[bourinot] 



BUILDERS OF NOVA SCOTIA 



SS 



the prosperous university which owes iis name of Allison to the liberal 

 gentleman whose liberality gave it birth. So slow, however, was the 

 progress of this church that by 1800 it only had five ministers in all 

 Nova Scotia, while at the present time the Conference comprises one 

 hundred and thirty-four members, who minister in two hundred and 

 eighty churches, to between fifty and sixty thousand persons. In 1786, 

 Mr. Black made Halifax his base of operations for work from time to 

 time among the societies which he established in various parts of the 

 province. Mr. "Wesley corresponded with him and encouraged him in his 

 pioneer labours in a field untrodden until he took it up. He was 



REVEREND DR. MATTHEW RICKEY. 



undoubtedly one of the most successful missionary ministers of the pro- 

 vince, when we consider the progress Methodism made through his un- 

 tiring energy. Dr. Alder, who became one of the secretaries of the Wes- 

 leyan Missionary Society in the parent state, was also a useful worker 

 for his church in its formative period. ^ One of the most eloquent ministers 

 of this church, who obtained a reputation beyond the pi-ovincc, was the 

 Heverend Dr. Matthew Eichey, whose son became, in 1883, a lieutenant- 

 governor of ISTova Scotia in succession to Sir Adams Archibald. Dr. Richey 

 was for a while president of Victoria College, and also president of the 



1 See " Memorials of Missionary Life in Nova Scotia " by Charles Churchill, Wes- 

 leyan Missionary, London, 1845. Also " History of Methodist Church, including 

 Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Bermuda," by Rev. Dr. T. 

 Watson Smith, who has recently issued an interesting; essay on Slavery in Canada 

 in Collections of Nova Scotia Hist. Soc, vol. X. 



