.%. <^, ^y^c^. IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) 5^^!^^ fA IX) y= 1.25 ■iil2.8 us 1^ 2.5 2.2 ^ y£ 12.0 1.4 III 1.6 V] ^> / >^ Photographic Sciences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 873-4503 iV ;V ^x ^s^"->.1^ k 'cc, 23(1 April, IS la. Kev. and deau Srn, The mit'sionariucj of this diuccse liiiviiiir Ijccii imicli more deficient in reporting their perform- ances to the Society, and thence making them known abroad, than in tlie actual performances themselves, in the retired and obscure sphere of hibour which they occupy, I conceived that it woukl be satisfactory to the Board, tliat, in detailing my own journeylngs among the Churches during the present year, I should for once, furnish a statement of certain specific facts in relation to each mission, >vhich would put that body distinctly in possession of the routine of duty, and the extent of labour in wlilch its servants are engaged. I am, Ilcv. and Dear Sir, Your faithful servant, G. J. Montreal. To the liev. the Secretary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gos2)el. V' i B 48 nng^lndc Wrsi 71 ftiim. (irioiiwicli iUUIlltUM IlirltlMIIIUIUliMttlB UWirJUllt'miiJ'lUlltHINI I)r>li«ii A h'.j»^-» i*v\*f| Ijy .T A|-fJi«-i- JOURNAL OF VISITATION. 1843. Quebec, 23d March, 1843. In writing to you from Montreal, exactly two months ago this day, I gave you a very slight outline of my tour among the Churches so far, from the time of my leaving Quebec ; but proposing now to put the Society in possession of some more par- ticular details, I must go over that portion of the ground again. I shall forbear, however, from giving minute information respecting those very few places in the diocese which have no direct connexion with the Society — although, even with respect to these, I shall mention the confirmations, and some other matters of interest which have presented themselves at the moment, as forming parts of the account of my official circuit as a whole, and contributing to show the state and progress of the Church in this colony, where it has, with those exceptions, been dependent upon the Society all but alone. I laid down my plan to visit the Churches and hold confirmations, as well as to perform such other duties as might be required, within such a portion of the diocese as could be comprehended while the v., I .if ■ 1 ■- 1. k il; i .1 i m BISHOP OF MONTREAL S ■M> ••' iM r ■ '^ H r'^^^i '■: i snow -roads should last, reserving the remainder of the task to be executed, by the Divine permission, at future opportunities. QUEBEC. In the afternoon of Sunday, tlie 1st January, I confirmed 217 persons in the cathedral of Quebec. Great pains had been taken by the clergy in pre- paring them. In the afternoon of the day following, I set out for Port Neuf, at which place I had appointed the confirmation on the 3d; but, owing to a great snow-storm and drift, and an upset in the dark, which broke one of the shafts of the cariole, I could not get farther than Les Ecureuils, thirty miles from Quebec. The next morning, however, I reached the Manor House at Port Neuf, where I was re- ceived by Mr. Hale with his usual hospitality, to breakfast, and proceeded afterwards to the church in company with Mr. Hale and the Rev. C. J. Morris, situated at the distance of a few miles, in the pro- testant settlement formed in the back concessions of the Seigneurie. Here I held a confirmation, but as the greater part of the duties performed in this mission were left for the visit which I paid, on my way back, to the different stations of which ':\ is composed, I shall state the particulars of the whole together, when I reach that point of my journe3^ In the evening, I went on as far as St. Anne, twenty miles from Port Neuf, and sixty from Quebec. This is entirely a Roman Catholic part of the country. VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. N NICOLET. Three Rivers, tlie only intermediate station of the Cliurch, being left for my return, I passed through it, and crossing the St. I iwrence on the ice, at the Lower end of Lake St. Peter, went, on the 4th, to the Manor House of Nicolet, where I took up my quarters with my friends Captain and Mrs. Chandler. On the 6th I confirmed twelve persons; and the next morning there was a meeting at the Manor House to put matters in train for establishing the Church Society upon the spot. At the confirmation, I believe that about forty persons were present. The charge of the missionary of Nicolet, the Rev. PL B urges, is small, but very widely scattered, consisting of a few Protestants here and a few there, intermingled with the old Roman Catholic inhabi- tants. The church is a small but very neat stone building; the church- yard neatly fenced, and pret- tily planted. There is no parsonage-house. The congregation subscribed, for some years past, to pay Mr. Burges's rent. This he has given up, consider- ing the surrender as his contribution (a very liberal one) to the Church Society. H' '.'- \ ' \ « '■: n RIVIERE DU LOUP CONFIRMATION IN A FARM-HOUSE. On the 7th, I recrossed the St. Lawrence, and went to the Riviere du Loup Mission, still in the i'fWP' li; ,!'\' '( ::: m- 6 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S Roman Catholic tracts of country. On Sunday, the 8th, I confirmed six persons in the diminutive stone church. On the 10th, the Rev. N. Gu6rout, whose guest I was, drove me to Lake Maskinonge, twenty- four miles, chiefly through the woods, by a road barely admitting the passage of the vehicle. The next day I confirmed eight persons here, in a farm-house. Fifty or upwards were present, about the same number as that which had assembled at the Riviere du Loup church on Sunday. They are a plain simple people, who appreciate the care of their pastor; but they are much connected with the Romanists by intermarriage and familiar inter- course in life. Mr. Guerout's Sunday services are thus distri- buted: — Morning service. Riviere du Loup; even- ing, Crete de Coq, distant seven miles, except one Sunday in the month, which is given, when the state of the roads permits, to the Lake. At the Lake a wooden building is in progress, which is to comprehend church under same roof with school, but in separate stories. There is no parsonage -house. Mr. Guerout took me on, on the 11th, to proceed by St. Elizabeth, where we slept, and Kildare, to Rawdon, which, with its dependencies, is the mis- sion of Mr. Bourne. A thaw had now continued for some days, accompanied by occasional heavy rain, and very extraordinary at this season of the year, so that the roads were most intolerably bad, aud we were repeatedly upset. VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. CANADIAN WINTER TRAVELLING. In the tract of country in which we were now travelling, which is more or less rude and unfre- quented, and in which the winter tract, as is often the case in Canada East, was in many places carried through the fields, away from the summer road, we encountered brooks and ditches which had broken their confinement, and were so swoln, with con- tinual augmentations from the melting snow, as to offer some obstruction to our passage across them. The driver of the sleigh which followed us would here go forward, with a pole, to sound the depth ; but, when it was ascertained that we could pass, (which we did in every instance but one, when a circuit of some miles became necessary,) it was a matter of very nice management to prevent upset- ting, the bottom being very unequal and broken up. In some places the driver only could go, it being necessary that he should stand up and balance the vehicle in its passage; then the rest of the party crossed on foot upon rails which the country people had laid together for the purpose, taken from the fences, or we had recourse to the fences themselves as a foot-bridge, holding on by the upper rail, and moving our feet along a lower one. In one place Mr. Guerout's little low-runnered cariole, called a berline, was floating. These scenes brought forcibly to mind that passage in the 147th Psalm, where, after describing the intensity of frost, the Psalmist says, " He sendeth out his word and ''iv' .^ fnl b : : [ •.V i i F k i ; .' '. M^ k r 8 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S HI B/il.. E- l,5i Iv. EV' :;m! m If meltetli them : he causeth his wind to blow, and the waters flow." The roughnesses which I did en- counter here or elsewhere in the journey are such as are constantli/ familiar to the missionaries ; and I could by no means call them severe; but I had deep cause for thankfulness to God for being able to go through them, such as they were, without any sort of injury or improper fatigue, when I remember that, at the same time last year, I was in a condition which caused my friends to augur that, if spared, I should be disabled for life. KILDARE. In passing through Kildare, on the 12th, we missed the most direct road, and that which would most naturally be taken by persons more acquainted with the country; but the road we took proved to be our right one, for we came to a church in that town- ship, newly built of wood and glazed, and upon my stopping to see whether it were not our own, since I was aware that the people of Kildare had been engaged in such a work, I found that I was expected to preach there on that day at three o'clock, — Mr. Bourne having made this appointment for me, and announced it to me by a letter which reached Quebec too late. The congregation accordingly assembled, Mr. Bourne came to the spot, and I preached to about eighty persons. The building is roughly fitted up, so as to make the use of it practicable. I fear that it will be long, without further help. VISITATION JOUKNAL — 1843. 9 before it advance much beyond tliis point. The Protestants are poor, and unhappily divided into sects. The Church people, however, have made, such of them as are at all able, great exertions. In the evening we \vent on to Raw don, in our way to which I was upset once into a pool of water in a field, but my cloak saved me from being wetted. tr^i RAWDON KILKENNY. The next morning nineteen persons were con- firmed at Eavvdon church. About two hundred were present. After the service, I addressed the con- gregation on behalf of the Church Society. Mr. Bourne's public services are established as follows : — llawdon church every Sunday morning, except third in month, reserved for Kildare, distant nine miles. First Sunday afternoon, Kildare ; second, private house, in a different part of Rawdon ; third, Ramsay, after morning service at Kildare, thence distant ten miles ; fourth, kept open for any part of Rawdon where appointment may be made ; fifth, when it occurs, varied, notice being duly given beforehand ; — some occasional week-day appointments also. After the service, Mr. Bourne drove me on to the mission of Mr. Torrance, and at the end of about twenty miles, all of abominable road, except the last two or three performed upon the River Achigan, of which we found the ice perfectly sound, we reached New Glasgow, where Mr. Torrance had come to meet us from Mascouche. Having re- r! I . t >. I ' i 10 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S 1' Ji yr- J IV- 111 >ffl ' " l^ 111 ;( *. /(•■* freshed ourselves and the horses, we set out again, having a dozen miles farther to go to the wild and sequestered township of Kilkenny. Midnight was approaching, when, after winding our way through the tall, solemn, wintry woods, composed in part of pines of a remarkable height, we reached our desti- nation in the house of a settler, consisting of two little rooms, of which one was assigned to Mr. Torrance and myself. Mr. Bourne had previously turned off to seek accommodation in another part of the township. Our Irish hosts were excellent people ; devotedly attached to the Church, and re- commending its principles in their lives and deport- ment. My servant and hired driver were stowed with the family in the outer room or kitchen, I hardly know how. CHURCH OF ST, JOHN BAPTIST. The next morning we drove to the churcli, where Mr. Bourne met us, passing on our way what is jocosely called the cathedral of Kilkenny, being a little log school-house, roofed with bark, and lighted by four panes, in which the missionaries formerly officiated. The church is a small, wooden, unpainted building, with square-topped windows ; but it harmonizes with the present state of things in the township, and I verily believe it to be attended by some worshippers who worship the Father in spirit and in truth. I consecrated this humble edifice, which is regularly fitted up for VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. 11 public service in the interior, and confirmed in it twenty-four persons. It was the first Episcopal visit. They asked me to give the church a name, as I had objected to their proposal of calling it the Mountain Church, which was partly intended as a compliment to myself ; and I called it after St. John the Baptist, as being built for preaching in the wilderness, with which they were highly pleased. God grant that the preachers, calling upon men to repent, and at the same time indicating the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world, may prepare the way of Christ among the people. After the service we returned to New Glasgow, and thence, twelve miles further, to the parsonage-house at Mascouche, where I became a guest. Mr. Bourne was received by the Hon. Mr. Pangman, the Seigneur, whom I have mentioned to the Society in the account of my visitation in 1840, as the great promoter of Church matters in this mission. 1 \i ) MASCOUCHE NEW GLASGOW. The next day being Sunday, the 15th, we passed at Mascouche, where there were two services, and fifteen persons were confirmed in the morning. About one hundred, or rather more, were present, — (the little church is full with such a number,) — and about eighty in the afternoon. A good proportion had to come from a distance. On the 16th we went up again to New Glasgow for a confirmation, and the consecration of a new ^t t \ ■■ t ■ ' m 1 12 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S I. I ,i ■: '*■■' I' ;■•■.» :i?,?ixr; ■si churcli at that i)lace. It is some few degrees larger and better than that of Kilkenny, and to make it even what it is, has cost great exertion on the part of Mr. Torrance, backed by Mr. Pangman. Both of them have assumed liabilities which ought not fairly to be thrown upon them. The church ^vas as full as it could bo, probably three hundred people being assembled within it. The site was given by INIr. Mackenzie, a respectable gentlemuii of Terrebonne. The Rev. F. J. Lundy, a Professor of McGill College, Montreal, came over to assist in the consecration ; twenty-eight persons w^ere con- firmed, making sixty-seven in all in the mission. This (to New Glasgow) was also the first Episcopal visit. The communicants are about thirty at one time at each of the three churches ; the communion is also administered at Paislev, but I find no note of the number. It is a most laborious mission. Sunday morning service throughout the year at Mascouche, except on the sacrament days at New Glasgow, Paisley, and Kilkenny, four times a year each, (ns also at Mascouche ;) Sunday afternoon service alter- nately at Terrebonne, six miles from Mascouclie, and New Glasgow, twelve miles, when at the latter, way is continued to Kilkenny, twelve miles further, on Sunday night, in order to hold service there (fortnightly) on Monday ; two miles from the house to the church, and eleven, after service, to sleep at Paisley, in preparation for service there on Tuesday, and so back to Mascouclie. A great portion of the El* ? < 1 VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 13 road in summer of the worst description. Occasional visits to the Nord, forty miles from Mascouclie ; parochial visiting cannot be systematic in such vast extent of scattered charge. Parsonage-house, a neat cottage, close to Mascouclie church : complete, and out of debt : site given and large contribution made towards building by Mv, Pangman. MONT HEAL. On the l7th, the Rev. F. J. Lundy drove me to Montreal, twenty-five miles. The road was ad- mirable, lying almost the whole way upon the ice. The weather had become, within a couple of days, clear and extremely cold. At Montreal I passed nearly a week. On the 19th, I presided at a public meeting for the formation of the District Branch of the Church Society. Some very handsome sub- scriptions were obtained before the meeting broke up. I also presided, on the 21st, at the quarterly meeting of the Central Board of the same Society. On Sunday afternoon the 22d, two hundred and ninety-one persons were confirmed in the parish church. There was a n:ost overflowing congre- gation, in whose presence I baptized two adults, after the second lesson. The new church of St. George, in this city, is nearly finished — a very handsome stone structure, in the Gothic style. The Church of England has now, in addition to the parish church, three places of worship in this city, besides a temporary chapel in the suburb of Griffin Town, n '! ]4 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S and a small chapel at the Cross, below the city, with the exception of which last there was not one besides the parish church itself before 1840. Others are in contemplation.— The whole time of my stay in Montreal was one continued thaw, with occasional rain. LA CHINE. On the 23d, I went to La Chine, only nine miles from Montreal, where, as upon a former occasion, I took up my quarters, by invitation, with the family of Col. Wilgress, mentioned in my journal of 1840. The next day I confirmed twenty-three persons in the church. From forty to fifty were present. La Chine is one of the old Roman Catholic parishes. Mr. Bond has three services on Sundays, in the morning and evening, at the church, with a service interposed at Lower La Chine, distant five miles. On Thursday evenings he officiates in a store, two and a half miles from the church. t; F! ■MlH..lii;: COTEAU DU LAC. On the 25 th I went to Coteau du Lac, crossing the Isle Perrot, at the mouth of the Ottawa, and passing through the Roman Catholic villages of the Cascades and the Cedars, a distance of thirty-seven miles, of which the former half was performed upon the ice. This (since it became necessary to detach VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. 15 Vaudrcuil from it) is by far the smallest and most insignificant mi. sion in the diocese. It contains only twelve families of the Church of England, and three ot'ier Protestant families attending the ministrations of Mr. Leeds. A company of troops affords an addition to the congregation. All these persons, however, would be totally cut off from the services of any Protestant clergyman, but for the maintenance of a mission upon the spot. The building fitted up and used as a church is described in my Journal of 1840. * * * Five persons only vrere confirmed. '' / \i \ HUNTINGDON AND GORE. Mr. Simpson, the collector of the Customs, of the hospitality of w^hose family I had partaken, took me over the next morning to Huntingdon, the head- quarters of the mission in charge of the Rev. W. Morris. I was also escorted across Lake St. Louis, a distance of about nine miles, by several of the parishioners in carioles and sleighs. Mr. Morris met me at the Lake shore ; and we proceeded to Huntingdon by a circuitous route, making the dis- tance fifteen miles more, up the little river La Guerre, that we might have the benefit of the ice, the land- road being very bare of snow, which had greatly wasted during the thaws. I was received at tlie house of Colonel Campbell, of the British army, commanding on particular service in this district. In the afternoon, I confirmed forty-one persons in Huntingdon church. About three hundred were ii'i' If ,i..a , ■ " .1 'I; ,.^ hy '■' , '\ '; ■' '"% ! \\ •?■ ''■> ■ 'i 'li I !|>-'v ■{ ■^1 Iff; ■! 16 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S supposed to be present, being fifty more than the number for whom sittings were regularly provided. On the 28th, I proceeded to a log school-house in the Gore,* within this mission, at the distance of ten miles from the village. The building, of which the dimensions are thirty feet by twenty, was crammed almost to suffocation. After my sermon, a number of the heads of families met to confer with me respecting the erection of a church in the Gore. They have subscribed to the extent of 120/., but can never complete their undertaking without con- siderable aid from other sources. There is a diffi- culty (as is usual in new settlements) about the choice of the site, which is not yet adjusted. The services in this mission are distributed as follows : Morning service at Huntingdon church every Sun- day in the month, except the first, when it is held at the Gore, distant, by the ordinary route, eight miles ; afternoon service, every Sunday at the Gore, except the first, when it is at Huntingdon ; evening service, every Sunday in the lower part of the Gore, three miles from the other station. Five circumjacent settlements, at the distances respectively of one, three, three, four, and about eight miles, are each regu- larly visited once a week, when Mr. Morris has a kind of week-day cottage-lecture, with prayers from the Liturgy. The cottage-lectures afford opportunity of intercourse with the people in the other settle- * There is an entire mission called the Gore, north of Montreal ; and other places have this name from their form, and the manner in which they are laid out, being supplementary strips when the townships are surveyed. VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 17 an the Dvided. )use in i of ten Lich the •ammed number ith me 3 Gore. 0/., but »ut con- a diffi- out the a. The follows : :ry Sun- 3 held at it miles ; , except service, re, three imjacent le, three, 3h regu- is has a ers from )ortunity r settle- )ntreal; and ler in which iwnships are ments. A Sunday-school is held at Huntingdon every Sunday at nine a.m., and the children are publicly catechised before each of the week-day services in the settlements It has not yet been found possible to raise means, in addition to the Society's grant, sufficient for the erection of a parsonage-house; and it is a wretched tenement indeed, very unfit for protection against a Canadian winter, of which Mr. and Mrs. Morris are in tem- porary occupation. I EVIL EFFECTS OF RELIGIOUS DIVISION. The village of Huntingdon may be taken as one among many examples of the deplorable effects of schism in a new country. Here, in a spot scarcely reclaimed from the woods, is a little collection of houses, a good mill, a tavern or two, some few tradesmen, and some commencing indications of business ; — one good spacious church might contain all the worshippers ; one faithful pastor might tend them all ; and their resources for the support of reli- gion, if combined, might provide for all the decencies of worship in a reverent manner, and for the com- fort of the minister and his family ; they might, in laying their foundations for the future, exhibit, in the article of religion, — which should be their all in all, — the picture of a little Christian brotherhood ; and the village not drawing, or drawing comparatively little, upon the bounty of the colonial cities or c iiiii i: I m m lii J' " :;■ t ,3,. ■ HI .1 ' ; 4 ■ 11 ■( ' 1 h Ti 'f ii fi, . 1 '. ' ' \^:l ■ ■ \V' It , .c' ■■ ri : =■ il -.'1 ' \ ,: - .r. '! ■ ; ■ * '. i ■ • 'X ' lifi :| 18 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S societies at home, the aid derivable from these sources might the more largely supply the unprovided tracts of country in the wilderness. But here are four Protestant places of worship — altar against altar — all ill-appointed — all ill-supported — and while dis- cordant preaching is going on, or unholy leagues are made of two or three irregular sects against the Church, and violent excitements are resorted to, like the getting- up of the steam, to force on a particular interest at a particular conjuncture, many a ruder and more remote settlement is supplied only at wide intervals by the extraordinary efforts of this or that minister, and these again marked often by a mutual jealousy, heightened, where the Church is the object of it, to an acrimonious and unscrupulous hostility. In these instances, the forbearance and dignity of the Church have, I think I may say without preju- dice, stood in most advantageous contrast with the proceedings of other parties. But what cause have we to imitate the prayer of the Lord Himself, that they all may be one, even as He and his Father are One ! — to pray and long for a nearer approach to that happy consummation described by the Apostle, that there may be no divisions among them, and that they may be all perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same spirit ! The Church, w^hat- ever opposition she may encounter, can be the only possible instrument of bringing on these blessed results; and the conviction of this truth will surely be a stimulus to all the friends and supporters of the venerable Society to add to its means of planting her VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 19 sources a tracts re four st altar lile dis- rnes are list the to, like irticular a ruder '- at wide 3 or that ii mutual 16 object hostility, ignity of it preju- with the use have self, that ather are ch to that stle, that that they ;lie same ;h, what- I the only s blessed till surely ers of the Bting her standard in the rising settlements of the American colonies. Mr. Morris is much beloved, and has at different times received anonymous, as well as avowed, pre- sents of poultry, or other small tokens of good- will, such as the country-people could afford to give. I left his mission in the evening of the 28th, passing down from the Gore, about ten miles, to the parson- age at Ormstown. ORMSTOWN. • On Sunday, the 29th, the confirmation was held at this latter place. Fifty-one persons were admitted to the rite. The aisles, and even the vestibule, were occupied by people for whom there was no room left in the pews, and who were content to stand during the whole service. There was also an exceedingly good congregation in the evening, when I preached again ; but the more distant settlers would not, of course, attend twice. The stated labours of Mr. Brethour are arranged as follows : Morning service every Sunday at Ormstown, except that, in sum- mer, it is performed on the first Sunday of the month at the Beauharnois Canal, twenty-two or twenty-three miles distant. The congregation are too scattered for constant service a second time in the day ; but on Sunday evenings Mr. Brethour collects a few neighbours for the familiar expo- sition of Scripture, with psalmody and prayers from the Liturgy. Every Tuesday evening, he s^ S! • i k ■ 'tftlf, ' • ■Mi:^ 3 '•■' '!!-■: V^ J '; . i,. Ml mm ■i ' ;; iS i ■■'■"V'' 'il I i:;; ■>■■ .1 ^i- t'-: 1?;; 1 ')"''' f ^R r'lmH t. g 20 BISHOP OF MONTREAL 3 has a cottage-lecture in James Town, distant four miles. ST. REMI. On Monday, the 30th, one of Mr. Brethour's parishioners, an Irish settler of most respectable character, volunteered to convey me to St. Remi, the head-quarters of the mission of Mr. Plees, distant from Ormstown thirty miles. The first dozen miles were performed upon the river Chateauguay, and the travelling was consequently excellent ; but, after leaving the ice, at St, Martine, our progress was sadly slow and laborious, from the denuded condition of the roads; and, passing through a very obscure tract of country, we got greatly out of our way, so that it was considerably after the appointed time that I reached the little church of St. Remi. This edifice is a good deal contrasted with a showy and spacious building at the distance of a mile or two, where the village is situated belonging to the Church of Rome, — being only thirty -two feet by twenty-six in the exterior' walls, and containing only one hundred and four sittings, of which about ninety were occupied upon this occasion, the people who had arrived having very patiently waited for me. The little building is of stone, and very well put together: it is perfectly new, and not quite finished, but has a neat appearance, and suffices for the present members of the Church in the neighbour- hood, who appear to be well-afFected and devout. Thirteen persons were confirmed. VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 21 '■■' = U\ RUSSELL-TOWN FLATS, In the evening, after I Lad partaken of the hos- pitality of an English family with whom Mr. Plees lodges, the neighbours contrived, with some inge- nious accommodation of the articles of equipment contributed from different quarters, to harness four horses to a sleigh, (on account of the extreme bad- ness of the roads,) with which I proceeded, in the first instance, to sleep at Norton Creek.* The driver, a most respectable Englishman, who leases the seigneurial mill at this place, was our host for the night. The next morning we proceeded with our four-in-hand to Russell-town Flats, one of the prin- cipal stations of Mr. Plees, where about two hundred and fifty persons were assembled in the school-room, an old store, now closely crowded, and twenty-eight were confirmed. After having been hospitably enter- tained by a member of the Presbyterian body in the village, we w^ent on in the same conveyance to Colonel Schriver's at Ilemmingford Corner, distant twenty-four miles from St. Remi. Here the Clergy are always welcome. It blew violently and rained very hard during the night, so that the snow was still further diminished in the morning. My friend from Norton Creek was perfectly willing to take me on still with the sleigh and four horses, although he would receive no compensation ; but, after some * This American phraseology has crept into our frontier. little inland stream is called by the Americans a creek. Every It ^f,: >\ if :ii i > \\ ^\ ,-i M i n 15 ■ ill wn>. 22 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S consultation, it was agreed to venture upon wheels,* the Rev. C. Morice having, indeed, come over the night before, in a wagon, from Odell Town, to meet me. This occurred on the 1st of February, and it was a very remarkable circumstance — my own expe- rience of winter travelling in Lower Canada, which has been sufficiently long and extensive, never having furnished another instance of the kind, during the settled season of deep Canadian winter. In places where the snow lay still in considerable masses, it was rather awkward to pass through with a wagon ; but there was no serious difficulty. EXTENT OF A CANADIAN MISSION. At Col. Schriver's I took leave of Mr. Plees. His charge, although it lies within fixed limits, is wholly of an itinerant character. At St. Remi, which is his home, (so far as he has one,) he offici- ates upon one Sunday and one week-day in the month. Both these are evening services, to which he returns after labouring elsewhere. He has four other Sunday stations in his mission ; eleven regular stations for appointed services in all. He officiates twenty-three or twenty-four times every month, and his monthly circuit is one of 235 mile.'-v, besides p11 extra calls. The largest number of communicants at any one time at Russell-town Flats, has been fifty-eight ; at * The form in which the Americans propose the question of eligibility hetween the two modes of conveyance, in such an equivocal state of the roads, is sometimes this, " Shall we roll or slide?" VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. 23 St. Remi, where the ordinance has been once cele- brated, there were fifteen. The religious habits of the people are very unformed in a tract of country situated like this mission. There is no church in this mission except the small one at St. Remi above described ; this has, as yet, neither bell, communion - plate, nor font Mr.Plees has no parsonage- house. i< HEMMINGFORD. I WAS now, on the 1st of February, on my way from the mission of Mr. Plees to the adjacent mission of the Rev. C. Morice, which is precisely of the same description. About three miles from Hemmingford Corner, I stopped to inspect the commencement of a church, which unhappily is at a stand. The walls are raised a few feet from the ground ; but the in- frequency of the ministrations which the Church can extend to the spot, the poverty of the people, and some disappointments which they have expe- rienced, have caused them to desist from their operations, although not to abandon the hope of resuming them. I met some of the leading settlers here by appointment, and endeavoured to encourage them, but they seemed to be a good deal disheart- ened. Great and humiliating are the difficulties with which the Church of the Sovereign and the empire, that empire the greatest and most glorious upon earth, has to struggle in these portions of British territory : many must be the anxieties and r;'^ ^'i!' ' >ii' fa::'':! Vu. ''■ V'-, >i- 'Bit ;.y|» 24 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S mortifications of one abundantly conscious of his own insufficiency, upon wliom "cometh the care of all the churches," in a diocese like this ; and heavily must he often feel the force of the questions, " Who is weak, and I am not weak ? who is offended, and I burn not?" Very needful for him it is to be strengthened in faith, and to keep before his eyes the assurance that Christ will forget no portion of that Church for w^hich he shed His blood. Much comfort ought he to take also in considering the means which God has raised up in the great Church Societies at home for preserving the seed of the Church in the Colonies, and in cultivating a lively trust that those means will be enlarged. The scenes in which I was now engaged (among many others) were calculated to suggest such a train of reflections as this. SHERRINGTON. Turning my back upon the suspended design, which seemed to invite a jeer from surrounding Eomanists and sectaries, like that of old, " What do these feeble Jews ?" — a few miles more brought me to Sherrington, where there is a stone church of respectable promise, very far indeed from being finished, but roughly fitted up for present use. There is a large congregation, chiefly of Irish Church- people, who, for some time past, in consequence of some unavoidable changes in the distribution of service through the mission, since the removal of Mr. Dawes to St. John, have had no Sunday service VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. 25 whatever, and liave been very ill-satisfied with mere week-day ministrations once a fortnight, although alleging nothing, in any w^ay, against their pastor. About one hundred and fifty persons were present at the confirmation, but only five were confirmed ; for Mr. Morice had just risen, when he came to meet me at Hemmingford, from confinement to his bed, under a sharp, although short, attack of fever, and this had prevented his going to a place called Bog- town, (to notify the people of the time,) in which most of the candidates whom he had prepared had their residence. It was from the state of thinjrs which I found here, and the activity of other parties in seeking to turn it to their own account, that I decided at once to choose this station for Mr. Hazard, whom, with the sanction of the Society first received, I had left at Quebec await- ing my selection of the place which I should judge to have the strongest claim ; well aware, at the same time, that I should visit others before the close of my journey, of which the wants might stagger my decision. The people were entirely respectful in their deportment, and at the house where we stopped, they set their best be- fore us with a simple but very cordial hospitality. Some snow began to fall this afternoon ; and in the evening, accompanied by Mr. Morice, I went on once more, with four horses attached to a sleigh, — after a great delay in contriving the means of ^'ggiwg ^^^ such an equipage, — to Napierville, about seven or eight miles from Sherrington. The 26 BISHOP OF MONTJIEALS next dt*/ I left Mr. Morice's mission, to return to another part of it, after a considerable intervening circuit. For the present, therefore, I reserve the farther account of it. i. ,ii . ■}■ '.■'f '»: 'X f &7 : LA PRAIRIE. I NOW went down again to the shores of the mighty St. Lawrence, a drive of nineteen miles from Napierville bringing us to La Prairie, where I had an appointment at two o'clock. The little Protestant church here is now decently finished in its exterior, and neatly enclosed by means of a special grant from the Society for Promoting Christian Know- ledge, and a smaller aid from the fund placed at my disposal by the Society for *he Propagation of the Gospel ; the interior fitting up has also been re- newed with great taste and judgment, entirely from the contributions of the Rev. F. Broome's friends in England. I baptized four children, one of whom was Mr. Broome's, and confirmed eight persons. The mission is to be visited again in May, when the church, of which Mr. Broome has procured the erection at Longueil, (Baron G , the seigneur, contributing 300/.,) will, D. V., be ready for con- secration; and it is arranged that then also the same ceremony should be performed at La Prairie. Mr. Broome officiates here to the troops every Sunday at ten A.M. ; to the civil congregation at a quarter past eleven; in the afternoon he has a service at the VISITATION JOURNAL — 184 3, 27 Military Hospital. The church at Lv ngueil a not yet used. He is endeavouring to put matters in train for the erection of a small chapel at La Tortue, at the distance of some miles, where he has a week- day congregation. f\ L ACADIE. The next morning, February 3d, I proceeded, in company with Mr. Broome and some of the clergy of Montreal, who had come over to meet me, to consecrate a very diminutive church at L'Acadie, twelve miles from La Prairie, where there is a small but stedfast Protestant congregation chiefly attended by Mr. Forest of Christie ville, near St. John, the Society's excellent catechist and lay reader. It is a wooden building, and not originally constructed lor its present purpose, but the people have contrived to give it an ecclesiastical character, and it is fitted up with sufficient neatness within. Mr. Dawes from St. John, and Mr, Allen from Christieville, met me here to assist in the ceremony. The candidates for confirmation were to receive that rite at St. John. After the service, we took some refreshment at the house of Dr. Richardson, one of the principal mem- bers of the congregation. CHAMBLY. I THEN proceeded, fifteen miles, to Chambly, where, as in most other cases, I became the guest of the cler- ^M ;■ l 1 , ,i m '^^l '\ '-' ■I, f, *ij" .,''^^ i^'^1^''^ '3 m-l *(,! m .iv#- ^ 28 ItlSHOP OF MONTREAL 8 gyman. The accommodation in this church has been enlarged by galleries since my last visit. Here I confirmed fifty- seven persons, on the 4th, of whom about a dozen belonged to the garrison. About three hundred were present. Mr. Braithwaite has two services on Sundays, one of which is for th(3 troops. Communion monthly, by recent arrange- ment. Mr. Braithwaite conducts a classical school of much and deserved reputation ; but devotes, nevertheless, some portion of every day to visiting either the sick or the whole in his parish. The youth of the congregation receive catechetical in- struction every Saturday at Mr. Braithwaite's house. No parsonage-house. ST. JOHN— CHRISTIEVILLE. In the evening I proceeded to St. John, twelve miles, and on the following morning, Sunday, 5th Feb., the confirmation of one hundred and eight per- sons took place in the parish church. The number in this parish never (I believe) exceeded twenty -threC) and was usually considerably less. But this is only one sign among many of the manner in which it has pleased God to prosper the faithful labours of Mr. Dawes since he became rector of the place. Of tliese one hundred and eight, a few were military, (also un- der the charge of Mr. Dawes ;) twelve or thirteen came from L'Acadie, (these also had been examined by him ;) and three came from Christieville, where VISITATION JOUUNAL — 1843. 29 everything is yet quite new. In the afternoon I preaehed at this hist-mentionetl place, which is con- nected with St. John by a bridge across the river Richelieu. It is not a missionary station of the Societ3% but may be recollected as the spot where Major ( hristie (in many other things a benefactor of the Church) built the house of God, a srhool-room, a parsonage- house, (now in progress,) and provided for the maintenance of the minister, all at his own cost. In the evening I preached again at St. John. On the day following, a public meeting was held in that parish, at which I presided, for the forma- tion of the District Branch of the Church Society. Upwards of forty pounds were subscribed (as an- nual contributions) before the meeting broke up, the Rector setting a most liberal example. There are three S(;rvices every Sunday in the parish church of St. John, one of which is for the troops ; short service in the military hospital every Monday ; occasional service at L'Acadie. Commu- nion monthly. Communicants at Christmas, about seventy. Mr. Dawes constantly engaged in paro- chial visits among the whole and the sick. Military hospital regularly attended. Bible class in process of formation in barracks. Sunday-school flourishing ; children attending between seventy and eighty ; Hbrary attached to Sunday-school, for which an an- nual charity sermon is preached ; teachers attentive and efficient; meet on Friday evenings to be pre- pared by the Rector for their task. Parochial-school maintained by funds raised upon the spot. Weekly f ♦ m tmm ; J 'I ».■ f" 30 BISHOP OF MONTREALS catechetical instruction in the military schools. Church services performed strictly according to rule. Church in good order and repair ; complete in its appurtenances ; no debt ; consecrated with church- yard, and properly enclosed. Rectory newly re- paired by parishioners. 4 •/ LA COLLE. TuESDAr, the 7th, was ushered in by a heavy snow-storm, and was also intensely cold. The drifts were great, and our friends at St. John foretold that Mr. Morice (who had joined me there) and myself would speedily be obliged to turn back, after setting out for La Colle, lying in that part of Mr. Morice's mission which remained to be visited, and distant nineteen miles from St. John. We accomplished our journey, however ; but of those who had to meet us at the La Colle School-house, a great pro- portion were less favoured ; either having to come by less frequented roads, or being sorrily provided with means of conveyance, or calculating that I should be stopped. Not more than seventy-five persons were present, and only seven were con- firmed ; and thus, a different cause having, as before explained, reduced the number in the other part of the mission, (at Sherrington,) only twelve were confirmed in the whole. We passed the church, a very respectable stone building, like that at Sher- rington, but not sufficiently advanced towards its VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 31 completion to admit of its being used. The duties of Mr. Morice are thus arranged upon alternate Sundays : — Isle aux Noix garrison, Odelltown, La Colle, three services and twenty-one miles to travel, on one Sunday ; Napierville, Isle aux Noix garri- son, and La Colle, three services, and twenty-four miles to travel, the other Sunday. He has five week-day stations, at which he officiates once a fortnight, (including his visit to the school and hos- pital of the Isle aux Noix garrison,) the most dis- tant of which is fifteen miles from his residence, the nearest seven. There are four others at which he ofiiciates once a month, and which are visited in a circuit of thirty-two miles. Parochial visiting of the flock imperfect, on account of his being so con- stantly upon the road. rif'!'^' CHRISTIE AND CALDWELL MANORS. My next point was the mission of the Rev. M. Townsend, comprising the two parishes, each of great superficial extent, of St. George and St. Thomas, otherwise called Caldwell and Christie Manors. I made a little detour to take the Isle aux Noix in my way, in order to inquire after three or four soldiers of the garrison, who were to have met me, by Mr. Morice's appointment, at La Colle. The person with whom Mr. Morice lodges, a substantial Yorkshire farmer, provided me with a sleigh, but !,#?■ ]4. y \k.^.,%i \ ;..,f'.f'» I ■i-M'i';¥ '■ 32 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S begged me to send it back from the Lake Shore, opposite to the island, as he was not willing to trust the management of the horses, for making the traverse in the snow, to his son, who was a nice stripling, allowed for the occasion to hecu7Tus auriga pater ni, but one of whom it seems that he judged, with reference to the difficulties of the ferry, that " Nee viribus istis Munera conveniant, nee tarn puerilibus annis." I only mention this circumstance to show the extra- ordinary rapidity and power with which the sudden change of the weather had taken effect — for when we reached the ferry we saw a sleigh and pair crossing to the island upon the ice, and our own lumber- sleigh and pair, carrying four persons and my bag- gage, immediately followed in the same track. I saw two of the soldiers, and spoke with them myself: they had set out and gone a few miles to meet me, the day before, but they were on foot, and the wea- ther and drifts obliged them to turn back. I desired them to attend the next day (the 9th) in Christie Manor church, where they were accordingly con- firmed. Sixty-seven persons were confirmed in all; between three hundred and four hundred were pre- sent. Mr. Townsend has morning service on Sun- days alternately at his two churches, which are three or four miles apart ; his evening service is alter- nately at Henryville (where a third church is now being built), I think six or seven miles from his re- sidence, and at different stations, where he affords VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 33 an occasional visit, in the school-houses. Commu- nicants at the two churches, one hundred and one. Radius of ten miles may be taken any where within the charge, the village of Clarenceville, in Christie Manor, being made the centre. Sunday-school in each parish : about fifty children greatest number at St. George, and forty at St. Thomas. PHILIPSBURGH. On the 10th I went to Philipsburgh, or St. Ar- mand West, ten miles from Clarenceville. I had been for the last fortnight in a flat and insipid coun- try : here the character of the scenery changes at once. In the afternoon I confirmed eighteen persons in the parish church. Mr. Whitwell has morning service every Sunday in the parish church ; evening service alternately at tw^o school-houses, distant respectively six and fiye and a half miles ; an even- ing service is also held in the village school-house, by Mr. Neve, a lay-reader, and aspirant to the ministry,* who, in fact, has conducted a very great portion of the other services for the last two and a half years, on account of the ill health of Mr. Whit- well, Avho is affected with bronchitis. I called together a few of the leading persons interested in the erection of a new church, and left them with some hope that further and more success- ful efforts will be made. An excellent site has been secured in the village. * Since ordained. D II 1^% II I '-J ■ -f '■ ■ .1 11 tff'*' Ni^fv'i *?■ •' =r-»; 34 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S BEDFORD AND STANBRIDGE. Feb. 11. — The village of Bedford, in the town- ship of Stanbridge, which forms the mission of the Kev. J. Jones, is eight miles from Philipsburgh. I confirmed this morning seventy-four persons in the village church. There would have been eighty-one, but seven who had been prepared, were kept at home by illness. Between three and four hundred persons were present. The next morning, (Sunday, the 12th,) I confirmed thirteen persons in the church of Stanbridge East, on the Upper Mills, only four miles from Bedford, where, nevertheless, there were reasons for holding a separate confirmation. The Church, owing to a series of unfortunate occurrences, was in a sunken and feeble condition in this mission, and in Stanbridge East appeared absolutely pros- trate; but it has pleased God to bless the labours of Mr. Jones, and a most gratifying change has been operated, which, I do trust, lies far deeper than the surface. In my journal of 1840, I had to state that the church of Stanbridge East was shut up. I now met there, as it was calculated, three hundred per- sons or upwards. The people of this very spot vo- lunteered the other day to make Mr. Jones a present of a house by subscription ; and, what is far more important, he has been so successful in awakening their minds to a due sense of the one thing needful, and the necessity of using the divinely-appointed means in order to profit by the covenant of grace, that he has already performed between sixty and seventy baptisms since the commencement of the SI VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 35 year, i e. in little more than one month. In 1840, twenty persons were confirmed in the mission; upon the present occasion eighty- seven (besides the seven who were prevented from presenting themselves). It may be proper here to state that Mr. Jones is a staunch and uncompromising churchman, whose whole course, since he has held a pastoral charge in the Church, appears to bear testimony to his having passed over to her ranks from conscientious convic- tion, at the same time that his previous habits may, in some respects, give him an advantage in dealing with dissenters or ambiguous religionists. Mr. Jones has three full services on Sunday, — Bedford church in the morning : Stanbridge East church, afternoon ; private building at Lower Falls, some miles distant, in the evening. Tuesday evening, cottage lecture in Stanbridge East school-house ; Wednesday evening, ditto, ditto, Bedford. Occa- sional services in other places (and additional labour since undertaken in the township of Farnham). A subscription has been raised in Quebec and Montreal, as well as upon the spot, for the erection of a par- sonajre-house. It is calculated that there are three thousand souls in this township, and that five hundred now attend the ministry of the Church, exclusive of children. Mr. Jones's son, who is an aspirant to the ministrv, and has been reading partly under the direction of the Eev. J. Reid, has been eminently useful in this whole neighbourhood. I must here take occasion to observe, once for all, that, if in cases where there is something new and W'^ 'f- ■ M I!' 36 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S ':»!''' ■ ' :i li UiX'. If'f !i extraordinary to call for notice in a report like this, the zeal and efficiency of a missionary are naturally set in conjunction with such notice, it must never be inferred that these qualities are wanting in other cases where all special mention of them may be omitted. There are many tried and faithful servants of whom there is only to record their stated, long- established and unvarying round of labours, yet whose labours are most valuable, and who are lay- ing deep the foundation of future good. ST. ARMAND EAST, MISSISQUI BAY. The afternoon of this Sunday was allotted to the mission of the Rev. James Reid, who kiudiy sent his son over with a sleigh to meet me at Stanbridge. and to carry me to his own parsonage-house, six miles distant, in the village of Frelighsburgh, or St. Armand East. A congregation of nearly two hundred persons was assembled in the church. Thirty-five persons were confirmed. Mr. Reid, after dividing his Sunday labours for many years among different places, (some of which are now otherwise supplied,) has judged it latterly most profitable to give the whole Sunday to his parish church, where he has two services. He pays occasional visits, for the purpose of holding service, to neighbouring settle- ments, upon week-days. All the parishioners re- ceive pastoral visits several times during the year. A church is projected in the adjoining township of VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. ot Sutton, where Captain Kemp, one of Mr. Reid's parishioners, has an interest, and he is most zea- lously bent upon the object. BAPTISM OF TWELVE ADULTS. The baptism of the twelve adults forms an in- teresting feature in the labours of the past year, as indicating that prejudices and errors are giving way, which are of very old standing in this neighbour- hood. And I am persuaded that none of these per- sons came in without the wedding-garment. Not only had conscientious attention been bestowed in preparing them, but from the state of local feel- ings and opinions, they would be likely to err rather on the side of overstrained scruples than of temerity in becoming the recipients of this divine ordi^ ance. I ll-^ 'r ,J f. I i : t DUNHAM. On Monday morning, February 13, I proceeded, six miles, to Dunham Flats, where the church of the Rev. C. C. Cotton is situated. Here I was met by a congregation, estimated at three hundred, and nineteen persons were confirmed. Morning service is performed every Sunday at this church ; the ri ■t { tm I 38 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S afternoon is given to the north part of the township, except one Sunday in the month, which is allotted to the west. No parsonage-house. Mr. Cotton, who is now advanced in life, is in very feeble health, and there have latterly been great interruptions of his public duty. A member of the Baker family, the different branches of which are noted for their good affection to the Church and hospitality (as I can testify) to the clergy, has consented, under these circumstances, to keep the congregation toge- ther by acting as lay-reader. •■m m> BROME. Feb. 14.— Captain W. Baker drove me to Mr. Cotton's, six miles, and Mr. Cotton then passed me on thirteen miles further, to the incipient village of Coldbrook, in the township of Brome. Here I became the guest of the Hon. Colonel Knowlton, who has promoted the erection of the church and parsonage-house, both now in progress, and has given three acres in the centre of the village for the church-site and parsonage lot. Matters are very new and unformed in this township, of which the Rev. E. Cusack only took charge in October ; and the people, except a very few English settlers, having been out of the habit of attending Church ordinances, it would have been premature to at- tempt to prepare any number of them for confirma- VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 39 tion. I preached, however, in a school-house, a couple of miles from the village, and endeavoured to set before my hearers the excellences, not only of the Christian religion and the reformed faith, but of the apostolic Church of England. I rather sup- pose that about seventy persons were present. The school-house is a very small affair. Mr. Cusack's Sunday duties, according to the arrangement made for the present, are at Tibbett's Hill, Brome Cor- ner, and Sutton Township, in a kind of rotation, on Sunday mornings ; Ware's and Bell's school-houses in the afternoon alternately. These places all lie within a circuit of from two to half-a-dozen miles. The church stands on a rising ground in the village, and has a good effect. li hi i' I FROSTE VILLAGE, IN SHEFFORD. Pel). 15. — A drive of about eight miles, part of which was upon Brome Lake, in summer a beautiful sheet of water, now tedious to travel from an accu- mulation of fresh fallen snow, brought us to Froste Village, in Shefford, where twenty-seven persons were confirmed in the church. Upon this occasion the Rev. J. Jones preached the sermon, he being on his way to the Church Society meeting to be held at Granby. In my address to the young people I felt it my duty to guard them against the errors of Millerism, which have in a manner flooded this /I :! i . : ■ ill!!. ,r i .! :^ 4<* 40 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S part of the coiintiy, and produced, in many instances, conspicuous mischief. The pillar of the cause in this neighbourhood is a tin-smith of Waterloo Village, formerly a soldier in the British army, and now enjoying a pension. Another great preacher of the same doctrine in the township is a man who, eighteen months ago, ran off with a neighbour's wife. GRANBY. — CHURCH SOCIETY MEETING. After passing the night in the parsonage-house at Waterloo Village, I left Mr. Balfour's mission on Thursday morning, the 16th, to return in a couple of days, in order to complete the duties to be per- formed within it. My first mark was Granby Village, distant ten miles, lying within the proper limits of no mission whatever, and, with its neigh- bourhood, lamentably, although quite unavoidably, neglected. It was this very circumstance, coupled with the consideration of its central situation rela- tively to the missionaries to be called together for the purpose, which induced me to fix upon Granby as the spot for forming, in the first instance, one of the district associations of the Church Society. Divire service was held first in a building borrowed for the occasion, and I preached in direct prepara- tion for the meeting which followed. It was well attended, and there were persons present, among them very respectable females, who had come thirty miles or upwards, travelling through great f) i* * VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. 41 stances, ;aiise in Village, id now r of the iighteen ;e-liouse ssion on a couple be per- Granby proper neigh- idably, coupled n rela- her for ranby |ce, one ociety. rrowed epara- as well among come great f severity of cold. Colonel Nickle, of the British army, whose station, on particular service,* is now at Granby, assisted me in moving the resolutions, as did the Hon. Colonel Knowlton, of Brome. After all was over, a deputation, representing Granby, South Ridge, and the Township of Milton, waited upon me with a petition, setting forth their utter spiritual destitution, and exhibiting one hundred and twenty- two names of heads of families, all stated to belong, bond fide, to the Church. The skeleton of a wooden church has been put up in the village, standing upon a good stone foundation. It stands upon a lot of ten acres, considered to be worth 100/., which has been given for a church, parsonage, &c., by the Rev. T. Johnson, of Abbots- ford. There are a few people in Granby Village who have made great exertions to promote this object, but their number is very small, and the South Ridge and Milton people are new and poor settlers. ABBOTSFORD. Feb. 17. — I drove to Abbotsford, ten miles from Granby, and met a congregation of more than two hundred persons in the church. Forty-four were * I V as laid under obligations upon this journey to three of the officers commanding upon this footing— Colonel Campbell, whose hospitality I liave mentioned at Huntingdon; Colonel Taylor, (also a host of mine when at Napierville upon a former journey,) who assisted in the proceedings of the Church Society at St. John; and Colonel Nickle, who took the same part here. ii I ■ :V » I '-V '^ ft m^r 42 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S confirmed. In my sermon, at the special request of the Rev. T. Jolmson, I directly met and exposed (which was by no means difficult) an attack uj)on episcopal confirmation, full of gross misrepresenta- tions and manifesting an exceedingly bad spirit, made in the shape of a small tract, which had been busily circulated by a particular body of dissenters. They had appointed a protracted meeting, in which four of their ministers took the lead, immediately before the time which had been notified for my visit. The tract was printed at Winchester, in England, and bore a number, as being one of a series. It declared itself to have been prompted by some address put forth by the Rev. Mr. Dallas, Chaplain to the Bishop of Winchester, in which parents are exhorted to bring their children to confirmation. The copies were circulated with some caution and art, for that which Mr. Johnson put into my hands was one which he had received under a promise of returning it within a given time. God, however, made the mischief which the enemies of the Church had desired in this most unprovoked attack to return upon their own heads. Mr. Johnson has stated to me, in a letter written since my return home, (forwarded to the Society by the last mail,) that the Church has gained strength and distinctness by the occurrence; the hostility, which had often assumed a different guise, having now appeared in a declared and unequivocal shape. If it is painful, under any circumstances, to witness the spirit of strife and envy, and the busy propagation o^ error, it is doubly so »i VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. 43 [|UCSt of exposed •k upon resenta- 1 spirit, lud been ssenters. n which kediately for my ister, in ' a series, by som(; Chaphiin •ents are rmation. tion and ay hands 'omise of lowever, Church o return tated to home, that the s by the assumed declared der any d envy, loubly so H '^ in a country like this, where the multiplication of schisms, and the restlessness of irregular zeal, yield triumph to the vast Romish majority of the inha- bitants ; and the cause of Protestantism, popularly regarded as a whole, made up of Church and sects together, is weakened and discredited by the exhibi- tion of divisions and the use of unworthy arts. It is happy, indeed, when the authors themselves of such proceedings have their eyes opened to their true nature, and learn the closely-connected princi- ples of primitive unity and christian love. While I was with Mr. , he called in his two daughters, left motherless a few months ago by a very sudden stroke of Providence, and adverting to the lot which I have mentioned his having given to the church in Granby Village, but of which the deed, from some temporary cause of obstruction, had not been passed, charged them, (nothing loth,) taking me as his witness, to see to the execution of his purpose if God should take their father also before the execu- tion of this form. The recollection of his loss, his love for the Church, and the picture which he had raised of his children made orphans, all mixing to- gether in his mind, for one moment overpowered his feelings and checked his utterance; but he recovered himself, and closed his directions in a firm and dis- tinct tone. He is a remarkably plr'n, simple, and guileless man — very httle thinking that I should make this domestic scene the subject of a description to the Society. The lot is worth 100/., an impor- tant sum to a man like Mr. . His health is 11 m ti i m tV W^'' -Mi W ii 1 r 'ft s^ l^^i .til 44 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S delicate, and he has been compelled to abridge the number of his appointments to officiate, although he still complies with occasional calls to a distance. His duties regularly laid down are as follows: — Morning service every Sunday at Abbotsford. Afternoon every Sunday, weather and roads per- mitting, at Eougemont, eleven miles distant, where the Protestants form a very united, although not large, congregation. Mr. is just upon the edge of the township, but within the seigneurial tracts. He is much engaged in visiting from house to house, and is enabled to state that family prayer has, in many instances, been introduced among the people. SHEFFORD. GEAR S SETTLEMENT. On Saturday, the 18th, I returned, through Granby, to the mission of Mr. Balfour, and first drove, eighteen miles, to a part of the township of Shefford called Gear's Settlement, where he had made an appointment for me to preach. The school-house was crammed, not being well capable of accommodating more than one hundred persons. These auditories in the woods always listen with curiosity, attention, and apparent interest at the moment; what portion of seed may carry a blessing to the heart is nothing but what the great day will fully show. We went on, eight miles further, to the parsonage in Waterloo Village, and thence to rnf VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 45 dine with the next neighbour, Mr. Robinson, a friend to our cause, who has subscribed 100/. towards the church about to be erected. WEST SHEFFORD. WATERLOO VILLAGE. STUKELEY. The next day (Sunday) I was driven by one of his sons, a youth of much promise, whose mind appears turned towards the ministry, to West Shefford church, eight miles, where I met an overflowing congregation. It was computed that upwards of four hundred persons were present. All the chairs from the nearest houses were in requisition to furnish extra seats in the aisles: the pulpit steps were occu- pied for the same purpose, and the deficiency of accommodation was eked out by inverted sajhpaih, with pieces of board laid from one to another. Sap- pails, are the wooden vessels made to receive the discharge from the sugar-maple when it is tapped. Thirty-three persons were confirmed. In the after- noon I preached again, to about one hundred persons, in Waterloo Village school-house, and in the even- ing, a third time, to half that number at another school-house, eleven miles distant, in Stukeley. It was drifting and snowing all day, and it was qu le a process to go through to beat off the snow from our clothes and persons, and to spread out cloaks and mufflers by the stove before the commencement of service. The ministrations of the Church are quite a rarity in this spot. I was driven up from Water- '.I if* '.' I 46 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S v^u, loo, by 'a member of the family, whom I have long known and esteemed in my journeys through Stukeley, and whose guest I became for the night. The family is reduced, by a succession of deaths, to two brothers living together, one of whom is married, and one sister: they keep no servant in winter-time, tending the horses and cattle, and doing the whole work about the place themselves, but they manife=^ a degree of intelligence, reading, and general infor- mation, which is truly surprising in persons familiar from childhood with all the rougher occupations of rural life in the new parts of Canada. Hired labour is here a serious matter. I had now taken leave of Mr. Balfour, the distri- bution of v/hose labours I proceed to record. He has three full services and sermons every Sunday: upon one Sunday at Waterloo Village, then at Froste Village, distant three miles, and lastly in Stukeley, eight miles from Froste Village : upon the other Sunday, having gone over night to West Shefford church, eight miles, he officiates there in the morn- ing, and afterwards, on the same day, in North Shefford. and in Roxton; to accomplish these three services he travels thirty-nine miles by the time when he reaches home on Monday morning. Every Tuesday evening he has a service in Waterloo Vil- lage ; every Wednesday evening, in Froste Village; every Thursday evening, at Booth's Settlement, five miles from his home. There are in the whole mission about one hundred and twenty communi- cants. At the confirmations in these two churches *■ - VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. 47 L I have through Q night, jaths, to married, ler-time, le whole manife"=^ •al infor- familiar ations of jd labour lie distri- Drd. He Sunday: at Froste 5tukeley, le other Shefford he morn- n North se three he time . Every irloo Vil- Village; ent, five e whole mmuni- hurches on my present visit, there were sixty recipients of the rite. Church about to be built in Waterloo C'V, m Village. i I" HATLEY. — CHARLESTON PARISH. Monday, Feb. 20. — Mr. Willard volunteered to drive me on to Hatley, about twenty-seven miles. The road lies, for a long way, through very unbroken woods, beneath the bold and sombre mountain of Oxford, and winds along the margin of lakes, here of small extent, and sunk in the circling bosom of the hills and the forest, there stretching away for many iiiles in irregular forms, and surrounded by slopes or eminences more gradually swelling, partially occu- pied by settlements and clearings. But all was now buried in ice and snow. We crossed the outlet of Lake Memphranagog, and passed through one or two incipient villages before we reached Hatley, where the Rev. Christopher Jackson received us as his guests. On the 21st, I confirmed thirty persons in the parish church. From one hundred to one hundred and fifty^ were present. The village is called Charleston, and the parish (which takes this name) comprehends part of the township of Compton, and part of Barnston, besides Hatley. Mr. Jackson accordingly has morning service every Sunday at Charleston, and afternoon service alternately at a station in Compton, distant four miles and a half, and one in Barnston, distant two miles. I pfifMl hHuShj nil 1 >t H nil v n fm' PI 48 BISHOP OF MONTREALS COMPTON. I PROCEEDED in the evening, nine miles, (Mr. Jackson conveying me,) to the Rev. C. P. Reid's mission in Compton. It is a matter of great thank- fulness that I was enabled, three years ago, acting on the behalf of the Society, to erect this place into a separate mission; for, although all the attention was bestowed upon it before which a mere depen- dency upon Hatley could be expected to receive, the people were very ill-satisfied, and it was, in fact, a sort of crisis for the Church when the appointment of Mr. Reid took place. The work has certainly been prospered in his hands ; although there is much to contend with still. The first confirmation took place on the day after my arrival, Wednesday, 22d of February. In the service preceding, after the second lesson, I baptized thirteen adults, — Mr. Reid having specially desired to reserve this performance of duty for my hands; and at his desire, also, I chose my subject in preaching, with a par- ticular reference to the ordinances witnessed by the congregation. About one hundred and eighty persons were present. Thirty-two were confirmed. In the conflict of religious teachers and talkers, the confusion of surrounding sects, and the array of prejudices drawn up against the Church in this neighbourhood, it was not without many struggles, and much earnest and devout search for the truth, that a good many of the parties here brought forward to baptism and to confirmation, had arrived, at last, at the comfortable mi 1? i.'.ir. IS much VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. 49 conviction of mind with which they sealed and rati- fied the covenant of their God in Christ; and Mr. Reid appeared to have the best hopes of their future consistency with the acts of the day. He has morn- ing service every Sunday at the church, and after- noon service alternately at two school-houses, each distant five miles. There was a great meeting of Universalists in the village, on the day of the confirmation, at a meeting- house held between the Methodists and that body, which was called a conference, and lasted many hours. Several preachers of this heresy came in from the United States to attend the meeting — so, at least, I was given to understand. II '-•i- j LENNOX VILLE. — SHERBROOKE. — CHURCH SOCIETY. In the evening I went on to Lennoxville, ten miles, where I took up my quarters (familiar to me as many others on the route) with the Rev. L. Doolittle and his lady. I had appointed the next day, February 23d, for holding the meeting at Sherbrooke, to form the District Association of the Church Society in this tract of country. We were accommodated with the use ot the new court-house, which is a most respectable, and may really be called a handsome building. The day, as had happened at Granby, was intensely cold; but the attendance was exceedingly good, and all the most respectable E 50 BISftOP OF MONTREAL S l^'i '1*^ ^llill ;.f '^^K^l 1 SP gentlemen in the place and neiglibourhood took part in the proceedings. One, who spoke at great length and with great ability, was the aged Judge Fletcher, brother of Sir Richard Fletcher, of distinguished memory in the annals of the Peninsular war, who was killed at St. Sebastian, in command of the Royal Engineers, — and himself well known in scien- tific circles many years ago in London. The best spirit was manifested, and all went off in an en- couraging manner. EATON. In the evening I returned to Lennoxville, and proceeded, the next day, fourteen miles, to Eaton ; where, as usual, I became the guest of Mr. Slack, an English gentleman, mentioned in my Journal of 1840. I confirmed thirteen persons in the church. About one hundred and fifty were present. The Rev. J. Taylor has been confined all the winter to his bed by rheumatic gout — a malady which within the last few years has caused frequent and serious interruptions of his ministry, and appears to threaten the necessity of his retirement from the charge. Mr. Slack, acting as lay-reader, under a license from me, has kept the congregation together ; and, under the sanction of Mr. Taylor, he prepared the young persons for confirmation — seeking them out with much pains at their own houses. They met him at Mr. Taylor's to receive their tickets. I visited !-'■ VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. ol • Mr. Taylor upon his bed of sickness, and found him, although submissive to the Divine will, very anxious about the state of his charge. Mr. Taylor has been particularly subjected to a sort of labour which adds much to the duties of many clergymen in these townships, — the performance of funerals by invita- tion, at great distances, where the people have no regular minister, upon which occasions a funeral sermon, i. e. a sermon appropriate to the occasion of death, is always expected. iil^M I! ' BURG. I LEFT this mission on Saturday, the 25 th, for Robinson Village, in Burg, ten miles, promising to return for a late service on Sunday evening, on account of its having been so much deprived of clerical ministrations. Mr. and Mrs. King received me in the apartments which they occupy under the same roof with the spacious school-room, fitted up also for public worship, in the building erected by the Land Company. The school is maintained by the Newfoundland and British North American School Society, and the Eev. W, King exercises a supervision over eighteen of their schools within the district. On Sunday, the 26th, I confirmed forty- one persons, and at the desire of Mr. King, baptized two adults and a child. I preached twice to the people. In the morning about two hundred and fifty persons were present, including the school- 3A J:*'u^ l^.m r*fi 52 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S children : a good congregation attended also in the afternoon. My indefatigable friend, Mr. Slack, came lip for me, to convey me back in the evening to Eaton, according to the promise mentioned above, and about one hundred and fifty persons there met me in the church. Mr. King has service every Sunday morning at Robinson school-house (where he has also a Friday evening service every week) ; on the Sunday after- noon alternately at Victoria, five miles, and on the Dudswell road, four miles distant. At each of these two stations Mr. King is getting up a small church, and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge have granted him 50/. for each, besides a small grant which I have made from the fund placed at my dis- posal by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Upon the Sunday on which he visits Victoria in the afternoon he officiates a third time at another station, five miL s beyond. Upon another range in the township, he has a week-day service, six miles from his home. Another week-day service on the Eaton road, four miles. Each of these once a fortnight. A monthly week-day service at his fortnightly Sunday station on the Dudswell road ; and finally, a monthly service, twelve miles from home, in the township of Gould. LENNOX VILLE COLLEGE. After the service at Eaton on Sunday night, I slept at Mr. Slack's, and the next morning he drove VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 53 me back to Lennoxville. Here I met, by appoint- ment, the local Committee for the affairs of the College, who are very grateful for the bounty of the Society, and are now encouraged to resume their suspended labours. Resolutions were passed at this meeting, that it is expedient to take immediate stei)s towards the opening of tlie institution in suitable temporary buildings, and to acquire for this purpose a highly suitable property which is for sale in the village, and wdiich will afterwards serve for the school in connexion with the College, now kept in a build- ing attached to the parsonage ; and that the building operations be proceeded with at such a rate and to such extent as shall be w^arranted by the funds at command. I went to view the site which, in summer, is truly beautiful, comprising sixty acres at the con- fluence of the rivers Massiwippi and St. Francis, and comprehending a level island naturally orna- mented by a group of trees, as well as a woody bank or prolonged eminence in another direction, in which the meditative student may hereafter indulge himself inter sylvas acadevii; and, in fact, such a character attaches to the whole scene, that, let the village grow to what it may, the inmates of the College may, within their own precincts, gratify the poetic wish : — " Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus omnes Flumina amem sylvasque." But the prospect is still doubtful as it respects the maintenance of well-qualified professors, although 54 BISHOP OF MONTIIEALS the institution would begin with only two. Upon this subject I have already submitted to the Society an expedient suggested to me by Mr. Doolittle. We shall also petition the Legislature, as soon as it shall meet under His Excellency Sir C. Metcalfe, for aid towards the completion and support of the institution. I trust in God that, whatever difficulties and dis- couragements it may be ordained that we should encounter, the work will ultimately be prospered ; for I look to it as a vast blessing to the country. And as it will be constituted, it will draw into its bosom many a promising youth in the township, whose political and religious attachments it will serve to form, but who, in default of this resource, would be moulded in other nurseries, very different in their effects upon both. Such nurseries are very easily accessible to them in the neighbouring states. I; I 1 pi: . 4i ;',"'j"iiS:' i r^m. 1 tM M mf if- mM ff - ■'ir-siL i.:.': Hi, ^*^ If f ' . ■»■«.•■ i -'J-Ij' ^S" t TRAVELLING IN THE SNOW. On Tuesday, the 14tli March, after breakfast, (in which we partook of moose- steak,*) we took leave of our host, and set out for St. Catharine's, another district portion of the mission, distant nine miles from Bourg Louis. We formed a train of four eingle-horse carioles, light open vehicles, carrying one person besides the driver ; and, in fact, it was with labour and difficulty enough that the horses could proceed with a load no greater than this, for a prodigious fall of snow had taken place in the night, and was still continuing. A more perfect exempli- fication of the Horatian picture of the snow-laden woods, the nee jam sustineant onus Sylvce labo- rantes, or a more perfect specimen, altogether, of a wintry forest scene I never saw. A very great portion of the way was through a narrow track cut through the almost serried ranks of a lofty growth of timber, passing, in places, through tall straight firs and pines, some of the latter more than one hundred feet high. Boughs were every where seen curved down by superincumbent masses of snow. If a driver jumped out to relieve his horse in a difUculty, lie was in an instant up to his hips. If a horse, in the more open spaces, got off the track, which, where the action of the wind was permitted, was nearly or wholly obliterated by the first snow and drift, he floundered and struggled above his back * The mttjle of the moose is considered a great delicacy, and, in fact, is not unlike turtle. This was set before us on this journey at 0rum- mondville, at the table of Gen. Herio VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 67 in the snow, till, in more than one instance, it was necessary to detach him from the vehicle ; in fact, Mr. Wait's horse in one place, crossing a gully, where lie got off the bridge, (of v^hich neitlier the edge nor any other part could he distinguished,) actually sunk so that nothing was seen but his head and ears. Four men might be seen, in another place, treading down the snow with all th(;ir might and main, to facilitate the way of a horse in the unwilling plunges to which they urged him, in order to recover the track. ST. CATHARINE S. Under these circumstances, we were naturally beyond the appointed time when we reached the beautiful river Jacques Cartier, on which St. Catha- rine's is situated, and the country being here open, we encountered a raging snow-storm, which, added to the lateness of the hour, augured ill for our find- ing a congregation. The Protestants are few and scattered in this place, — a meagre handful, inter- spersed among the Romanists, with whom they have also contracted intermarriages. The Protes- tant church is a diminutive wooden building, painted white, without any exterior distinction whatever to indicate its sacred purpose, — not even a single arched window. It was altogether with feelings in some measure dispirited that I approached it, and when we reached it some of the very few people who 68 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S ''.>ih\ liud assembled were obliged to go otF with the horses, wlioin 't was impossible to leave abroad in such weather after their journey. At last, however, twenty-five persons were collected, and of these, eighteen were confirmed ; all, I believe, who had been prepared to make their vow, having, from whatever part of the settlement, effected their way to the liUie church. The stove smoked, and the snow, having made a lodgment in the loft, where it melted, was fast dripping through within the com- munion rails, where I was ofRciatinij. The good spirit, however, evinced by tlie people, the promp- titude and kindness of their attentions upon our arrival, and the hope, above all, that these were evidences of their appreciating what was done for their spiritual benefit, were far more than a com- pensation for all the contreteyns which marked the occasion. Some elderly women were here con- firmed, — forty-eight persons in the whole mission. i ii A SETTLERS HOSPITALITY. The Roman Catholic priest of the place, with whom I had once been acquainted in Quebec, sent me a very courteous message, tendering to myself, and my brethren who were with me, the hospitality of his house. But even if it had not been my hope, at that time, to push on to Quebec by the light of the moon, in which case the visit would have been just so much out of my way, I judged that the !-» t VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. 69 effect would be far from good if I were to decline the rougher fare, and, if need should be, the rouglier accommodation for the night, which I coukl tind among our own people, in favour of this more com- fortable arrangement. It was, however, kind on his part, and we took care to acknowledge tlie kindness. We proceeded, the day now declining, to the house of an honest Irish settler, carrying many scars as memorials of the Peninsular war, and while the family were busily and zealously providing for our refreshment, 1 caused inquiries to be made respect- ing the best conveyances which could be engaged in the neighbourhood, but was finally assured that " neither man nor beast could move" that night, part of the road being carried over a face of country both open and unfrequented, where it would be im- possible to keep or even to discern it at all. We all remained, therefore, and conducted the evening devotions of the family, having prayers and a plain exposition of a chapter. They surrendered to us their best, I may say their only accommodations for the night, as if the favour were done to themselves ; and such is the spirit in which many a poor settler in the woods of Canada will greet his Bishop and his Minister. Our host had a great family about him of remarkably fine children, for whose education and religious training their parents appear to be most unaffectedly anxious. His tw^o eldest sons have taken land in Bourg Louis, and will soon avail themselves, if it please God, of the advantages offered in a new country, to become independent 70 mSHOP OH MONTREAL S proprietors, gradually advancing, amid much toil and Iiardsliip, towards a state of prosperity, witli :i oonif'ortable prospect for the children who will follow them. iiil mm UUTIKS OF PORT NEUF MISSION. Tilt: duties of this mission (which is only like many others) may be judged of from their consist- ing of a constant round, at all seasons, in snow or in mud, in rain or in heat, of visits to the three churches, my own journey to which I have here described. The Canadian Missionary continues year after year his oft-repeated and laborious track in the wilderness, — Alike to liiiH is time or tide, December's snow or July's pride ; and these are almost the sole varieties of his life. Mr. Morris officiates on Sundays, in rotation, at Port Neuf church, four miles and a half from his residence ; Bourg Louis, fifteen miles ; and St. Ca- tharine's, twenty-two miles. Port Neuf, with its two dependencies, has been formed into a mission since my last visitation, and this which I now paid was the first Episcopal visit. The different parts of the mission contain some very beautiful scenery. As you approach St. Catharine's from Bourg Louis, the road passes by a very lovely lake, and winds among swelling hills, which are covered with a fine unmixed growth of deciduous f VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 71 trees. Morally iirul spiritually, it must b- aopedthat, by the Divine favour and blessing, a good founda- tion is laid. I know some individual myself anion"* the s(?ttler3 whom I believe to hv servants of the living God. Much indiiferenee and deadness has been seen, in other instances, to prevail. I ■ RETURN TO gUEBEC. Ox Wednesday, the loth March, I returned to (Quebec, having eleven miles to make before falling into the higli-road at St. Augustin, distant fifteen from that city. The snow-storm had ceased ; but for some miles we had to break the road ourselves, none of the country- people having been out upon it before us. The whole of this winter-circuit was about one thousand and thirty miles, and occupied two months and a half. A little appendix to it was my visit, on Sunday, the 26th of March, to New Liverpool, in the mission of Point Levi, now again in charge of the Rev. R. R. Burrage, to which I drove on that day, across the St. Lawrence, and confirmed twenty-two persons in the church. An extremely tood congregation attended. SUMMARY OF CONFIRMATIONS. The confirmations were forty-three, the num- ber of persons confirmed one thousand seven hun- dred and seventy-three, and four churches were iiiSHOP OF MONTREAL S consecrated. In 1840 the confirmations on the winter-circuit were thirty-eight ; but this compre- hended those in the Ottawa Missions, then four in number, which I was now obh'ged to reserve for summer travelling, not being able, on account of the increased number of stations, to go over the same range of country in the same time. I expect to confirm at six missions up the Ottawa, one of which is three hundred and fifty miles from Quebec, and also at St. Martin, upon the Isle Jesus, in May. There will then remain the four missions south ol the St. Lawrence, and one north, in the district of Quebec, requiring, as I calculate, nine or ten con- firmations ; and the three missions of Gaspe, in the Gulf, which will require eight. I hope to ac- complish the whole, travelling at intervals, in different directions, before the spring, if it so please God, of 1844. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. Reviewing this whole journey, and all the evi- dences which it affords respecting the existing order of things in the country, it is impossible not to be affected by many heavy solicitudes and heart-rending reflections. It cannot be without feelings of sorrow and shame and fear, that we see a mightyGovernment like that of Great Britain, which has spent millions in this country upon fortifications and military works, and which can allow a sum probably not short VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. 73 of lOOjOOOZ. to be spent in a few months, (in a par- ticular instance,) for little more than matters of parade, should suffer its own people, — in broad and reproachful contrast, in every single particular, to the institutions founded for the old colonists, by the crown of France, — should suffer its own people, members of the church of the Empire, to starve and languish with reference to the supply of their spiri- tual wants — establishing no institutions for educating and forming the youth of the country — making no provisions whatever for planting houses of God over the land, or for creating, training, and supporting an order of " teaching priests'* for the people — inter- fering with and abridging the means which do exist for the maintenance and perpetuation of religion in the country — declining to follow up in any efficient manner the plans laid down when the See of Quebec was established — limiting to the lives of the present incumbents the salaries which, in half-a-dozen in- stances, are enjoyed by ecclesiastics of the Church Establishment — parcelling out among different reli- gious bodies the very Clergy-reserves which had belonged to the Church alone, and keeping the management of them in its own hands, under a system which impedes their profitableness, and threatens the most alarming sacrifices, in the shape of sales — leaving its emigrant children to scatter themselves at random here and there over the coun- try, upon their arrival, without any digested plan for the formation of settlements, or any guide (had it not been for the Society which T am addressing) 74 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S I'' ^ rit t 1 14'' 'v to lead them rightly in their new trials, temptations, and responsibities. The value of the missions and other boons received from the Society may be well estimated from this melancholy survey of the sub- ject. The influence which has presided over the proceedings of Government, in relation to the Church in these Colonies, appears, in the mysterious counsel of Divine Providence, to have resembled some enchantment which abuses the mind. I do not believe that there is any example in history of any public measures based more decidedly upon false data or distorted facts than those which have affected the interests of the Canadian Church ; and here I allude specially to the information upon which the Report of a Committee of the House of Commons was framed in 1828, and to the materials of which the late Earl of Durham made up his far-famed Report to Her Majesty, ten years after that period. PROGRESS OF THE CHURCH. Yet, on the other hand, when we look at the ad- vances which, through all these difliculties, and despite all these discouragements, the Church has been permitted to make, we have cause to lift up our hands in thankfulness, and our hearts in hope. The Church in Canada has two Bishops and more than one hundred and sixty clergymen ; and in this diocese alone, which, in point of Church population, is of secondary magnitude, I have just shown that there VISITATION JOURNAL — 1843. < O will be not less than sixty-seven confirmations on the Visitation now in part accomplished. Now, there are persons living, — and yet far from any indications of decrepitude, — three of them are among my own acquaintance, who were confirmed at (Quebec, by the first Bishop of Nova Scotia, the first, and then the only Colonial Bishop o; the Established Church, in the whole empire, towards the c!osj of the last century, at which time there were, I believe, half-a- dozen Church -clergy in all Canada. When I con- template the case of our Missionaries, and think of the effects of their labours, I look upon them as marked examples of men whose reward is not in this world. Men leading lives of toil, and more or less of hardship and privation — often, with their fami- lies, in unpainted rooms, and with uncarpeted floors, — the very consideration which attaches to them as clergymen of the English Church Establisliment exposing them to worldly mortification, from their inability to maintain appearances consistent with any such pretension, — they are yet, under the hand of God, the dispensers of present, and the founders of future blessing in the land. There are many points of view in which they may be so regarded : for wherever a Church clergyman is established, there is, to a certain extent, a focus for improvement founa : but nothing is more striking than the barrier which the Church, without any adventitious sources of influence, opposes to the impetuous flood of fana- ticism, rushing, at intervals, through the newer parts of the country, and those especially which lie 76 BISHOP OF MONTREAL S ii|;,, fi I: .'...s ' ., il ■-tu along the frontier. Nothing else can stand against it. The irregular sects are frequently seen either to yield, through policy, and mix themselves with a stream which tliey cannot turn, or to be forcibly carried along where it leads them, and finally, to lose the stand which they had held. MILLERISM. This has been remarkably the case with the preaching of Millerism, which I have had occasion to mention, and than which anything more frantic or more mischievous can scarcely be conceived. In the meetings of the Millerites, persons acted upon by the vehement proclamation of close approaching judgment, enforced by the expedients usual in such cases for goading the human mind, fall into what are technically called, the struggles^ and roll on the floor of the meeting-house, striking out their limbs witli an excessive violence ; all which is understood to be an act of devotion in behalf of some unconverted individual, who is immediately sent for, if not pre- sent, that he may witness the process designed for his benefit. Females are thus prompted to exhibit themselves, and I was credibly assured, that at Hatley two young girls were thus in the struggles, the objects of their intercession being two of the troopers quartered in the village. Revolting as such scenes may appear, yet when mixed up with the awful realities of future judgment, they take a pro- VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. 77 ;ainst lerto ith a 'cibly olose h tlie sasion ran tic I. In upon Lching 5uch at are 3 floor with to be verted t pre- :;d for xhibit lat at iggles, )f the s such h the a pro- digious effect, in the wilder and more sequestered parts of a country, upon a large portion of the popu- lar mind ; and while, in some instances, they are coupled with blasphemy and crime, in many more with gross inconsistency on the part of persons who cling in heart to their worldly interests, in others still with the danger of consequent unbelief upon the fiiilure of the Miller prophecies within the time, (for some men have been known to say that they will burn their Bibles if these prophecies should fail,) thert are other cases in which men, thoroughly persuaded of the immediate dissolution of all things, have forborne from making those provisions and preparations for another season, upon which, when it (;omes, their families musi depend. These are delu- sions to which the words of the Apostle, '• they shall proceed no farther, for their folly shall be manifest to all men," will eminently apply ; but, in the mean time, they test the strength and soundness of the Church. She preserves her steady course, and rides, like the ark, upon the agitated flood. Her l)i'()ple are stedfast, and cleave with the closer at- tachment to their own system, from witnessing the unhappy extravagance which prevails around them. Others also, of a sober judgment, are wont to regard her Avith an eye of fjivour and respect. Without the check which she creates, the country round would, in a manner, all run mad. I do not wish to speak with severity of honest, although erroneous enthu- siasts, and there can be no reason in the world for denying that there may be instances in which K.M s BISHOP OF MONTREAL S (although I am not myself aware of any such indi- vidual cases) unthinking sinners have been brought, by the alarm of Millerism, to a care for their souls. But the picture, upon the whole, if we would " nothing extenuate, nor aught set down in malice," is, I believe, correctly given in the foregoing re- marks. iin I !■ ! LOYALTY OF THE CHURCH. Loyalty is another conspicuous fruit of Church principles in a colony. Loyalty, which in Canada has been proved and tried in many ways. And long may it so continue ! — I have felt it my duty, in the cause of God and truth, to lament, in undis- guised language, the policy of our Government as it respects the Colonial Church. But the Bishops and Clergy of that Church will never fail to inculcate a deep and dutiful attachment to the monarchy of Eng- land, and a conscientious reverence of deportment towards the powers that be. These feelings and principles are vitally interwoven with the system of the Church. This, in fact, when built upon the right founda- tion, is a feature of that Christian fabric, a portion of those *• fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the praise and glory of God," which it is the office of the Church to form, and which, with mixture, of course, of human imperfections, she is doing her part to form in this diocese. I have great hopes, for example, of the persons, as a body, who. VISITATION JOURNAL 1843. J) iiidi- fUght, souls, tvould ilice," ig re- Ihurch 'anada And duty, undis- it as it >ps and ilcate a ■ P^ng- rtment Igs and tern ot* bunda- tion of Jesus ;h it is witb } y she is Treat who, e great under the training of her clergy, have come forward to receive confirmation, or to he baptized as adults. I trust that they will not be found, in general, to have made a mere formal profession, or complied mechanically with a received custom. 1 always addressed them as persons engaging themselves, before God and man, to high and holy things, and as recipients of sacred and solemn ordinances ; and far from encountering a repugnance on their own part, to such a view of the case, I believe that it was usually what they expected and approved themselves. Such, then, is the work of the good Society among us. Much, indeed, it has done : much more we still need, and are likely to need, till we are put, beyond all present prospect, upon some less precarious foot- ing in the land than that which w^e now occupy. God prosper its labours, and enlarge its resources! — this is the prayer of its grateful fellow-worker in the field, G. J. Montreal. -< Ecclesiastical Returns — Part of the Diocese of Quelec. 1843. m m i U ^1 % •I? ^ Nil Name of Station. Quebec Nicolet Riviere du Loup Kildare Rawdun Kilkenny Mascoiiche New Glasgow Montreal La Chine Coteau du Lac Huntingdon and Gore . Ormstown St. Remi Russell Town Flats .... Henimin^l'ord Sherrington La Prairie L'Acadie Chamhly St. John, Christieville . LaColle Christie and Caldwell Manor Philipsburgh Bedford and\^ Stanbridge ..) St. Arniand East naptizrd. 1842. 12 Dunham Brome Froste Village Granby Abbotsford West Shefford, Waterloo Village, Stukely Hatley, Charleston Par. Compton Lennoxvilleand\ Sherbrooke ) Eaton Burg Melbourne Shipton, 'I'ingwick, &c. Kingsey Upper Durham Lower Durham Drummondville Three Rivers Port Neuf Bourg Louis St. Catharine's Point Levi 40 :| 58 44 27 C7 28 27 i 41 ) iU2 adults I 13 8 24 36 29 30 21 26 43 29 Conumini- cants. 30 "^ 44 30 • 75^- 30* 30* 30* 10 40 ri5 \58 77 70* 101 05 70 10 80 \ 22 22 10 44 120 11 24 (40)^ \40) 40 2-S 32 32 IS 34 (30) 1301 IG 10 10 30 or 40 Conflrracd. 1843. 217 12 14 19 24 15 28 291 23 5 41 51 13 28 8 57 108 7 18 87 35 19 27 44 93 30 32 60 13 41 37 19 23 29 23 21 9 18 22 * Greatest number at one time. Page. 5 8 9 9 U 11 13 14 14 15 19 20 21 23 24 26 27 27 28 30 31 33 34 36 37 38 39 40 41 45 I 47 43 49 54 50 51 56 57 59 61 61 62 64 65 67 71 4- )ec. 4 5 5 8 9 9 11 U 13 14 14 15 19 20 21 23 24 26 27 27 28 30 31 33 34 3G 37 38 39 40 41 45 I 47 43 49 54 50 51 56 57 59 61 Gl 62 64 65 67 71