ligious agitation was more or less the same in other parts of
the Connexion. The publication of the "impressions" was (to those who
had for years been in a state of chronic war with the powers that be)
like the falling of the thunderbolt of Jove out of a cloudless sky. It
unexpectedly precipitated a crisis in provincial affairs. It brought men
face to face with a new issue. An issue too which they had not thought
of; or, if it had presented itself to their minds, was regarded as a
remote, if possible, contingency. Their experience of the working of
"British institutions" (as the parody on them in Upper Canada was
called), had so excited their hostility and embittered their feelings,
that when they at first heard Dr. Ryerson speak in terms of eulogy of
the working of these institutions in the mother country, they could not,
or would not, distinguish between such institutions in England and their
professed counterpart in Upper Canada. Nor could they believe that the
great champion of their cause, who in the past had exposed the
pernicious and oppressive workings of the so-called British institutions
in Upper Canada, was sincere in his exposition of the principles and the
promulgation of doctrines in regard to men and things in Britain, which
were now declared by Mr. W. L. Mackenzie to be heretical as well as
entirely opposed to views and opinions which he (Dr. Ryerson) had
hitherto held on these important questions. The novelty of the
"impressions" themselves, and the bitterness with which they were at
once assailed, confused the public mind and embarrassed many of Dr.
Ryerson's friends.

In these days of ocean telegraphy and almost daily intercourse by steam
with Britain, we can scarcely realize how far separated Canada was from
England fifty years ago. Besides this, the channels through which that
intercourse was carried on were few, and often of a partizan character.
"Downing Street [Colonial Office] influence," and "Downing Street
interference with Canadian rights," were popular and favourite topics of
declamation and appeal with the leaders of a large section of the
community. Not that there did not exist, in many instances, serious
grounds for the accusations against the Colonial Office; but they, in
most cases, arose in that office from ignorance rather than from design.
However the causes of complaint were often greatly exaggerated, and very
often designedly so by interested parties on both sides of the Atlantic.