^^I .%, .1^„ -'t^ \^ "^V.^a^ "o V ^> ■t IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 ^K* I 1.25 2.5 1^ 2.2 18 14 i 1.6 ^ o%f >W. w > > Y o 7 ■M Photographic Sdences Corporation ^ n of the neighboring Re- public. And, in this movement, they iire men born in the British Isles, or thence deriving their origin, who stand among the foremost to sound the trum|)et of separation and to take up towards the House of Brunswick, whom God has set over us, the tone of the revolting Israelites, (although softened, indeed, by the proposal of asking our Sovereign to let us quietly dis- solve our connection with her, as a little matter of mutual accommodation,) What portion have ive in David ? and we have none inheritance in the son of Jesse : every man to your tents, O Israel, and now, David, see to thine own house. And there are actually found among our own Church- men, those who re-echo such a crv. Ami, is it, indeed, come to this ? Have we, or such of the Members of our communion as are guilty in this point — I do trust but very few — it is not the number of adherents, altoge- ther, nor their formidable influence, which gives importance to the movement — it is the fiict that any such movement should be made at all, which calls for our animadversion- have we, then, in an unreflecting hour, forgotten, as Chris- tians, the charge which, with a multitude of similar injunc- tions, proceeds from God, My sotty fear thou the Lord and the Kingy and meddle not with them that are given to change ?* Or have we forgotten, as children of the National Church of England, that "inflexible loyalty" — (my own affirmation of it has been published to the world f) — which is one of the many glories of our Communion ? Are we going to repudiate the attachments which we drank, in our very infancy, from her bosom, the sentiments in which we were nursed upon her lap, the principles in which we have been moulded under her training ? Are we prepared, on account of some passing difficulty and dissatisfaction in the country, and in some petulant excitement of our spirits, to cut ourselves loose from all the hallowed ties, to break up the cherished associations, to brush aside the honored remembrances, which unite our hearts to the land of our fathers ? Are we content, upon some precarious calculation of our temporal interests, to part with our sworn allegiance at a stroke, to barter away all the habits of mind, the tastes, the predilections, the preju- * The subjoined Extract may be here appropriately given, from my own Circular to the Clergy, of the 12th of May last, issued after the riots at Montreal : — " I am addressing a party who cannot possibly be otherwise than familiarly aware of the truth of what 1 say ; and, although, in the charge committed to my hands in the Church of God, I have felt called upon to stand forward as I am here doing, I can but echo, my Reverend brother, your own sentiments, I can but anticipate your own purposes, when I inculcate the duty of setting before our people the principles established for the guidance of the tubject in such well-known texts as those to which a reference is here furnished : — Prov. xxiv., 21. 'fit. iii., 1. Matt, xxii., 21. 1 Pet. ii., 13., e( ieq. Acts xxiii., 5 2 Pet. ii., 10. Rom, xiii. , 1 , «/ ma. Jude 8. t In Journals, published in England, by the SociUyfor the Propagation of ike Gotpel, and in Extracts from them which appear in the Jlnnali of the Diocese of Quebec, published by the Rtv. E. Hawkins, Secretary of that Society. ^n <• 5 (lices, if you will — but they are prejudices wliich envelop a vast deal of what ought to be precious in our eyes and dear to our hearts, — which identify us with England and the British Empire ? Is it, indeed, come to this ? But, some man will sjiy— It is very well for the Clergy to talk thus — they are loyal to a man, for they would lose their salaries by " annexation" — some of them are left, who, up to this day, are stipendiaries of the Government : the great body of them are dependent, for the chief part of their main- tenance, upon a Society incorporated for religious purposes in England. There arc men who will say this? Of course, there are such men to be found. Men who cannot comprehend a loftier order of feelings, who are absolute strangers to Lio'clves of a more sacred character, and, who, at the same time, are not sorry for any opportunity of making disparaging insinuations against the Church of the British Empire, will be sure to resolve the loyalty of the Clergy into principles more familiarly and practically intelligible to themselves. They will see nothing in our loyalty but a sordid computation of our worldly interests, as liable to be affected by political change. Let, them, however, remain in that opinion, if it cannot, by a favourable change in their own inner man be dislodged from their bosoms— -but, for us, let us prove our own worky and then shall we have rejoicing in ourselves alone. Perhaps, after all, many of us might be less affected than is imagined, by the event here ii. contemplation, in our worl'Uy means — most, indeed, of our Clergy have little to lose — none, possibly, who would conscientiously refuse the trans- fer of their allegiance, would be left without some kind of provision : but, come what may, and suppose the very worst, those who truly know what the Anglican Church is and has been, and do not pin their judgment upon the pictures of some popular and fashionable historians of the day, will look again for the spirit of those noble examples of faith in God and loyalty to the Sovereign, which were seen, in the Great Rebellion, among the suffering Clergy and Prelacy of England. Even among ourselves, however, the propagation has newly insinuated itself, of certain ideas, which, although they are not likely to find any warm entertainment nor to spread to any considerable extent, are calculated, so far f.s they reach, 6 insensibly to aid in the effect of tletacliin<5 the affections ot our people from the Mother Country. With reference, for example, to the project which is now agitated for the division of the Diocese, and to the administration, more or less con- nected with this subject, of the Church-revenue arising from the portion left to us of the Clergy Reserves — particular views have been put forth in several different fi)rms and in different directions, which are calculated to infuse into toe minds of our clergy and their followers, a distrust of authority, a jealousy of prerogative, a suspicion of meditated encroach- ment upon their reasonable privileges, if not of actual inva- sion of their righful claims — and, I am aware of more than one instance in which there has been a disposition to set the supposed mismanagement of our affairs and prejudice done to our interests in these respects, unfavorably in contrast with the order of things (if that term, can otherwise than in a qualified sense, describe what is, in a great measure, loose, unfixed and dependent upon capricious influences,) which subsists in the United States of America. But, it must be remembered, that if on the one side, there is a natural bias upon the judgment, in favour of the old standing establishments of a country, and in opposition to all innovat'ig movements, so, on the other, there is a positive and strong temptation, and especially in times like these, to make out a case against prescriptive authority and — not to suppose the case of restless, or possibly ambitious spirits apt to be found in every country and in every organization of human society, who are out of their element if they cannot find out grievances and abuses, to aid in their desire of pulling down what happens to be above them, and who, if materials be wanting in the realities by which they are surrounded, will readily create something to themselves, or lay hold of something, however in fact hors de propos, (for, something they must have) to work upon, in this kind of way, — not to notice how many chords there are in the human breast, closely intertwined with the old Adam of our nature, upon which hands like these can play with effect, — there are even well-affected minds, which being eagerly and sensitively solicitous for the good of the Church, and generous minds, which being warmly predisposed to espouse the cause of any who appear to have been aggrieved, may lend an over- ready credence to every suspicion cast upon authority and every suggestion of mismanaged trust. ich- iva- ihan set ione trast n in sure, /hich st be I bias ments nents, ition^ Tainst stless, ry and )ut of ses, to above ies by to s de in tbis in tbe of our ect, — ly and nerous cause n over- ty and ^S The opening of the first book of the great rJooker, contains matter which is here to our purpose an, for the relief of a great public cala- mity,* and the vast proportion of that bounty which was col- lected within the walls of the fiational Churches at home ? — But, passing this by, the pictures which have been here drawn have, no doubt, tbeir shades of darkness : — discouragement, hindrance, failure and even scandal must mix thenselves in all which is done by men— it must needs be that offences will come — the net gathers of every kind both bad and good— the tares and the wheat grow together till the harvest — but, with all necessary abatement and allowance, the statements which have been here rendered, are amply capable of being sustained in detail — and are we ready then, to shake hands wiih Old Eng- land and her National Church and, giving her one hearty adieu, to turn our back;' and set up, on s})eculation for ourselves*? — are we satisfied that it is better for us to loosen and fling <5ii", as the mere exuvia; v/hich encumber our march, the character and relation which belong to us as English Churchmen ? — Have we * It is pleasing (o be liere rcmiiicicd of difTorcnl instances in which the citi- zens of America have Ircoly and liberally come to the xA'wf of suirrrevp hy |iiib- lic cnlamitv. in the territories of Britain. 12 I >))> M well weighed the consequences ? — A great many men may be found to pick up a set of phrases from popular declaimers and newspaper theorists and talk of the development of latent resource which would be brought out by the necessity ot the case, and the new vigor of local effort, fettered no longer by an habitual dependence upon extraneous aid — but make the experiment — let them have practically to deal with the dii'ection of ecclesiastical affairs — let them feel the responsibilities attaching to the care of all the Churches — put them at the helm — where will they provide for all that has been done for us here, as a consequence o( our connection with England ? — Where will they find, within the bosom of the Dio- cese, after settling, (if they can do that) the maintenance of the ministry, in a stable and satisfactory way, for some principal congregations, such overflowings of resource as will answer calls which do not come home directly to the individual, as will support a theological college, as will carry devout young men of slender means, through the course of their studentship, as will salary missionaries for rude, infant, struggling, back settlements, where the people can do nothing, as will help to build Church after Church in the woods ? We are here, as it is, a struggling, ill-supported Church ; we labour under many trials, many deficiencies, many humiliations — but, if our Clergy in Lower Canada, have been almost trebled in about a dozen years, if we have built, within the same period, more than forty Churches in our rural settlements, (although most of them of very humble pretensions and some still in a very unfinished slate) — if we have, within the same period been enabled to establish a College under the exclusive auspices of the Church, with thoroughly efficient Professors, if we are en- abled, there, to assist many most deserving and promising young men, whose service would otherwise be lost to the Chnrch of God, — who has done it for us ? England, Eng- land has done it — or, so far done it, that, without England, little, very, very little of it, could have been done — the So- ciety for the Propagation of the Gospel, the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and an honoured list of pri- vate benefactors, male and female, lay and clerical, who on Canadian soil have " streams of bounty poured," — it is to these generous hands and Christian hearts that we mainly owe our ability to sustain and conduct the warfare of ihe m 13 Church — and is there really any man so ill-informed as to imagine that we have not wanted their help, that they have only kept us from helping ourselves ? Look on the other side of the lines which bound us from our republican neighbours ; — is there anything which has been done there by the Church for places equally new and equally deficient in immediate local resource, which can be compared with what has been done in the Colonies of the British Empire, as here sketched in imperfect outline before you ? That our peoj,le, upon the whole, have not helped themselves, upon the spot, as much as they ought to have done — that they must, and that very speedily, help themselves a vast deal more, or lose very largely, very sadly, in the enjoyment of religious privileges ; this is what, far from wishing to disguise, it is my duty strenu- ously to insist upon, and, in its practical aspect, officially to enforce — but, we may leap into the arms of republican America, if we please — we shall not find, perhaps, that we have made a jump, once for all, into an easy, and comforting, and advantageous position for the Church, and found, at last, exactly what we had been wanting — for, whatever may be said of the American Zion, where European endowments may remain to her, or when she happens to be located among the great marts of commercial wealth, there are, in other parts of that country, at least instances to be found of difficulty amounting to degradation, in the Church, which exemplify the working of the voluntary system* ; and, one of her zealous Bishops, a highly popular preacher and writer, has published the fact to the world, that the congregations of his Diocese had so utterly failed to execute their formal stipulations for the maintenance of his office, as to throw him upon the charity of some kind members of the Church, out of his own limits, • It is known to all persons conversant in any measure with the early history of the Church, that the primitive voluntary system differed essentially and in principle, from a voluntary system whicn now finds its advocates ; and was wholly clear of that vicious and injurious feature which makes the indi- vidual Teacher of Religion directly depend|nl upon the favor of those who aie taught. The faithful contributed to (orm a common fund, under the circum- stances of the times, the only resource of the Church, which fund was under the control and at the disposal of the governing authorities who located the clergy and assigned their stipends, employing an official and responsible agency to carry out the details. I could have adduced, if I had thought it necessary, many more illustrations which are anything rattier than recommendatDry in their nature jof the working of the voluntary •yftem as it subsists in the United States of America. 14 Uil '>!' anil, in fact, to make him a pensioner upon the City of New York. I verily believe, nay, am fixedly persuaded, when 1 consider the extent of surface over which our Church of England population is scattered, the consequent necessity of many pastors in proportion to our numbers, (he extreme poverty and backwardness of many settlements and the mu!- tipled checks which this country has received — that, in the event of " annexation," Churchmen in Canada would after all, have to go begging in old England (as different envoys from the Church in the United States have already done) tor help to uphold the institutions of Ueligion, so far as they could hope to uphold them at all. How are they, I ask again, upheld now ? If, whatever we may conceive of our own claims, we do not, de facto, enjoy the proper advantages of an establishment here, yet it is to our identity with the system which occupies the full and clearly avouched character of an Establishment at home, that, under God, and in the train and distribution of Providential circumstances, we owe, in a man- ner, everything. And yet I do not speak in any disparagement of the zeal and liberality which are to be found within the Colony itself. Unquestionably, as I have here intimated, we ought to do and must do a great deal more — but, remembering the circumstances of a local character, just above described, we have not been altogether deficient and do not seem abso- lutely to have wanted the vivifying impulse which is antici- pated in some quarters, as an effect of our liberation from trammels attaching to our connection with the Mother Country, in order to the manifestation, in many pleasing examples, of a ready disposition to make gifts for the sake of Christ, to His Church, or to love and appreciate her holy ministrations. We have had Churches built and endowed, we have had liberal, valuable, and extensive donations of land, and our Diocesan Church Society has made a beginning which we hope augurs good things at a future day.f Nor can I (to speak from my own experience) conceive it possible that had I been an elective Bishop and moving in a sytem ada[)ted 'o the genius of de- mocracy, I could have met everywhere and from all ranks and t 1 need not advert to the strides taken by the Church and the strength which she exhibits in the Diocese of Toronto, wliich havinj;; a vastly morf! nutnerous Church of England population and greater resources, has made accordingly greater advances in dilTerenl ways, (although not greater in pro- portion,) than havft been seen among ourselves. 15 orders of men, (my own brethren of the Clergy, of course, specially included,) with more free, kind, cordial demonstra- tions of affection and respect for my office, with a warmer hospitality, with a more sedulous personal attention, or a more active and zealous promptitude to expedite my progress and to obviate the occasional impediments of my way, in consi- deration of the objects with which I was charged, than it has- been my happiness to experience in the execution of my public duties in this Diocese, of all which I have recently had occa- sion to acknowledge many instances which I trust that I shall never forget : Instances, if I may be pardoned for taking this opportunity to give exj ression to the feeling, which have caused me' to feel more pain than, till the trial came, I was prepared for, in the prospect which now opens itself, of my separation from that portion of the Diocese through which I have lately made an official circuit, probably for the last time. Upon the prospect, however, of the change which is here in question, I must, at whatever cost of any private feelings, most fervently congratulate the Church ; and it is matter of great satisfaction that so many of the Clergy holding charge within the limits of the proposed Diocese, have spontaneously come forward to signify the sound and correct views which, in com- mon, as I am happy to believe, with their brethren generally, who have the same interest in the matter, they entertain in rela- tion to the appointment ; and the expression of their acquies- cence in the established course of proceeding in this behalf, and of their earnest desire to see no interference with it allowed, affords evidence that if it had rested with themselves to choose their Bishop, they would have chosen well. It may, never- theless, be permitted to me to offer here one or two passing observations in confirmation of those views. It is thouerht, in some quarters, that the Clergy ought to elect the Bishop, or which amounts nearly to the same thing, to be consulted, in a body, about the appointment — movements are known to have been made in this direction — and notions have been set afloat, or hints, to say the least, have been dropped, that the whole business is done in a corner ; that the appropria- tions from the Clergy Reserves' Fund, which comprehend part of the provision for the Bishopric, are shrouded in secrecy by those who have the control of them ; and that a mystery is made about the limits of the proposed new Diocese. r 16 , > I Alt' ill ,1 Those latter points may be noticed first, because they only require to be disposed of by a simple contradiction. There are some minds to which it is rather congenial than otherwise, to / entertain and propagate suspicions of this nature ; but whe|i any JT^^ desire exists to be relieved of ihem, that relief has been always ' sufficiently accessible. The Treasurers of the Clergy Reserves Fund at Quebec and Montreal, ({ Ithough the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, to who*^ a that fund belongs, accountj by LaWy to Her Majesty^ s Got: eminent^ for their expendi- ture of it, year by year, in execution of the purposes for which it has been entrusted to them,) have always been unreservedly ready to afford any desired information to the Clergy, respecting their charge. The limits of the proposed Diocese have been long ago stated, upon public occasions, by myself; and any other than a direct and satisfactory answer to a simple question put upon that subject, by parties who might happen not to have received the information, could only have been rendered by a ' person, such as I have heard of, who would affect the airs of mystery in answering a question respecting the time of day. Now, with respect to the election of Bishops, it is, in the first place, perfectly well-known that such is not the actual practice of the Church of England, — the conge d^elire signified, upon the occurrence of every vacancy in the See, to the Cathedral Dean and Chapter, in England, being purely a m? *er of form, and the form itself not subsisting, in any corresponding quarter (if such can be indicated) in the Colonies. We can only deal with the thing, as it is : if it be regarded as a thing intolerable, a thing against conscience, to act under a Bishop simply appoint- ed by the Crown, the Clergy who so regard it, have no alterna- tive but that of withdrawing from the limits of the jurisdiction where it is received — but in any other view of the case, although we may be perfectly at liberty to argue the general question, we have not, beyond this, champ libre before us : it is both idle and mischievous to contend against the exercise of the power of appointment, in the particular instance, or to raise a clamour and excite a prejudice against the proceeding. I may here quote the words of a celebrated stateman (the late Mr.Canning) upon another question, which there will be no difficulty 'n applying, with the necessary accommodation, to the Church question in hand ; (and they may furnish, perhaps, incidentally. 17 only re are e, to / i any p Iways ' jerves or the county pendi- which rvedly )ecting e been Y other ion put ;o have 2d by a airs of lay. the first 3ractice 3, upon ithedral )f form, quarter eal with rable, a appoint- allerna- sdiction although in the present conjiinciure of affairs in this country, some hints of duty, in another direction) : — " I may have a great respect lor the person who theoretically pre- fers a Republic to a Monarchy : but, even supposing me to agree with him in this preference, I should have a preliminary question to discuss, by which he, perhaps, may not feel himself embarassed : which is this, whether I, born as I am, (and as 1 think it is my good fortune to be) under a Monarchy, am quite at liberty to consider myself as having a clear stage for political experiments; whether I should be authorizeJ, if I were convinced of the expediency of such a change, to withdraw Monarchy altogether from the British Con- stitution, and to substitute an unqualified Democracy in its stead ; or whether, whatever changes I am desirous of introducing, I am not bound to consider the Constitution which I find, as at least circum- scribing the range, and in some measure prescribing the nature of the improvement. For my own part, I am undoubtedly prepared to uphold the ancient Monarchy of the Country, by arguments drawn from what I think the blessings which we have enjoyed under it, and by arguments of another sort, if arjjuments of another sort shall ever he brought against it. — But all y in the walls." The Church in one instance may be persecuted : in another may hold her position, by mere sutfurauce, under an infidel power : in another may be recognized by the powers of the world, themselves standing forth in a declared character of Christianity, and thus may be incorporated \Nith the State, and identified with national institutions : or again may find her lot cast in a country which, as such, although composed of a professedly christian population, leaves the concern of Religion to shift for itself. Under all these varieties of condition, the Church, in points which are not viial parts nor essential con- stituents oi her very system, is necessarily liable to be afiected, and not always desirably affected, by her relations with other bodies and other institutions among n^ ; and although she ought constantly to keep a watchful ey^o exercise a corrective injiutnce in order to make all practicable approximation to a perfect standard, she must be content to submit to imperfec- tions still. It is in straining^lter an ideal perfection that men often engender needless discontents and raise impediments to the prosperity and harmony of the Church, or that they throw out a forced growth of new and irregular formations in the mi- nistry, (falling, in the result, sufficiently short of (heir proposed attainment,) and multiply those deplorable schisms, the sores of the Church and the crying evil of the ago in which we live, than which the worldliness and practical infidelity which prevail among professed Christians arc not more fatal hindrances to the general cause of the Gospel upon earth. In tl.e words (which I remember once before to have quoted, but in a pro- duction long ago forgotten by others.) of a real saint who gain- • Thore worn deficiencies and deflections in primitive days, as nay be seen in Bingiiam, demanding a corir'ction which the Fatiiers of the Church, aithouKh they felt its importance, forebore, for the moment, to press too far. because tne times wonid not bear the attempt and they lelt it for a more favorable con- juncture. / ^IhiL 20 fi •)>';. f'ii:i ed the name, in the early days of our own Ileroriiiiition, ol" the Apostle of the North : — Optant ut careat rnaculis ecclesia ciuictis : I'rrBsens vita negat : vita futura dabit. The Church in England, by whatever advantages they may be over-balanced, suffers some most evident inconveni- ences, and she has exhibited some most undeniable abuses, (now rapidly wearing out) from her possessing the character of an establishment, and, from this, as well as from other causes, differs in some particulars of her practice, from the practice which prevailed in the earlier ages of Christianity. The same Church, in the United States of America, has, again, her own inconveniencies from the peculiarity of her position; and, from the operation of causes very different from those which act upon her in England, differs also, in certain points, from the practice of early times — an example of such difference being found in the ad:riixture of lay-representation in her conventions assembled to treat of purely ecclesiastical and spiritual aflairs. The Church in the Colonies differs again, in some of these minor points, from the early Church, from the "Church in England, and from the Church in the United States. Upon the whole, the persuasion may fairly be indulged, that the course which is laid down for us in the appointment of a new Bishop, is that of best promise, as, under the cir- cumstances of the case, it appears the most reasonable. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel are to Endow the proposed Bishopric — this act is attributed to them, in the official communications of Government relating to the subject : Ihey provide the whole of the salary, partly from their general funds in England ; partly from the Funds of the Colonial Bishoprics' Committee formed within their own body, and partly from the Clergy Reserves' Fund in this country, which is vested in them, and from which they take a portion not quite equal to the joint amount of the two aids provided from England. It is left, therefore, with the Archbishop (who is their President, and within whose metropolitical Province we are situated,) to arrange the matter of the appointment with the Crown — and, if a recommendation is made, such as those which have been made in other recent instances of the same nature, there will practically be no cause to quarrel with the 21 course of proceeding, while, certinnly, tlie liorno authorities of the Church more immediately connected witli the Colonies, are entitled, theoretically to have something to say. Accord- ing to the calculations ot" some parties in this country, our dis- cussions respecting any appropiiation of the revenue from the Clergy Reserves would bo cut very short by our becoming incorporated with the neighbouring republic. 'Jliose who have an evil eye against our Zion, exult openly in the anti- cipation that, in such a contingccy, we should be speedily de- spoiled of the remnant of our patrimony which is Kft to us. 1 do not myself believe it. The endowments of religious bodies were held sacred in the United States after the establish- ment of independence ; and, within a few years, the Courts of Justice in that country have adjudged to the Episcopal body in Vermont, the lands set apart for its benefit before the Revolu- tion, but for a long series of years, in default of any Episco- palian claimants to appear, occupied as property by the " towns.''^ And it would be rather a serious business in Lower Canada, however meagre may be the provision of the Church of England^ to undertake the entire spoliation of Religious Establishments. The very apprehension, however, is not a recommendation of our transfer.* So far, then, as regards the manner in which the Church would appear likely to be atlected by afincxation^ the result of this rather extended survey of the question, would prompt us to rest content as we are. But, there is one other conse- quence of annexation which deserves to be considered in a religious' point of view. The stain has been wiped off from Britain, of holding slaves in any portion of her immense dominions ; and that may be now said of the Empire which one of the first among her poets, the Christian poet Cowpcr, in the winding up of a noble and moving passage upon the subject of slavery, said long ago of the country itself. Slaves cannot breathe in EnajlanJ : if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free ; They touch our country and their shackles fall. Whatever may have been, or whatever may now be her • I am aware that there are certain unscrupulous parties to be found, who contemplate the same sacrilegious spoliation as practicable even under Britiah ;iile — but I do not think it necessary to notice this circumstance here. ' I 2-2 l! :t It'' !'• lili ; ..i' ,(ii national s'lus, llie bins of princes, priests and people, it is a glury and a praise in her annals, that she has put furth her powerful arm for the absolute extinction of slavery among her subjects, and iti her edbrts, — elVorts in which, whether success- ful or unsucesslul, it befits a Great Christian realm to lead the way, — she has rot^cued from the hands of the atrocious " men- stealers," (I. Tim. 1, 10,) infesting the African coast, un- happy captives out of whose number there are now Clergy- tnen of the Church of England, who are upon the footing of full and unrestricted brotherhood with the home-born prelacy and clergy of that country, and have been commissioned to go forth under the auspices of the Churc/i Missionary So- ciety, to preach the Gospel among their heathen brethren. The Church in America has her colored clergymen, too — but while slavery keeps its hold in the land, and the prejudices thence enjiendered, continue in force, thev are not admitted to the privileges ot the Convention, even in the free State ol ^'ew York,f (the title oi free is not to be conceded, for an instant, to any slave-holding State) nor to the place of gentlemen in the private society even of the Clergy themselves. I speak it with pain and reluctance : 1 have some dear and honored friends in the United States of America : I see, as all must see, many things in that country to admire and approve ; I know with what utter detestation the system of slavery is re- garded by a great body of its people, and I know their Christian sympathy, (although they are not always free to speak what they think and (eel) with the unhappy African race : but still the monstrous anomaly exists, the political contradiction un- surpassed, ratiier unequalled, in the world, — that some mil- lions of men (it makes no particle of dift'erence in the case, that their skins are not white,) are held as mere articles of property by their fellow-creatures, in a condition of studied and carefully contrived degradation and under a bondage often marked by revolting cruelties, in a country which vaunts itself aloud to the world, as the only really free country upon earth, and unfurls the proud flag of its self-achieved independence, inscribed, as it were, in broad and conspicuous characters, with a proclamation of the principle, that all men are born free f They have been admitted, if I mistake not, in New Jersey. li'lii "'if 23 it IS a jith her long her success- lead the " men- ast, un- cle rgy- joting ot" prelacy ionetl to ary So- tretiiren. 00 — but ejudices nilted to of New instant, imen in 1 speak honored all must )rove ; I ry is re- vhristian ak what but still ;tion un- ►me mil- he case, liclcs of f studied ige often nts itself »n earth, endence, ers, with orn free and equal.| The slaveholding interest, in the meantime, maintains its supremacy in the chair of Government (they hold it there for an advantage that there is no throne) and within the halls of legislation : tlio wars of the country rre connected with the maintenance of slavery : her conquests seem to threaten its extension ; and it is actually used as an argument against the probability of our annexation, (hat the slave-holding States would resist an acquisition of (er ((cry which migiit tend to cn(lan£,er their own priponderavce of power. If our annexation would really do this, I admit that, in one point of view, it would be a blessed consummation. Slavery was originally introduced into (hat country by Great Britain : slavery continued to exist long afterwards in the British West India Islands, where slaves were often most shockingly ill-used — the slave-trade itself was once carried on under the British flag and things were perpetrated which might well prompt the exclamation — ■ And what man, seeing this And having human feetinis, does not blush And hang his head to think himself a man 1 —all this is perfectly true — but slavery does not now exist in the British Empire, and slavery does exist in the United States of America — and in what form it exists, in what an aspect of horror (though, doubtless, with honorable exceptions,) it there stares the world in the face, let any man Judge who will con- sult a familiar and, I fear, faithful portraiture which is to be found in vol. xvii. of Chambers's Miscellany (Edinburgh), under the title of Life of a ^egro Slave. " Dans la democratic," says Montesquieu, " ou tout le monde est egal, et dans I'aristocratie, ou les loix doivent faire leurs efforts pour que tout le monde soit aussi egal que la nature du gouvernement pent le permettre, dcs esclaves sont contre Vesprit de la constitution^ How many circum- stances are there, in the case here in question, to heighten and aggravate this contrariety ! Other republics which (with small gain to themselves) have thrown off the yoke of European Monarchy, relieved their X It is difficult to conceive anything of the kind, more unfortunate than a toast given at a great public dinner in Boston, which was " The flag of our country : the only thing in our country which bears Sthipes," (or words to the same effect.) 24 r ! il' ■1. AV .: slaves at the same time from the yoke of domestic bondage. I think that these are considerations carrying a title to be weighed by Christian minds. I do not sa} — far from it — that no Christian could consent, under any circumstances, to live in a country where slavery is tolerated — but in the question, if the question could possibly be permitted, of our seeking to etiect a transfer of oit political subjection to another Go- vernment, to make ourselves o^ver, by Contract, that we may be part and parcel of another country, surrendering, once and for ever, all our hereditary attachments to *'^r Monarchy of England and the name of Britons, — this is a point to be seri- ously taken into account. God hath made of one blood all the nations of the earth ; we are all from one parent stock; and by a less remoto analysis of our extraction, we are of one blood with our American neighbors. But this consanguinity of the family of man is a thing practically disallowed by the people of the American States ; and they have dropped out of their very Christianity, the principle that, under the Gospel, thei'e is neither Greek nor Jew .... Barbarian, Scythian^ bond nor free^ but Christ is all and in all, since even the:*" free men who have but a shade of the same blood with their Helots, are debarred from equal privilege, whether civil, social or religious, with their fellows of other branches in the family.* Children of the Anglican Church, the same Church which existed in the British Isles before the sway and suprema^^y of a foreign Church were there known — Children of the Anglican Church, whose noble army of Martyrs, wh-^se long array of illustrious scholars and divines, whose faithful guardianship of the oracles s»f God, whose pure and spiritual digests of doc- trine, whose nervous and evangelical liturgy, whose primitive usages and constitution, whose orderly, reverent and solemn rites of worship, whose grey old Parish Churches, covering over, with their dependent Chapels, the face of the land, — whose venerable and majestic Cathedral piles, echoing in their vastness with daily chants to the praise of God, — whose ancient and glorious Universities, replete with hallowed memorials of the past, — are all, and " with all their imperfections on their • The maintenance of slavery in the Unitr-d States, as prosenting one of the objections to " Annexation" (and one which, indeed, is sufficieniiy obvious.) has not escaped some other writers whose thoughts, appearing in public jour- nals, have met the eye of the author, since these s'leets were written. 25 heads," among the best and the loftiest of human things which the world has seen, and are linked with heavenly thoughts and hopes stretching beyond the boundaries of time : — (for it is, in fact, mere ignorance of men and things which would exclude even from the highest influences which act upon the human subject, the subordinate co-operation, the conspiring eftect of any of the objects and associations which have been here enu- merated :) — Children of the Anglican Church, yc are identi- fied with all this — you are connected with an Empire, the greatest, in many points of view, upon earth — an Empire .^.. and responsible vocation for the benefit of Co- whose high loni'it. Gentile and Jew, it is a task specially committed to thb nands of that Church (and she is labouring zealously in each of the three departments so assigned to her) to carry into execution abroad over the globe, that the multitude of the isles may be glad thereof and all the ends of the world may re- member themselves and be turned unto the Lordy — it is not, then, it is not a time to part with your mother now. True — it is the same Communion in which we find ourselves in the Protest- ant Episcopal Church of the United States, and it is a delightful feeling of brotherhood which we enjoy, when we recognize the same Church and unite in the sacred acts of worship with her members, and listen to the message of grace and salvation from her ministers, in a strange country and under different political institutions ; but still it is not the National Church of England, with the peculiar characteristics and appendages •if that Establishment, which have gone far to mould the •National mind and manners, and to stamp upon Englishmen an impress which is received, even by unwilling hands, as a slerling mark, in every part of the world. Pause, then, before you throw up your title and distinction as Englishmen and as English Churchmen — hold your hand and think twice before you sign away your interest in the land of your fathers and its institutions ; before your pledge that hand to those who would BEGIN THE DISMEMBERMENT OF THE EmPIRE. If this COUH- try be, fo • the moment, unprosperous, if there are causes pro- ducing difficulty in your Colonial affairs, an 3 tending lO the depression of your private interests, you may nevertheless find it a precipitate and ill-advised, as it is certainly an unjustifia- ble step, to rush into this experiment of annexation : changes, troubles, reverses, extensive commerci ^1 embarrassments, vio- 26 f; li: wM 1 V'v 'i lent political excitements and exasperated jealousy of parties are incident, to one country as well as to another ; and certainly the States of America have not been exempt from them, nor have they relieved themselves invariably from the pressure of some of those difficulties, in a manner which we should desire to imitate. As Christian men, we shall all admit that we ought at least to act up to the maxims of heathen moralists, and in disturbing, agitating, or difficult circumstances, to pre- serve the equilibrium of our minds : we ought to curb the chafing impatience of our spirits and to see whether in the use of prudent, moderate, and warrantable remedies, we cannot by the favor and blessing of God, look for fairer and smoother times. Are we men of prayer and men of faith ? — What ? — i& this a language uniit to be heard in the discussion of our public affairs, a cant which we desire to exclude from our proceed- ings, all very well and quite in its place within the walls of the Church, but quite out of place anywhere else ? — Alas ! if there were many among us who would speak thus, it would, indeed, be an evil sign of our condition and a dismal augury respecting our prospects — for, if we believe in God as the Governor of the world, if we at all regard, as Christ teaches us to regard them, the signs of the times among men and the troubles and commotions of countries, then we must believe that He who holds in his omnipotent grasp the destinies of his creatures, in their collective as well as their indiviuual capacity, will not fail to make good in the eyes of the world and in effects which may make both the ears of every one thai heareth them to tingle^ his own solemn declarati »n, Them that honor me I will honor, and those that despise me shali be lightly esteemed. A country in whose troubles there are not men of prayer and faith to stand in the gap, is a country upon the verge of ruin. Men, then, of prayer and faith — for such are not wanting among us — put now your trust in Gov] — pour out your hearts before him now, pleading in the name of the one Mediator and ons mighty Intercessor, for die country which you inhabit, aud remember, that although you may be little perhaps in the eye of the world, and less in ikmt m& your own, your Father which seeth in secret may, for your sakes, spare and bless the place of your earthly so- journ. Many scourges in many shapes has God sent among us— many woes are^ passed, who knows what other woe mav 27 be coming quickly ?— at least, let us not by r.ny irrever- ence, by any forgetfulness of God, by any (iisiegard of his solemn warnings either in his judgments which are abroad in the earth or in the standing instructions of his holy Word, draw down the worse things which may yet come unto us. Our duty as Christian subjects, not only with reference to the acts in which we engage, but to the language which we permit ourselves to employ, is very distinctly laid down for us and with very awful sanction in passages of that Word to some of which I have furnished a reference. It is not because the Church of England in the Province has been the pampered favorite of power ; it is not from any extraordinary partiality and countenance which she has enjoy- e d, that these sentiments of dutiful loyalty are inculcated within her bosom — on the contrary, she has, long before this day and in repeated instances, been a loser and a sufferer from the very fact of a jealousy existing against the name and shadow of privilege and establishment ; and measure has been dealt to her, in the inevitable operation of the reigning policy of the day, which yields continually to the pressure of mere popular ascendancy, and by every fresh concession, invites fresh encroachment irom the other side, such as never would have been dealt to any religious body from whom trouble and noisy opposition w«s to be apprehended. If there is any body of men in tbe Trovince, — I say i' advisedly, and should be )l'und prepared, if it were necessary, to maintain and prove i^- — who could make out a case and not one, two, or three, Uui. ^uuy more cases of grievance, it is of the body composed of members of the Church of England, that this may be averred — but that tale let it be left to history to tell — we will always, with all respect and with all peaceableness, defend and pre- serve our own interests so far as is permitted to us ; but while, i J obedience to the Apostolic exhortation, we continually offer up supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks for all men, for kind's and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty, it must not be seen that by any act of our own, or any indecent railing against the supreme local authority of the land, we contravene the spirit and object of such a charge. Let us rather all humble ourselves before our God for the sins which, in this as in other points, have boen committed among ' 28 the people of the Colony; and let us never expect that truly happy results or solid benefits are to be achieved by forbidden means. If we are indeed Christian patriots, let us learn to approach all the subjects of our anxiety, to handle all the affairs which engage our attention, to prosecute all the aims which enlist our energy and zeal, as those who weigh their actions in the balance of the sanctuary, who habitually and reverentially regard themselves as the responsible creatures of a God sitting in the throne of judgment, who rule their proceed- ings by His will and walk as under his eye Happy are the people that are in such a case: yea blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God. QiTebec, November 3, 1849. !h il^ '" 'Al Iiat truly ■orbidden learn to e all the the aims Igh their ally and tures of a proceed- I are the he people ^1. *■%* '0;|^,.