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Un des symboles suivants apparaTtra sur la derniire Image de cheque microfiche, seion le cas: le symbols —^ signifie "A SUiVRE", le symbols ▼ signifie "FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely Included In one exposure are filmed begir^ning In the upper left hand corner, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate the method: Les csrtes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre filmte A des taux de reduction diff^rents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul cllchA, 11 est fiimA A partir de i'angle supArieur gauche, de gauche A droite. et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'Images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 J. 2 3 4 5 6 *-w r^- k* liETTER Fno3« THE HON. AND VENERABLE DR. STRACHAN, ARCHDEACON OF YORK, U. C. 1* TO BR. LEE, B. D. CONVENER OP A COMMITTEI n CT THE GlSNERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH OP SCOTLAND. PRINTED AT THE HERALD OFFICE, Kingston, u. c. 1829. •A \. euj, ,.i . T- ' t Ii£TT£H, &c. TO THS REV. JOHN LEE, D. D., CONVENER OF A COMMITTXE OP THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. York, Upper Canada, 28th October, 1S29. Rev. Sir, Although I saw much in your evidence before the Commit- tee of the House ofCommons both ot a general and personal nature to condemn, it was nevertheless my wish to remain silent. — The agita- tion of the question of the Clergy Reserves has produced in this Coun- try so much bitterness already that I was exceedingly unwilling to write any thing more on the sul^ect, but the publication of your testi- mony in the newspapers of the Colony leaves me no discretion. — It is my own opinion as well as that of my friends that it is my duty to reply, not to Dr. Lee as an individual, but to the Convener of a Committee ap- pointed by so distinguished and venerable a body as the General Assem- bly of the Church cf Scotland. Before looking at your evidence 1 was disposed to consider you in the character of an Agent speaking from a brief which had been put into your hands, and therefore not responsible for the truth of the facts which it contained; but 1 find you stepping out of your way to disprove my statements and returning a second time of your own accord for no other Purpose, as it would seem, than to treat me with a discourtesy which could not have anticipated from a Gentleman of your character and a- bility. As this letter may be read by many who are ignorant of the subject in dispute, it is proper to premise that in 1791, when the Province of Que- bec was divided into Upper and Lower Canada, His late Majesty was pleased to recommend an appropriation of land lor the maintenance of a Protestant Clergy.— Till 1822 these lands w« re supposed to be intend- ed exclusively for the maintenance of the Clergy of the Established Church, but in that year a claim to share in tiieir proceeds was prefer- red by the Clergy of the Church of Scotland. This claim excited a con- troversy which was commenced by one of the Scotch Clergy residing in this Province. — It has continued ever since and been productive oif much evil. My wish has ever been to see a reasonable support given to the Cler- gy in Communion with the Church of Scotland in the Province of Upper Canada, because they belong to a Church which is established in one portion of the Empire, and both before and since the agitation of this question 1 have frequently advised them to make respectful representa- , .-..L-—- ,-.V_~.Su't- lions to His Majesty's Government for assistance, leaving it to the Min- isters to discover the source I'rom which such aid might 1)e taken — lu regard even to the Clergy Reserves I siig/?estcd to several oC the Scotch Clergy that they should confine thenjselves to the makingof representa- tions at home, and that there we wou!d meet them. — For though I was of opinion that they had no legal claim, and was determined as a Mem- ber of the Church of England to oppose them by every honourable means in my power, 1 thought the matter might be conducted in the spir- it of an amicable suit, and I deprecated the agitation of the question in the Colony where it could never be determined, but wlicre it was sure to call up much wrath. — This course was not followed, and to the Scotch Clergy must undoubtedly be attributed all the evils which the discus- sion has produced. In the mean time these lands, about which so much clamour has been raised, yielded little or no revenue. — His Majesty's (Government was therefore advised to sell a portion of them in order to furnish means for the support of such a number of Protestant Clergy as the Provinces of Canada might require. — To efllect this object a bill was brought into Parliament in the Session of 1827, by the Under Secretary of State, Mr. Horton, which after much interruption and some modifications passed into a law, authorizing the sale of one fourth of the Clergy Reserves — the proceeds to be placed in the Public Ftmds, and the interest only to be expended by the Government agreeable to the provison of the 31st of George 3d Chap. 31. On the 14th May the clauses of the Bill came into discussion, & some opposition was made by Mr.Hume S^' two or three other Scotch Members, and assertions hazarded respecting the state of the Churches in Canada which the Under Secretary was not prepared to answer. — Having urg- ed the propriety of the measure, I was called upon for information and I furnished it with a sincere conviction of its accuracy, in the form of a letter addressed to Mr. Horton. — It ought to be borne in mind that the facts were given from memory — that they were called for suddenly in reply to attacks made on the Church of England for which I could not have been prepared. — Being thus given for a public purpose, they were given in that public manner that there could be no danger of any error escaping detection. — For my opinions I am responsible to no one — I had no desire to conceal them, and they were therefore publicly and openly expressed. — No consideration could have prevailed upon me to deny or misstate them; but in applying them, every candid mind will feel that the general expressions used admit the existence of exceptions. This letter (see note a.) appears to have given you much ollence, be- cause it refuted the statements which you had received from Canada, and which you had communicated with so much confidence to your friends in Parliament, if their assertions are to be credited. And instead of making you more cautious in sifting the information sent you from the Colonies, it seems only to have excited in your mind a desire to attack my character.— The appointment of the Committee on the civil Govern- ment of Canada presented a good opportunity tor gratifying this desire, and you have embraced it witl\ a i^eal worthy of a more honourable cause. , r"f Before proceeding to your evidence it is proper to remind you of the respective claims which the national Churches have on the sympathy find gratitude of the inhabitants of Upper Caqada he Mill ion — 111 L' Scotch resenta- jh I was a Morn- lourablc thespir- siion ill was sure e Scotch discus- lias been cut was leans for 'inccs of ghl into tate, IVIr. s passed serves — ; only to the 31st , & some ^lemhers, 1 Canada iing urg- Lion and irm of a that the Jenly in Duld not ley were my erroT le — I had d openly •deny or feel that ience, be- lada, and r friends istead of from the o attack Govcrn- is desire, nourable ■• t fit T'" u of the y^mpathy The Church of Knp;lan(l lias from the first scKioiiKMit of tlie l^ovinco supported Missionancs for the reli<;ions juslrurlion of the pcioplc. The number of these Missionaries has been increased, as the Society for the propap;atiou of the Gospel in Forcij^n I'arls was enabled by ils funds arising from subscriptions, donations and bequests, to support them. Inadequate, I admit, were these exertions fully to supply the nijiidly increasino; wants of the Colon\ ; but the venerable Society lalxaired to tlie utmost of its power, and even spent part of its capital in multiplyini; its Clergy in the Uritish North American Provinces. In consequence of these meritorious efforts, many of the grown up in- habitants of the Province have been baptized and married, and a great proportion of the old buried, by (/lergymen of the Church of England. \Vhat during all this time has theCh\irch of Scot'andd(mel Nothing in comparison. --It is a fact,whicli cannot be contradicted, that there was only one regularly ordained Scotch Clergyman in this Province ti!11818, a period of twenty-seven years. It is equally true that the only change at the beginning of 1827 was the division of this gentleman's congrega- tion into four parts, besides one new congregation at Kingston — I freely admit that some division was necessary, as the congregation had greatly increased and was spread over a large tract of country — that, while the Province was poor and almost a dreary wilderness, no inquiry was made by the Kirk of Scotland respecting the spiritual wants of her people in ifpper Canada, now said to bo so many, — The Kirk of Scotland made no movement in favour of the settlers belonging to her communion for more than thirty years— nor till the wilderness was changed into fruitful fields and the principal dilliculties and hardships of new settlements ik) longer existed— and, now tliata movement has been made, it is not for the purpose of contributing, as the Church of England does, for the FU))port of her Clergy, but it is for the purpose of urging a claim to a provision which the venerable Society must fairly have looked forward to in aid of her exertions. You indeed say, (page 288) *' I trust it will not be irregular to take "this occasion to represent to the committee that it is very easy to ac- " count for the increasing number of clergymen of the It^piscopal persua- " sion, as the encouragement they have received is much greater." Is your eye evil, because we are goodi — What prevented you from giving similar encouragement to the Members of vour church in Cana- dal The Venerable Society for the propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, established and supported by members of the church of England, has for several generations extended its charity to the destitute emi- j^rants. It was the first Protestant Missionary Society in the world, and nourished more than a century before any other rose up, and is stili the greatest that; exists. — It supports Missionaries of the Established church in the Canadas — Nova Scotia— New Brunswick — Prince Edward's Is- land — Newfoundland and the Bermudas. — And although an annual do- nation in aid of its funds has been given by Parliament since 1814 — yet the greater part of its expence is defrayed from the subscriptions, dona- tions and bequests of individuals. — This institution has secured to the Colonies the privileges of public worship, the administration of the Sacra- ments and religious instruction — And but for its benevolent exertions thousands. I may say millions, would have lived without God in the world — without the knowledge of Christ or spiritual food for their souls. <( I moan not to depreciate the exertions of the Methodists. — They took the fiehl much later, but in many of the Colonies they have laboure4 zeaK)Uiily and with pjrpat efTeci in tlie causeof Christianity.— lam plac- ing in contrast the claims of the church of England and Scotland for the consideration of the people of the Colonies, and to these two church- es I wish to confine myself. While our churcli has, through her Society, done so much for her sons and daughters who have removed to the various Colonies of the Empire, your brother Clergyman Dr. Andrew Thompson shall tell you wiiat your church has done. " Episcopalians extend the wings of their protection and fostering care "over their churches planted in distant lands; Dissenters of e- "v naine "shew a consistent zeal to increase the number and prosperity oi" ♦heir "churches, but whoever heard of one maternal act exercised by the ♦'church of Scotland over her tender brood if per chance they have " strayed beyond the Tweed— She is indeed an unnatural nriother &c." Having premised these truths I now proceed to your evidence, and first to those parts which appear to aflfect my statements. In page 288 you say " the tiling that I was most anxious to state is this, I fin I it represent<'dinaspeech published, I believe, by Dr. Strach- an, that his letter to Mr. ilorton was written hastily in consequence "of liaving learned that some Members of the House of Commons had " received letters from me stating that there were thirty organized con- " gregations in Upper Canada in Communion with the Church ofScot- " land," and then you proceed to state, that you wrote no letters to your friends in Parliament till after my letter to Mr. Horton had been pub- lished, a. id on this you seem to lay great stress. I might content ray- self with remarking, that with this assertion I have no sort of concern,— whether correct or not, is to me a matter of perfect indilference. For at best it forms not a real but only an apparent, contradiction of my state- ment. — 1 mentioned in my speech the substance of what was said to have taken place in the House of Commons on the evening of the 14th of May, as recorded in my journal of the 1.5th. Whether what was said there or what was stated to nie was literally correct or not, is beyond my knowledge, but nevertheless I will examine your representation. — And first let us see what I actually did say in my speech to which you refer. " A new bill (page 14) was introduced on the 14th of May, and after " some debate it was ordered to be printed. — On this evening one or •' two members from Scotland said that they were informed by Dr. Lee^ ♦' one of the clerks of the General Assembly that there were thirty or- '* ganized congregations in Upper Canada m communion with the'Kirk "of Scotland." You must perceive that there is a material difference between your quotation from my speech and what I really did say, if you will take the trouble to look at the copy in your possession — I do not state how the members got their information from you, whether verbally, by message, or by letters, for I knew nothing of the matter, nor did I at that time know the names of the Scotch members alluded to— but I was told that your name had been quoted as authority for mentioning the thirty con- gregations, and although you deny having written letters, you do not say that you had no communication with ihese members of Parliament. You proceed to say that you wrote no letters till about a month after the publication of my letter to Mr. Horton, leaving it to be inferred (though you have riot gone so for) that you had no sort of inte rcourse i on the subject of the Clcrj^y ReserveM Witli y cuir Advocates in the 1 louNt* of Commons till the reading of my letter had raised your indignation. — But lot us look a little farther how the matter stands U8 tu time My letter to Mr. Horton is dated the lOth of May— on the 22d it was ordered to he printed by the House of Commons, and on the '28th and not sooner was I able to procure one of the printed copies. — On the 2Gth oi May you presented your report to the General Assembly on the Canada petition which contained the matter af(er wards embodied in yourmemo- rial to His Majesty's Government. — In that document yon admit that your communications with your Canadian correspondents had been fre- quent before this periotl. — How indeed could it be otherwise, as the com- mittee of which you are Convener had been sitting for some years al- though you were not at firsit a member, and all its papers were before you. — Now if you had no communication on the subject of tho i \crfry Reserves with any of the Scotch members in the House of Commons till a month after you had seen my letter, which could not have been before the 28th of May, [for surely you could not in Edinburgh procure a copy sooner than I could in London,] you bring yourself to the 28th of June. Yet your letters were quoted, and parts of them as well as your memo- rial read in my hearing by Lord Binning on the 16th of June, when the bill came again under discussion, or twelve davs before you wrote that liobleman according to your own shewing. — llere is a difficulty which 1 leave you to clear up. Again, if before the 14th of May you had not, as convener of the Com- mittee on the Canada Petition, put yourself in communication with your friends in Parliament, how was such conduct consistent with the duty which you had publicly undertaken? The question of the Clergy Reserves came before the House of Com- mons on the 20th February, again on the 2nd March — on the 22d March —on the 4th May and on the 14th of May. — The measure had been al- most three months in progress before my letter was written. — Is it cred- ible that during all this time the Convener of the committee to which was entrusted the interests of the Church of Scotland in Canada did not directly or indirectly communicate with a single member of the House of Commons on a subject which they deemed so important! It is quite indifferent to me which alternative you choose. — In either case the words you complain of are equally correct, and their correctness depends, not upon what you assert, but upon what passed in the House of Com- mons on the 14th of May. You complain of my letter and chart as being full of misrepresenta- tions, and you say in page 288 that it is very material to establish that my statements have been hastily and inadvertently drawn up. — When you said this you had in your possession the chart appended to my speech upon which you comment, one particle of which chart has never been contradicted — not even by the committee of the House of Assem- bly of this' Province to which it was deUvered in evidence, and it de- monstrates that the one accompanying my letter to Mr. Horton was un- just to the Church of England. — The chart of 1827, against which you cavil, states that there were in Upper Canada thirty Clergymen and thirty live Churches belono^ing to the church of England and that these Clergymen performed service and preached at fifty-eight places. — In 1828, only one year after, it appears by the second chart, against which a ▼dice has never been raised, that there w^re thirty-nine Clergymen, forty-three cluirches and one hundred and two places at which those I (M<'r;xy'>"''> <^''' (liitv.so th;it, \i\ the Mhoit spacoof one year, our church iniml»«'n'«l niur ;ul(h'littii;il Clcr<;\ iiu'ii, eip;ht new churches and forty- thiir iu!vv stations at which ihviimMMvice was peribrtiicd. — Had you heeu desirous (il'c<)unniiui( iitiu<;' liic truth to l\u' couirnitlce, you would iiuvo iir.i(h) use ot'lhe s( -om the vacancies in your church had been fill- ed up in Canada, and that two new appointments had been made. In regard to the ('hurch of England I wis still more unfortunate, in which many favourable alierati<»ns had taken pl.^ce during my absence, but which, being unknown to me, I could not mention — The difference in f.ivour of the Church of Kngland is greater now than it was when I was in London, and so it was in 1828, a? you knew from my speech and chart of that year. — To those documents, which were published in Canada, you had not the candour to refer, but continued to havp upon my letter to Mr. llcrton and chart of 1827, by which you led the committee into »he be- lief that because six Clergymen belonged to your Church in 1828, the same number was in the Colony in the bp'^ir and it will be I'ound that neither singly nor taken together have they any material hearing upon the question, au'l that they were corrected in the new Chart published soon after my return to the Colony. In February 1828 the state of the two Churches was as follows: Clergymen of the Church of England -------39 Clergymcu of the Church of Scotland - -6 .'' "' " Diflerencc ------- 33 Here I give you no credit for the other Presbyterian Ministers, who neither claimed nor were ackiiowledged to have any communion with vou, iitil it was thought desirable to magnify your numbers in advanc- ing a claim to the legal endowment of the Church of England, but I shall not hesitate a moment to reckon them as yours, when you receive them into the bosom of your Church — .Having thus disposed of your complaint and the amount of what you are pleased to call ; y misrepre- prcsentattons, 1 am prepared to exauiiue how yuur evid' . v c stands in 39 - 6 point of correctness— and here my attention id first lirnctcd to the me- morial of the Coil mittee appoiiitod by tlio General Assembly and sijrned by you as Chairman or Convener, because it is to be presiuiu'd tliat it VfM drawn up at leisure and with special care as to the truth of its alle- J;ations. " Your Memorialists (page 207} have reason to believe that 'the Con j?recat ions '*u Upper Canada in communion with the Church •'of Scotland nave been represented asbeinefew in number, whencom- " pared with the Con^'regations which avail themselves of tlie Minis' «« trations of the Church of England. It cannot be denied that there are •' in Upper Canada at least thirty Presbyterian Congregations professing " to adhere to the Doctrines and Worship of the Church of Scotland. — « <( Though the Presbyterian Ministers in the Province do noi exceed " twenty in number, and though only five of this nund^er have been or-- «* dained by Presbyterians of the Church of Scotland it is ascertained '* that a great majority ot the people are zealously attached by princi- .** pie and education to the Established Church." if this paragraph be inteijel(mged to your Church, when as yet five or six on- ly of the thirty are in your Communion. If this mode of grouping to- gether all Abo generally adhere to the same religious principles is ad- mitted, then may we claim all, the Methodists, who are, as Mr. Alder says, a brai en of the Church of England, both ;jyt home and abroad. — On the same ground we may claim the Lutherans, with whom the Church of England has ever been in li('y, it has been exceedingly successful — they have bolstered up your cause — enabled you to deceive Government as to your numbers, ai>d to produce more favorable attention to your demands. If you suc- ceed, you may justly attribute it to their co-operation— and if the promis- 11 i lort of the es made to them are redeemed, they will have no reason to repent of their seasonable junction with your friends. But of their adinis'^ion in- to your Church I entertain strong doubts — 1 have examined y : ur evidence with great care to see if it in any way sanctioned the promises that had been made to the Presbyterian Clergy not in your Communion, but m- 8<;cad of this I find you continually separating them from their congrega- tions. Nor can I discover the smallest inclination on your part to rea- lize their hopes. On the contrary you appear to take every possible advantage of a state of things, which the management of the Montreal Committee has created. You assert in various places that the majority of the people attending the ministrations of these Gentlemen are anxious to have regtilar Cler- gy of your Church in their stead, and quote the congregation of Perth as an example. You say that no Presbyterian Clergy can claim under 31st Geo. 3 Chap. .SI, but those of the Church of Scotland. That even the Presbyterian Clergy of the North of Ireland, many of whom it is well known are educated aJ the Scotch Universities, a»e not in Communion with the Church of Scotland. You state in your Memorial "within the last six years (as appears " from the report of the Society for the propagation of the Gospel in f'o- " reign Parts, for the year 1821) the number of communicants at seven- "teen stations in Upper Canada, served by seventeen Missionaries, whose "salaries amounted to J£3,345, did not exceed 113. As a contrast with "this admitted fact, it may be staled that in the year 1823, the Presby- " terian congrf g'>tion at Perth which began to be formed only five years "ago (and which though not served at present by a Minister of the « Church of Scotland, must by express stipulation, be so served in time "to corne) contained not fewer than 270 communicants. On turning to the report of the Society for the propagation of the Gos- pel in Foreign Parts for 1821, from which you say that you have taken this admitted fact, I find that the Communicants which you assert a- mount only to 118, amount to 667, or more than three times the number. I likewise find that oiJy ten of the seventeen Missionaries have given a return of the number of their Communicants. Had returns been made by the other seven in the same ratio, 256 must be added, making 623 in- stead of 118, that is almost six times as many as you confidently state to be the true number, — Such is the correctness of a grave document pres- ented to His Majesty's Government, signed by the convener of a com- mittee appointed by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland! I was willing to believe that so great a departure fiom truth im a pas- age, professedly quoted from a printed abstract before you, mus*^ havea- risen from inadvertency, but I find that in ivdding up the sularies only a trifling error of i£30 is made, giving £3,S45 instead of £3,315, while in the column of Communicants not one third is enumerated. I have not yet done with this passage of your Memorial. You place in contrast with this manufactured quotation, the Communicants belong- to the Presbyterian congregation at Perth. This cannot be allowed 1st. because that congregation is not in communion with the Church f Scotland. — 2nd. because the Rev. Mr. Bell, by whose labours thi« J'^'ge Congregation hisbeen collected, hone>»tly admits that perhaps one third of this number belongs to tht* two Churches which have been form- led in the neighbourhood, so that instead of 270 the number should have eenlSO. But I repeat that you have no right to count belonging to you the various Presbyteriaior, or rather perhaps indepenu.at, congrega- 12 i tions scattered up and down the Pruvince, much less to hold up their Ministers aa the pioneers of your Clergy. On the subject of Communicants, it is proper to remark that they form no correct criterion for ascertaining the numbers of diflferent denomina- tions. — Among Episcopalians seldom more than one in twelve are cal- culated upon as regular Communicants. In the Church of Scotland, the proportion is said to be greater. In th« Township of Drummond, in which the Town of Perth is situated, there are 836 Episcopalians and on- ly 489 Presbyterians, and yet it is probable that Mr. Bell, the Presbyteri- an Clergyman has as many Communicants as Mr. Harris the Missionary. It is farther to be observed, that in the report of the Society for the pro- pagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, the average number of commu- nicants only !s given who attend at any one time, and this is seldom half the nuQiDer belonging to the congregations. For instance, between two and three hundred belong to the congregation at York, but the av~ erage of six dispensations, the number of times this holy rite is celebrat- ed during the year, will not much exceed one huiidred. — Moreover in the Scotch Churches the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is only celebrat- ed once a year, and consequently all who are able attend, as they have not like our people frequent opportunities. You say (Page 288) " we have also now this informatioa with regard *' to two of the Districts which Dr. Sfrachan takes notice of as contain- " ing no Presbyterian congregations, Niagara and Gore, there are eight "Presbyterian congregations in each, sixteen in all. Although Dr. "Sirachan does not admit one." It is in evidence before a Committee of the House of Assembly, com- posed of persons by no means friendly to the Church of England, that there were in these two Districts in 1828, when you were giving tliis ev- idence, four Clergymen not in Communion, and one in Communion with the Church of Scotland, who have one and some two congregations each, the remaining coigregati< ns are only to be found m your statement. You state, (page 289,) " That according to the information the Gene- "ral Assembly have received a number of persons that have gone out " as school masters, some of them being licensed prenchers of the Church " of Scotland, have been prevailed upon to become Episcopalians, and to " receive orders." There is not a single Clergyman belonging to the Established Church in the Province that ever was, to my knowledge, a licentiate ii. the Church of Scotland, though there are some who have been licenced by other Presbyterian bodiet). " Dr. Strachan," you C''ntinue,(page 289,)" was a Schoolmaster, and "educated for the Church of Scotland, and the rircumstance of his hav- " ing gone over to the ( hurch of England, so far as I can learn, has not *' at all tended to increase the nuotber of proselytes among the Laity." Were all this true, 1 need not, as I have elsewhere said, be ashamed of doing what Archbishops Tillotsonarsd Seeker ai.d Bishop Butler have done, and still le«sam I ashamed of the principles of my fuher, who de- scended from a family that has given two Bishops to the Scotch Episco- pal Church. So far as this passage implies reproach, and a desire to in- jure my character, it only gives another example of the peinicious ten- dency of religious controversy which can descend to such littleness. — You need not be afraid that I will injure th^; Church that I have delibe- rately chosen, for it stands in evidence that u>' congregation is large— (( 13 that it increases rapidly, and in 1828, comprehended very nearly halt the population of York and its immediate vicinity. Once more. — In speaking of Mr. Sheed, (page 29,) you gay, "A Cha- " pel was built for him, and it is one of the Churches which Dr. Strachan, "as I am assured, mentioned as one of the Establi.^hed Churches.." Oi» this point 1 am nappy to inform you that this Church belongs ex- clusively to us, and has been regularly conveyed to the Bishop ot Que- bec. It never was built for Mr. Sheed. It was first a free Church, and like all such became a subject of contention; at leugth the Episcopalians bought in the smnll portion which they had not subscribed. I had proceeded thus far when a friend handed me a copy of your re- port to the General Assembly in 1828. Compared to this your evidence given a few days after it was presented before the Committee of the House of Commons, may be deemed extremely modest. The statements presented to your Church in this document, and which that Church has adopted from their confidence in your veractiy, will appear incredible t9 the Inhabitants of Upper Canada; you say, " it is established beyond all " question by these returns, that of the whole body of the inhabitants of " this Province, supposed to average three hundred thousand at 'he least, " and augmenting with greet rapidity every year by new importations, *' one half at the lowest esitiraate, are decidedly attached to the doctrines "and discipline of the Church of Scotland.'* To this it is quite sufficient to answer, that the population of Upper Canada, by the returns made to the Legislature, as appears from the Journals of the House of Assembly, has not yet reached two hundred thousand, (note c .) 1 fee.r how disagreeable it is to pursue this disgusting examination any farther, but as you have voluntarily become the vehicle of the most unjust statements against the Church of England, and have proceeded systematically to depreciate her exertions, it is necessary to take some notice of the Getitlemen who were associated with you in the Agency, Restricting myself, as T have carefully done, to this Province, and leav- ing the misstatements which have been made by you and them respecting Lower Canada, to be noticed by the friends of the Church in that quar- ter, I shall quickly prove that their evidence is no more to be trusted to than yours. Of the Rev. Mr. Leith's testimony, it may be sufficient to remark that he holds up tlie Eastern District, which contains four Presbyterian con- gregations, and as he says, two, but in fact, four congregations of Epis- copalians, as a fiir specimen for the whole Province, although he knew that in all the other ten Districts, several of them more populous than the Eastern, there W";e only two Clergymen belonging to the Church of Scotland, while theie were thirty-five belonging to the Church cf Eng- land, having several congregations each. The same Reverend Gentleman asserts that the Presbyterians are to the EpisC')palians a«? ten to one — and speaking of the Episcopalian con- gregation of Cornwal', when* he resided four years, he avers that the hej»rers v.'ere only bt^tween thirty and forty in number, while he admits the < urn: uiiicr.nt's to aver-J.ge forty— thus giving a greater average of comn'iiucdMs than hearers — so much for the correctness and value cf his testinctv': -he remainder is a violertt repetition of parts of yours and Mr. Grii.t's evidence, and equally entitled to credit— With his violence I have nothing to do. Mr. Grant, a Barrister, not particularly prominent in his profession, I !, [« '4 I 1^ residing at Montreal, was employed by tlie Petitioners of the Church of Scotland ir the Canadas, to advance their claims to a share of the Cler- gy Reserves — In that character he was examined by the Committtee of the House of Commons — What he stated on the subject is therefore worth &3 much as the speech of an Advocate generally ,is who is paid for de- fending a bad cause. He says, (page 191) " The number of the Clergymen of the Church of ** England have multiplied in a greater ratio than their flocks." Almost every Clergyman of the Church of England entployed in Up- per Canada, has from three to eight stations at which occasionally he per- forms divine service — One has eleven stations. It is evident therefore^ that to every one now employed, two or three more Clergymen might be profitably added to labour within the limits of the same mission.-— Moreover, the applications from places to which we are unable to send even occasional assistance are twic« as numerous as the stations already occupied— yet, in the face of this, Mr. Grant states that our Clergy mul- tiply in a greater ratio than our flocks: such a departure from fact is al- most incredible. In page 192 he states that the Presbyterians in the Western District of Upper Canada amount to 2,250. In that District there was at the time of Mr. Grant's statement, neithei; Presbyterian Minister nor congregation. — Litely a small congregation has been organized at Amherstburgh, in connection with the Church of Scotland. — He assumes that out of 20,000, the population of the District, 16,000 are Presbyterians. — On reference to the Report of the House of Assembly for 1828, 1 do not find a single congregation in that District, in communion with the Church of Scotland, and of other Presbyterians, only three Clergymen and three Churches. — With respect to this Dis- trict, it appears from a document now before me, signed by two of the principal inhabitants, that in 1789 and 1790, one half of the whole popu- lation belonged to the Church of England, and that District being early settled, has had the character of its population less altered by recent emigration than any other in the Province. With the same recklessness, Mr. Grant supposes that out of 30,000, the population of the Midland District, ten thousand are Presbyterians. The Report of the House of Assembly gives three Presbyterian Clergymen with their congregations — one of which only belongs to the Church of Scotland. From the Eistern District, Mr. Grant selects from out of ten town- ships, and gives them as a specimen of the whole^ — and although warned by the committee that this selection may have been partially made; yet, fearless of detection , for we had no friend acquainted with the localities of the Province present, he persevered. Now it is notorious that the greater part of the Eastern District is inhabited by Emigrants from Scot- land, and that the county of Glengary is exclusively Scotch — one half Presbyterian and the other Roman Catholic — and that it would be as near the truth to say that the inhabitants of Ireland were chiefly Presby- terians, because there are many in the North, as to say that this is the prevailing denomiuation in Upper Canada, because it divides the coun- ty of Glengary with the Church of Rome. - i ■* • •■^ Id urch of |e Cler- Itttee of worth for de- lurch of District neither egation urch of District, louse of L)istrict, terians, liis Dig- D of the e popu- g early recent >00, the s. The gymea urch of I town- varned le; yet, [iaiities ^at the Q Scot- le half ] be as Vesby- is the I coun- He says nothing of the County of Stormont in the same District, which contains a great number of Episcopaiians and Luliitrans;.— sudi are the vague and inaccurate statements given by Mr. Grant, when speaking of Districts! When he descends to particular congregations, his assertions are equally at variance with truth. — He states the attendnnce at the Church of Chatham in the Western District, to be fmm twenty to thirty —the resident Missionary and Church Wardens certify to 300. The hearers at Niagara, Mr. Grant says, are 90. The Missionary saya two hundred; and the Public Assessor for 1828 returns 434 Episcopalians out of 1,242, the population of the town, or more than one third of the whole. The hearers at Bastard according to Mr. Grant, are from six to eight. — The Clergyman, with his Church Wardens, certifies to 200. The num- ber of Communicants at Perth, by Mr Grant's account, is twenty ; the Clergyman, Mr. Harris, declares the average number to be 163, and 250 within the bounds of his Mission. But it is painful to pursue this subject farther, or to dwell on the injus- tice done to the Church of England in the Canadas, in the evidence ta- ken last year before a Committee of the House of Commons. The object has evidently been to give an exaggerated conception of your numbers in the Colony, and this has been done deliberately, after time and opportunity for enquiry . First, by holding up the Eastern District as a fair specimen of the whole Province — when it is dei/ionstrablethat in none of the other Districts have you any proportionate stre»gth. Second — by mixing up personal abuse with the question, and dwelling on my letter and Chart of 1827, because it contained a few insignificant errors, though on the whole an understatement, instead of the corrected Chart of 1828, which being founded upon regular returns from the Clergy, you were unable to contradict. Thirdly, by bringing the Presbyterians not in your communion in the foreground, and assuming them as part of your body. With the final result of this controversy, the Clergy of the Church of England at present employed in the Province, are not personally inter- ested, for whatever the Reserves may hereafter yield, it is not intended that their inc.»mes shall be increased, but they are not he less strenuous in contending for the preservation of the rights of their Church and of the provision for the Clergy of future generations, nor will they fail to use their best endeavours to preserve the means which they consider the law has given them of extending more generally religious instruction through the Province, and providing a support for additional Clergymen. Nor can they doubt but that an opportunity will be afforded them to dis- prove the erroneous statements which you and your friends have brought forward, and to correct the mistaken impressions which you have made respecting the relative state of the two Churches, before any measure is adopted on the subject by the Imperial Government. In conclusion, I have only to add, that to you I have no apology to offer for this letter. Had you appeared before the committee as a private individual, or hud you been sati-sfied with your first evidence, erroneous as it is, I should have given myself no trouble about you. Bnt you have identified yourself with the incorrect statements furnished you from the Colony and made yourself a party in the personal slander and abuse, with which your correspondents here have endeavoured to overwhelm me. — Thus have ym compromised the station assigned you by the General Assembly and reflected discredit on that venerable body, by stating in its ^1 : ! ; 16 name, matters which with reasonable inquiry v^m mifjht bf>ve discovered to be without foundation, greatly exaggc' ilvij '>r >vhally utilrue. I have the honor to be, Rev. Sr, - ' Your '.'bui'.-n'?. Si-rvant, JOiiN 3TRACHAN. I I ^! I I...'.. :,.i. ■ jf ■ : rr,'- ■•«, » I '•■1, , •> ' .1', ■7 - - f* <* I' : -^ N0TP8. Aote A., — '^f their conduct towards mc take the following speci- mens from the labours of the Rev. H.' Esson, your principal corres|jond- ent. '^■' 1st. This Reverend Gentleman, availing himself of the mental in- firmity of an old and worthy friend of mine, contrived to procur : from him, in a moment of weakness, a confidential correspondence which had taken place between us more than twenty-five years ago, and gave it to a hired slanderer, who published the substance in the Mon- treal Herald, once a respectable Journal. Mr. Esson had afterwards the unparalleled temerity to defend this infamous transaction in a pe- riodical work* said to be religious, and of which he was the reputed Editor. This work was almost wholly employed in abusing me, and became at length so loathsome and disgusting, that it expired, as I have heard, with the third number. 2nd. Mr. Esson, or his friend of the Montreal Herald, wrote a letter dated Montreal 8th December 1827, which they caused to be inserted, as they say, in the Glasgow Chronicle of the 30th January 1828 — the purport of which is to traduce and slander my character — Never perhaps was there a greater number of calumnies and false- hoods against an individual, crammed into thesame number of pages. This delicate production Mr. Esson transferred to the very first num- ber of his religious miscellany, and so became responsible for its con- tents. 3rd. No falsehoods are more malignant than those which contain some sprinkling of truth — Of this Mr. Esson seems aware, and dis- plays some experience in their composition. Being in Edinburgh in August 1824, Lord Dalhousie invited me to spend some days at his Castle, distant from that city about ten miles. Previous to accepting this invitation, I had engaged to meet an old friend in Edinburgh on the following Sunday between one and two o'clock, and to visit Dr. Allison between the services, as it was the only day that he came to town, on account of his delicate health. At breakfast on Sunday morning, I mentioned these engagements, and asked His Lordship whether I could keep them and attend the morning Church, for I wished to hear the Clergyman of the Parish, who is a St. Andrew^s man, and with whose acquaintance I was much pleased. Lord Dalhousie expressed his regret at the shortness of my visit, but said that in ordv;r to keep my appointments I must set out at twelve o'clock or very soon after, when the service would not be half oyer. His Lordship added that he wished to have some conver- 18 i' satiou with me before my departure, and would therefore remain at home. ^ ^ m; . I kept my engagement with my friend, visited Dr. Allison, and preached for him that very afternoon. Now read Mr. Essou's account of these simple facts. " We voucli for the truth of the following anecdote, which has been repeated to us more than once, on the best authority. Dr. Strachan, on a late visit to Scotland, was invited on the Sunday to accompany the family of his host to the Parish Church — A young Clergyman of the Church of England, who happened to reside with the family aj tutor on this occasion, joined with them in pressing the Doctor to go to the Kirk, assuring him that he would hear an excellent discourse from the Minister. To this the Doctor is said to have replied with all the emphasis of a thorough Churchman — I never go to hear Sec- tarians or Dissenters." To say nothing of the ludeness of such a reply, it would not have been true, for 1 heard the late Sir Harry MoncriefFand Dr. Chalmers in Scotland, and Mr. Irvine in London, during my bhort visit to Great Britain in 1824. IV.- ,..,,•( Note B. — I mentioned Navy Point — New Market — Purdy's Mills, and Woolwich in my Chart as having Churches. Now it appears that one of the Government buildings is used as a Church >t Navy Point, at which the seamen and neighbouring inhab- itants attend public worship. At New Market the inhabitants are ready, and have long been, to build a Church the moment a Clergyman is assigned them, but tliisis a condition with which it has not yet been convenient to comply. At Purdy's Mills a difference arose about the site of the Church which for a time delayed it, but it has since been erected. In regard to Woolwich, General Pilkington, the proprietor of the Township, gave orders to his Agent many years ago to build a Church — He went so far as to send out plans and some emigrants, with- the assurance that a place of worship would be provided immediately for them, but the Church has not yet been built — Why, I have not been able to learn. Edwardsburgh is inserted instead of Matilda. , . ' " , *, V - „^', Whitby instead of Clarke. ..- -^ ^..ub^. ...;>/ .v Etobicoke, where a Church is now building, was inserted instead of Toronto, whith contains two Churches. Two or three preaching stations are mentioned, which have been changed for others more promising. These, with one or two more noticed in the text, are all the errors^ if they can be so called, which appeared in my Ecclesiastical Chart for 1827, and were corrected in the Chart which I published in 1828. They are not indeed all that my enemies enumerate, because they have discovered many, which have no existence except in their own imaginations. 19 As a specimen, they accuse me of giving a Church in my Chart to the village of Dundas. If 1 had done so it would have been quite excusable, for I had subscribed before I %veut to En^tuud for building one — an appropriation of laud had been made for a Parsonage House, Church and Burial ground, but not being sure that the building had proceeded, I gave uo Church in my Churt to Duiidas. Note C — From the information furnished to Dr. Lee by his Canadi- an corespondents, Iia states the population of CIppcr Canada to avciage at leatit three hundred thousand, andtliat one half', at tl'O h-asl e tiniate, or one hundred and fifty thousand are decided!y attached to the Church " of Scotland. Alas for the Doctor's assertions and the verai ity of his correspondents; for the population of Upper Canada by tLe last census is one hundred and eighty eight thousand five hundred and iifty-ei^ht. If from this we take the Doctor's one hundred and fifty thousand Fres- byterians, we shall have only thirtv -eight thousand five hundred and fifty-eight to divide among all other denominations. The Doctor proceeds to say, that from nine Districts and tw nty-four townships (a mode of expressiiai i do not pretend to understand) which is only a part of the whole Pro^'ince, there are specific retijrns lo the a- mount of thirty -six thousand persons, who are thus cordially attached to the Church of Scotland. After these brilliant statements, not one of which is true, tlio Doctor is forced to admit that there are only six (now 1 believe eight) pJiicos of worship connected with the Church of Scotland in the whole Pro- vince — but to cover the painful confession of so few Churches among one hundred and fifty thousand Presbyterians, he enlists thirteen or fourteen belonging to other Presbyterian denominations — and declares that in general the Presbyterians from Scotland, from Ireland or the United States, who are not actually in communion with the Church of Scotland, are nevertheless anxious to be connected with it. He says nothing of their Ministers, nor does theOeheral Assembly, m accepting the report, drop a single word in their favour.