He was, as Christie the historian
observes, considered the "Fountain head of power." This subtle diplomat
(for such will be his title in history), however hostile in his attitude
he might have appeared towards the French Canadian nationality, succeeded
in retaining to the last the respect of the French Canadian peasantry who
surrounded him.
Probably never at any time did he wield more power than under the
administration of Sir James H. Craig. His views were so much in unison
with those of Sir James, that His Excellency deputed him to England with a
public mission threefold in its scope, the ostensible object of which was
first "to endeavor to get the Imperial Government to amend or suspend the
Constitution; secondly, to render the Government independent of the
people, by appropriating towards it the revenues accruing from the estates
of the Sulpicians [301] of Montreal, and of the Order of the Jesuits;
thirdly to seize the patronage exercised by the Roman Catholic Bishop of
Quebec, - the cures or church livings in his diocese; contending that no
Roman Catholic Bishop really existed in Canada, (but merely a
superintendent of cures), none having been recognized by the Crown.
It has been stated that he had a fair chance of succeeding on two points,
had not the great Lord Chancellor, Eldon, intervened to thwart his scheme.
The correspondence exchanged between Mr. Ryland and His Excellency, Sir
James H. Craig, preserved in the sixth volume of Christie's History of
Canada, exhibits Mr. Ryland at his best, and has led some to infer
that, had he been cast in a different sphere, where his talents and
attainments would have been more properly appreciated and directed, he
would have played a very conspicuous part.
