Note 126 — Chapter XLIII
Reading edition
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.