Having answered all questions by the Attorney and the Grand Jury, they asked me to see the prisoner, and testify whether he was the ex-Priest Riordan, now giving his name as Ruthven. I thereon handed the Attorney a pamphlet exposing the evils and errors of Popery, being three Lectures by V. H. Riordan, with his portrait on the front page. They all at once recognized him by this likeness. Nevertheless, I was enjoined to go and see him, and report what took place. He was behind an iron-grated door, and two ladies were conversing with him from without. Addressing him at once by his name, I said: “It grieves me to see you here in these circumstances, Mr. Riordan.” Completely off his guard, he at once answered to his own name, and addressed me by mine: “And I am very sorry, Dr. Paton, to be here in such circumstances.” This was enough! I reported what transpired, and the Jury took a hearty laugh at the simplicity of the interview. I was dismissed for the time.
In answer to the Prosecutor, he explained that when he renounced the errors of Popery, he assumed his mother’s name for life—Ruthven; yet there they had his own pamphlet, with his real name, printed in Philadelphia less than two years before! Being committed for trial before the Supreme Court, he spent his time of waiting in abusing me from his cell through the pages of a Sunday newspaper, as “a drunkard” debauching my Sacred Office, and “a hireling” living by commission on the moneys raised for the Mission. So madly did he rage, that some suspected he was put up to do so, in order that his agent might work up a plea of insanity, if the case at last went against him.
At his trial, which occupied the greater part of three days, I was again cited to appear. The Jury found him “guilty,” but strangely enough recommended him to mercy, and his lawyer pled for a money fine as the penalty. The Judge sternly refused. He had been found guilty in every count. His sentence would be “twelve months in prison with hard labor.” That was “extreme leniency.” It should have been “three years.”
One would have thought that this should have extinguished him. But no! His imprisonment has expired. He is again at his lecturing and lying. Quite lately I saw a report of his appearing at a place called Dunmore. The Romanists mobbed him. In reply to their eggs and snowballs he fired a pistol into the crowd. The cry then rose, “Lynch the Renegade!” Ruthven, bounding through an open door, scaling fences, and crossing lots, managed to escape. But a warrant was at once issued for his apprehension, and doubtless he is proving the truth of one text, which he has listened to in vain: “The way of transgressors is hard.”
During the Pan-Presbyterian Council, I addressed many meetings in the churches of Toronto and its suburbs, receiving, on one occasion, by the kindness of Dr. Parsons, a collection of two hundred dollars for our Mission. And, by the urgent request of many Ministers, I spent a considerable time after the Council in visiting the chief towns of Ontario, where I was cordially received everywhere, and had very great pleasure throughout the whole circuit.
Never, since I left the Christian Islands on the New Hebrides, such as Aniwa and Aneityum, have I seen the Sabbath Day kept so well, and the Churches so largely attended, as at Toronto and in the chief towns of Ontario. In that Capital, the Public-Houses are closed from seven o’clock on Saturday night till eight o’clock on Monday morning. No confectioners, tobacconists, fruiterers, or the like, are open on the Lord’s Day. The street Electric Car, and the Omnibus are at rest. All workmen are enjoying their Sabbath privilege, like other Citizens. And all this is carried through by the will of the People themselves, and by the vigilance and influence of the servants of God. Surely, men of Christian principle, of grit, and of public spirit, could, by keeping their hand on the helm, secure in the same way the blessed Day of Rest for all, in every City throughout the Christian World.
By cordial invitations from many men of the highest rank in the Church of God throughout the States, I was pressed to occupy their Pulpits, and tell the story of our Mission to the Cannibals of the New Hebrides. They also formed a Committee of their own number to advise and help me in promoting the prohibition against trading with the Natives in Intoxicants and Fire-Arms. And the great-hearted Dr. John Hall, in order to give me a good start in New York, offered me his Pulpit for my first Sabbath there.
On the way, I had promised to spend an afternoon and evening at Rochester, with the Rev. Principal Osgood of the Baptist College. An extraordinary spirit of consecration seemed to rest on Professors and Students alike. My heart was overflowing with joy, to think of the type of Ministers and Missionaries certain to go forth from such a Home of Piety and of Learning.
Never can I express how much I owe to the genuine and brotherly friendship of Dr. Sommerville of New York, and his devoted lady. Not simply did they make their House my very Home, whensoever I chose to return to it, but they heaped on me every token of consideration and of helpful sympathy. Amidst his many cares, as a Minister of the Covenanting Church, and his literary labors, as Editor of the Herald of Mission News, he became Honorary Treasurer for me in the States, and according to his utmost ability opened up all my way, and helped me at every turn. They are forever my dearly beloved friends in the bonds of Jesus Christ.
After my first two Sabbaths in New York, one in Dr. John Hall’s Church, and one in Dr. Sommerville’s, I had no difficulty in arranging for as much work, Sunday and Saturday alike, as my strength could overtake. One lady, who heard me in Dr. Hall’s, sent me one thousand dollars, as from “Elizabeth Jane.” In addressing the Chamber of Commerce, the Doctor himself announced clearly the special object of my visit to America, and described the features of our Mission. This, being fully reported in the Public Press, woke a widespread interest, and invitations poured in upon me from all branches of the Church, excepting only the Romish and the Unitarian.