one or more of three conditions, none of which existed in Upper
Canada. Upon the grounds, therefore, furnished by Blackstone and
Paley, I opposed the erection of a Church Establishment in Upper
Canada, without touching the question of a Church Establishment in
England.

Dr. Ryerson in a letter to a friend, thus refers to his early
experiences in regard to the Church of England:--

Although I had no opportunity of attending the service of the Church of
England until I was nearly twenty years of age, I made the Homilies and
Prayer Book, with the Bible, very constant companions of travel and
subjects of study. I drew my best pulpit illustrations from them, at the
very time that I was controverting the pretensions of the leaders of
that Church to exclusive establishment and supremacy in Upper Canada;
and, in so doing, I had the sympathies and support of a large portion of
the members of the Church of England, in addition to the unanimous
support of the members of other religious denominations. I felt that I
was preaching the Protestant Reformation doctrines of the Church of
England; and throughout life I have loved the Church of England with all
its faults, only second to that of my own church. I declined the offer
of ordination in the Church of England [page 206] several months after I
commenced preaching on a Methodist circuit, simply and solely upon the
ground that I was indebted to the Methodists for all the religious
instruction and influences I had experienced. I believed that I would be
more useful among them, though my life would be, as then appeared, one
of privation and labour. During the first four years of my ministry, my
salary amounted to less than one hundred dollars per annum, and during
the next twelve years (after my marriage) my salary did not exceed six
hundred dollars a year, including house rent and fuel.

In a letter written on the 28th October, 1843, to the Editor of the
_Guardian_ by Dr. Ryerson, he says:--

It is still, as it has long been, the position with the Editor of _The
Church_ and writers of his school to represent the efforts of other
Churches to maintain their own equal rights and privileges as hostility
to the Church of England.... Who proposed peace, and who has perpetuated
war--aggressive war? [page 292.] ... Who is it that proclaims bodies
prior to his own in Western Canada as "Dissenters," and seeks by every
species of unfair statement and insinuation to in