OPINIONS OF THE PRESS,
OF
STATESMEN AND OTHERS,
ON
REV. DR. RYERSON'S "HISTORY OF THE LOYALISTS OF AMERICA AND THEIR TIMES, FROM 1620 TO 1816."
From the Toronto Daily Mail, July 7th, 1880.
In a lengthened review of more than two columns, the Mail says:
"It is with great pleasure that we introduce and commend to our readers these portly volumes, which together contain nearly a thousand pages. Dr. Ryerson deserves well of his country on account of his long and inestimable services to the cause of popular education. He is the still surviving father of our public school system, and for over thirty years directed its progress with characteristic zeal and activity. But apart from the author's public work, these volumes—the result of twenty-five years' labour—are exceedingly valuable on their own account. * * * Dr. Ryerson has performed his task with great thoroughness, inspired by a deep interest in his subject. The style is easy and flowing; the facts stated are almost superabundantly established by reference to the authorities; and wherever it becomes necessary to demonstrate the misrepresentations of American writers, the author's forcible way of putting the subject-matter in dispute is at once clear and cogent. In short, the narrative is interesting, whilst the arguments that crop up now and again are pointed and convincing. We had some doubts as to the venerable author's age; but he leaves no doubt upon the point in a passage relating to the war of 1812 (Vol. II., p. 353). At the outbreak of the war, amongst the Norfolk volunteers who went with General Brock to the taking of Detroit were the elder brother and brother-in-law of the writer of these pages (he being then ten years of age). Dr. Ryerson must be consequently seventy-eight, or thereabouts; still, as his father lived to the ripe old age of ninety-four, the author may have a long lease of life before him."
From the Hamilton Evening Times, June 13th, 1880.