[124] The second resolution adopted by the Victoria College Board, on the 24th October, 1843, says:—the noble and comprehensive objects of the amended Charter have been entirely defeated; and the abrogated, sectarian Charter has been virtually restored, by the partial and exclusive manner in which appointments to that institution have been made, and its affairs managed; apart from the misappropriations of large portions of its funds.
[125] In September, 1839, Rev. Robert Murray, of Oakville, published a series of lectures on "Absolute Abstinence." From a review of these lectures, by Dr. Ryerson in the Guardian of the 18th of that month, I make the following extracts:—
We confess we have seldom read anything so illiberal and sweeping.... The principle of total abstinence is wholly repudiated, and temperance societies are forbidden an existence.... But such a work ... shall not by us be allowed to go forth without the accompaniment of our decided reprobation. This is not the day for encouragement to be given to the drunkard, nor this the time when a Minister of the Gospel is ... to fill the cup of death and present it to his fellows without an attempt being made to dash it to the ground.
The following extract from the second lecture, relating to the fulfilment of a certain prophecy in the book of Jeremiah, is given by Dr. Ryerson:—
"Many of you, I am persuaded, have witnessed this prophecy fulfilled to the very letter. Have you never seen young men making themselves cheerful with malt liquors, while the young maids were producing the same effect with the blood of the grape? Nor is there the slightest doubt on my mind, that the prophet hailed this event as a special manifestation of the great goodness of God."
It was in reference to the author of such opinions, and the advocate of such views, that Rev. John Ryerson used the language quoted on the preceding page.
[126] On the 19th October, 1844, Dr. Ryerson was appointed Superintendent of Education for Upper Canada. Of his appointment, Rev. Dr. Bethune, Editor of The Church, on the 25th October, said:—It was an impolitic and a heartless step, as regards the Church of England in this colony, to raise to the office of Superintendent an individual who has thriven upon his political obliquities, and who owes his fame, or rather his notoriety, to his unquenchable dislike to the National Church. In a moment of danger we can forget the injury; but it must not be thought that we shall sit quietly beneath the wrong.
Rev. Dr. Bethune subsequently changed his opinion of Dr. Ryerson, and, when Bishop of Toronto, referred to him in some of his public utterances in very kind and complimentary terms.
[127] In regard to this appointment, the Hon. Isaac Buchanan, in a letter to the Editor of this volume, dated March, 1883, said:—I was one of the first to see the necessity of our getting Dr. Ryerson to take hold of our Educational system, and I shared the somewhat delicate duty of getting our esteemed friend, Rev. Robert Murray (whom we had got appointed Assistant-Superintendent of Education), to accept a professorship at the Toronto University, when Rev. Dr. Ryerson succeeded to the vacant post in 1844.