r Canada; that this question
was distinct from any question or questions of political reform;
that parties and parliaments who differed on other questions of
public policy, agreed nearly unanimously in this. He expressed his
opinion that the Colonial Legislature had a right to legislate on
it, and asked me why our House of Assembly had not done it. I told
him it had, but the Legislative Council had rejected the Bill
passed by the Assembly on the subject.

_July 13th._--In a letter at this date to a friend in Upper Canada, Dr.
Ryerson further refers to this and a subsequent interview as follows:--

I have had two interviews with Mr. Secretary Stanley, on the subject of
the House of Assembly's Address on the Clergy Reserves, and have drawn
up a statement of the grounds on which the House of Assembly and the
great body of the people in Upper Canada resist the pretensions and
claims of the Episcopal clergy. Mr. Solicitor-General Hagerman has been
directed to do the same on behalf of the Episcopal clergy. I confess
that I was a little surprised to find that the Colonial Secretary was
fully impressed at first that Methodist preachers in Canada were
generally Americans (Yankees);--that the cause of the great prosperity
of Methodism there was the ample support it received from the United
States;--that the missionaries in Upper Canada were actually under the
United States Conference, and at its disposal. The Colonial Secretary
manifested a little surprise also, when I turned to the Journals of the
Upper Canada House of Assembly, and produced proof of the reverse,
which he pronounced "perfectly conclusive and satisfactory."

_August 8th._--Dr. Ryerson received a touching note at this date from
Mrs. Marsden, with explanation of her reluctance to let Rev. Geo.
Marsden, her husband, go to Canada as President of the Conference. She
says:--

At length my rebellious heart is subdued by reason and by grace. I
am made willing to give up my excellent husband to what is supposed
to be a great work. I am led to hope that, as a new class of
feelings are brought into exercise, perhaps some new graces may be
elicited in my own character, as well as that of my dear husband;
at any rate it is a sacrifice to God, which I trust will be
accepted, and, both in a private and a public view, be overruled
for the glory of God. I am sure, notwithstanding some repeated
att