present--not more than a dozen--indeed, the entire number in the
province was very little more than that. In the chair, in front of
the quaint, old-fashioned pulpit, which the present writer has
often occupied, sat a man who would attract attention anywhere. He
was nearly six feet in height, and of very muscular development;
indeed tradition asserted that he had once been a prize-fighter.
His dark hair was closely cut, which increased his resemblance to
that especially unclerical and un-Methodistic character. This was
the Rev. Henry Ryan, the Presiding Elder of the Upper Canada
District--extending from Brockville to the Detroit River.
[Footnote: The whole of Lower Canada formed another district, of
which the celebrated Nathan Bangs was at that time Presiding
Elder.] In a full rich voice, in which the least shade of an Irish
accent could be discerned, he was addressing the little group of
men before him. The ministers labouring in Canada had expected to
meet their American brethren; but, on account of the outbreak of
the war, the latter had remained on their own side of the river,
and held their Conference near Rochester, New York State. The
bishop, however, appointed the Canadian ministers to their
circuits, but the relations of Methodism in the two countries were
almost entirely interrupted during the war. A few of the ministers
labouring in Canada obeyed what they conceived the dictates of
prudence, and returned to the United States; but the most of them,
although cut off from fellowship, and largely from sympathy with
the Conference and Church by which they were appointed, continued
steadfast at their posts and loyal to the institutions of the
country, notwithstanding the obloquy, suspicion, and persecution
to which they were often subjected. In this course they were
greatly sustained and encouraged by the unfaltering faith and
energy of Elder Ryan, who, though subsequently in his history he