Towards the close of this year, the Methodist Episcopal Church in Canada was organized. Full details of this division are given by Dr. Ryerson in the "Epochs of Canadian Methodism," pages 270-288. Happily this separated branch of the great Methodist family is being re-united to the parent stock in 1883. Further reference to the subject is, therefore, unnecessary in this "Story." Nevertheless it should be remembered that in the discussion and controversy which for years followed this event, Dr. Ryerson occupied a foremost place as the champion on the Wesleyan Methodist side.
[44] This gentleman entered the Methodist Church in 1827, joined the Church of England in 1854, and was for many years a minister of a congregation in the Province of Quebec. He died in 1881.
Second Retirement from the "Guardian" Editorship.
As already intimated in Chapter xi., the publication of Dr. Ryerson's "Impressions" of England, etc., in the _Guardian_ of 1833, excited quite a political and social sensation. Public men of all shades of opinion had their feelings at once enlisted for or against the Editor of that paper, and condemned or commended his course accordingly.
Such a result did not cause much immediate concern to Dr. Ryerson. He, as Editor, claimed from the first, and his opponents outside of the Connexion admitted, that in battling for religious equality and denominational rights, he should be left untrammelled. In other words, that as Editor of a leading paper like the _Guardian_, he should be left free to counsel, to advise and warn, and, if necessary, to take strong ground on all questions involving purely civil rights, and the constitutional exercise of the prerogative on the part of the Executive. This was the more necessary, as civil and religious freedom were largely identical in those days of undefined prerogative, irresponsible government, and inchoate institutions.
All parties, therefore, tacitly conceded what the Editor of the _Guardian_ claimed--a wide latitude and a reasonable discretion in discussing questions of the day which involved either civil rights or religious freedom. This wise discretion was the more necessary from the fact that the _Guardian_ was unquestionably the leading newspaper during these years, and was edited with more than ordinary ability and power.[45]