a hit with a picture of a ministry framed
on the "no party" plan advocated by Governor Metcalfe. In this
imaginary ministry he grouped at the same council table Robert Baldwin
and his colleague Francis Hincks; Sir Allan MacNab, the Tory leader;
William Henry Draper, Metcalfe's chief adviser; John Strachan, Bishop
of Toronto; and Dr. Ryerson, leader of the Methodists and champion of
the governor. His Excellency is on a chair raised above the warring
elements below. Baldwin moves that King's College be opened to all
classes of Her Majesty's subjects. At once the combination is
dissolved, as any one who remembers Bishop Strachan's views on that
question will understand.

Dr. Ryerson, whose name was used by Brown in this illustration, was a
leader among the Methodists, and had fought stoutly for religious
equality against Anglican privilege. But he had espoused the side of
the governor-general, apparently taking seriously the position that it
was the only course open to a loyal subject. In a series of letters
published in the summer of 1844, he warned the people that the Toronto
Reform Association was leading them to the edge of a precipice. "In
the same manner," he said, "I warned you against the Constitutional
Reform Association, formed in 1834. In 1837 my warning predictions
were realized, to the ruin of many and the misery of thousands. What
took place in 1837 was but a preface of what may be witnessed in
1847." The warning he meant to convey was that the people were being
drawn into a conflict with the imperial authorities. "Mr. Baldwin," he
said, "practically renounces the imperial authority by refusing to
appeal to it, and by appealing through the Toronto Association to the
people of Canada. If the people of Canada are the tribunal of judgment
on one question of constitutional prerogative, they are so on every
question of constitutional prerogative. Then the governor is no
longer responsible to the imperial authority, and Canada is an
independent country. Mr. Baldwin's proceeding, therefore, not only
leads to independence but involves (unconsciously, I admit, from
extreme and theoretical views), a practical declaration of
independence before the arrival of the 4th of July!"

In this language Dr. Ryerson described with accuracy the attitude of
the British government. That government had, as we have seen,
disapproved of Governor Bagot's action in parting with so large a
measure of power, and it was fully prepared to