days, would
provoke a burst of indignation from those to whom it might be addressed,
but it had to be endured fifty years ago, when to question the
prerogative of the Crown, or the policy of the Executive, was taken as
_prima facie_ evidence of disloyalty, and republicanism.

5. Into the discussion of the claims of the Church of England in Upper
Canada, two questions entered, which were important factors in the case.
Both sides thoroughly understood the significance of either question as
an issue in the discussion; and both sides were, therefore, equally on
the alert--the one to maintain the affirmative, and the other the
negative, side of these questions. The first was the claim that it was
the inherent right of the Church of England to be an established church
in every part of the empire, and, therefore, in Upper Canada. Both sides
knew that the admission of such a claim, would be to admit the exclusive
right of that Church to the Clergy Reserves as her heritage. It was
argued, as an unquestionable fact, that the exclusive right of the
Church of England in Upper Canada to such reserves must have been
uppermost in the mind of the royal donor of these lands, when the grant
was first made. The second point was, that the admission of this
inherent right of the Church of England to be an established church in
Upper Canada, would extinguish the right of each one of the
nonconformist bodies to the status of a Church. It can well be
understood that in a contest which involved vital questions like these
(that is, of the exclusive endowment of one Church, and its consequent
superior status as a dominant Church), the struggle would be a
protracted and bitter one. And so it proved to be. But justice and right
at length prevailed. A portion of the Reserves was impartially
distributed, on a common basis among the denominations which desired to
share in them, and the long-contested claims of the Church of England to
the exclusive status of an established church were at length
emphat