ng branch of the Established
Church in England that I venerate, admire, and love; but there is a
semi-popish branch of it for which I have no such respect, and that
is the branch, with a few individual exceptions, which exists in
this province....

Again, in a letter to Hon. W. H. Draper, on the clergy reserve question,
dated October 12th, 1838, he said:--

I would not derogate an iota from the respect claimed by the Church
of England on account of the prerogatives to which she is legally
entitled [in England]. As the form of religion professed by the
Sovereign and rulers of the Empire--as the Established Church of
the British realm--as the Church which has nursed some of the
greatest statesmen, philosophers, and divines that have
enlightened, adorned, and blest the world, she cannot fail to
command the respect of all enlightened men, whatever may be thought
of the conduct and pretensions of the Canadian branch of that
Church--pretensions which have been virtually repudiated in royal
charters, and contradicted by the entire civil and ecclesiastical
history of the old British colonies.

Dr. Ryerson's attitude to the Church of England was clearly defined in a
private and friendly correspondence between him and John Kent, Esq.,
Editor of _The Church_ newspaper, in 1841-42. (See page 97.) That paper
was established in May, 1837, as the organ of the Church of England in
Upper Canada. It was at first edited by Rev. Dr. (afterwards Bishop)
Bethune, rector of Cobourg. In 1841, John Kent, Esq., became its
editor.[115] In the religions controversies of those days _The Church_,
was ably edited. It was a decided champion of the high church, or
Puseyite party, and, as such it came into constant conflict with the
Wesleyan Methodists and their organ, the _Christian Guardian_, and
especially with its chief editor, Dr. Ryerson. On the 21st December,
1841, Dr. Ryerson wrote a letter for insertion in _The Church_, and
accompanied it with a private note to Mr. Kent. From that letter I make
the following extracts:--

I, as well as my friends, have been the subjects of repeated
strictures in your pages; during the last two years I have replied
not a word, nor published a line in reference to the Church Of
England.

I have stated on former occasions--and perhaps my two years'
silence may now give some weight to the statement--th