In 1826 Mr. Richardson was sent to labour at Fort George and Queenston. Next year he was admitted into full connection, and ordained a deacon, along with the late Dr. Anson Green and Egerton Ryerson. Mr. Richardson was transferred to the River Credit, where he laboured for a year as a missionary among the Indians. An important crisis in the history of the Methodist Church in Canada was then at hand. The memorable Conference of 1828 was held at Ernesttown, in the Bay of Quinté district. It was presided over by Bishop Hedding, and Mr. Richardson was chosen secretary. It was at this Conference that the decisive step of separation from the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States was taken. Thenceforward the Church in Canada became an independent Body, with a Bishop and Conference of its own. "This step," says Mr. Richardson, "was fraught with results, for good or ill, according as it is viewed by different parties, from their several standpoints. It was deemed necessary then, by the majority, because of the political relations of the two countries, and the difficulty attendant on obtaining our legal right to hold church property, and solemnize matrimony. Others, viewing the church as catholic, or universal in her design and character, judged it wrong to limit her jurisdiction by national or municipal boundaries." Mr. Richardson subsequently regretted that the scheme of separation had been carried out. Meanwhile he was appointed, along with the Rev. Joseph Gatchell, to the Niagara Circuit, a very extensive field of labour, and took up his abode at what was then the insignificant village of St. Catharines. There he remained two years, and in 1830 was ordained as an elder by Bishop Hedding, of the United States--no Bishop having as yet been selected for the Canadian Church, which, since its separation, had been presided over by a General Superintendent in the person of the Rev. William Case. It is unnecessary that we should follow him in his labours from circuit to circuit. His life was spent in the service of his Church, and wherever he went he left behind him the impress of a sincere and zealous man. At the Conference held at York in 1831 he was appointed presiding elder of the Niagara District. In September, 1832, he became editor of the _Christian Guardian_, and while holding that position he opposed the reception of Government support to the churches with great vigour and determination. He continued to direct the policy of the _Guardian_ until the Conference of 1833. During this Conference, which marks another important epoch in the history of Canadian Methodism, the Articles of Union between the English and Canadian Connexions were adopted. To this union Mr. Richardson was a consenting party, believing that the step would be productive of good, though he subsequently had reason to modify his views on the subject. In 1836 he severed his connection with the Wesleyans, owing to the reception by that Body of State grants. He soon afterwards removed to Auburn, in the State of New York, where he won the respect of his congregation; but he was not adapted to such a circle as that in which he found himself, and did not feel himself at home there. "His quiet, unpretentious manners," says Mr. Carroll, "were not of the kind to carry much sway with our impressible American cousins; and the constant exhibition of an empty sleeve, ever reminding them of an arm lost in resisting their immaculate Republic, was likely to be an eye-sore to a people so hostile to Britain as the citizens of the United States." He was moreover an uncompromising abolitionist, and was fearless in his denunciations of the national curse of slavery. The prevailing sentiment in the State of New York in those days was not such as to conduce to the popularity of any man who took the side of humanity. He remained at Auburn only a year, when he returned to his native land, and took up his residence at Toronto. Immediately upon his arrival he encountered his old friend and fellow-labourer the Rev. Philander Smith. A long and serious conversation followed, during which they both decided to reunite themselves with the Methodist Episcopal Church. The Conference of that Body was then in session a short distance from Toronto, and their resolution was at once carried out. They were received with open arms, and continued in the ministry of the Church during the remainder of their respective lives.