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6
THOUGHTS
.,;j *■ * ;i!
'W--
■m
ON
"ANNEXATION/'
:,C-.- ■■■:.■ . ..':-' ■ ^~.% '^^^ «• •?
IN CONNECTION WITH THE DUTY AND THE INTEREST OF
:fv MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND; ■ '
V, ■' • ' AND AS AFFECTING ^ . V ■
. • '■'*'* \ ^ ' ■ '♦,
SOME PARTICULAR RELIGIOUS QUESTIONS.
■.t;i ■
INTENDED OniGINALtY FOR PUBMCATION ' .^ „ ,..• \
. ■ ■ , - *■''
' A PASTORAL LETTER,
TO THE CLERGY AND LAITY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND,
IN THE , :#., . .■ ,
Diofcseof (luebec. . .• * . ^
By G. J. MOUNTAIN, D. D.,
LORD BISHOP OF MONTREAL, '
(Mminiatering that Diocese.) " ,
PnlNTED ONLY FOR PRIVATE CIRCtTLATION.
O navis roferuiit in mare te novi
Fluctus • O quill agis 1 Fobtij eb occupa
PORTUM
€tucbef :
PRINTED KY T. C A.Jl Y,
2, liuadc Sired.
I '^: ^
i
•^* It has very mualhj, but, from the pressure and
variety of my public occupations^ I may say vimvoidabhj
occurred, that in bringing out [if al any length) matter
which I had occasion to prepare for the press, I have liad to
render explanations for being rather qftcr-date. JVearly
six weeks have now elapsed since I sat down to tlie tank of
preparing the following letter, and althovgh, {with the
reservation of some corrections to be made here and there,)
it was soon afterwards brought to its close, it has been lying
by me and almost lost sight of, in my atfhition to other
matters, some of which had been accumulating while I was
engaged upon it. The aspect, in the mean time of the annex-
ation movement has undergone some considerable change,
and appears, as I trust, to threaten ?io very marked or seri-
ous consequences — a turn of affairs which, aided by the effect
of some other consider at ions, has been Judged to afford
sufficient reason for abandoning the proposed formal issue oj
a Pastoral Letter, upon the subject. The thoughts, there-
fore, which J had thrown together, clthough they stand unal-
tered in themselves, {for I could not undertake to re-constrvvt
them in adaptation to varying circumstances) are now, ns
I wisli it (o be imderstcod by all persons into whoso hands
these sheets may conne, merely printed for private and unofFi-
cia! circubifioti among iny friends of the Clertiy and Laity,
U7ider the impression that they contain matter which, in
some quarters, may not be wholly useless nor uninteresting.
Quebec, ^ith Dec. 1849.
THOUGHTS ON "ANNEXATION,' &c, Sec.
" Prove all things : hold faat that which is good.'
in
Mt Dear Brethren,
I have latterly — so far, at least, as the Clergy are
concerned — had occasion to trouble you rathei more fre-
quently than I was wont to do, with communications, of one
sort or other, in print, and would forbear now from any addi-
tion to the number— much more from such an addition as is
here before you, were I not prompted to the task by a crisis in
the affairs of the Colony of no ordinary kind, and one in which
the Church is very deeply interested and the principles which
she upholds, and which it is the duty of her Ministers to up-
hold also, within the sphere of their influence, are very seri-
ously involved. I refer (as you will readily have anticipated)
to the open proclamation, on the part of certain inhabitants of
the Colony, supported by a portion of the periodical Press, of
a desire to be released from their allegiance to the British
Crown, and constituted a portic>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-
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set
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trast
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ect, —
ly and
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n over-
ty and
^S
The opening of the first book of the great rJooker, contains
matter which is here to our purpose an<l with the requisite
adaptation, will apply to concerns which are upon a much
smaller scale than those of which he treats : —
" He that goeth about to persuade a multitiule, that they are not so well
governed as they ought to be, shall never want attentive and favourable hear-
ers ; because they know the manifold defects whereunto every kind of regi-
ment is subject ; but the secret lets or difficulties, wnich in public proceedings
are innumerable and inevitable, they have not ordinarily the judgement to con-
sider. And because such as openly reprove supposed disorders of State, are taken
for principal friends to the contimon benefitof all, and for men that carry singular
freedom of mind ; under this fair and plausible colour, whatsoever they utter,
passeth for good and current. That which wanteth in the weight of their
speech, is supplied by the aptness of men's minds to accept and believe it.
Whereas on the other side, if we maintain things that are established, we have
not only to strive with a number of heavy prejudices, deeply rooted in the hearts
of men, who think that herein we serve the time, and speak in favour of the
present State, because thereby we either hold or seek preferment; but also
Co bear such exceptions as minds, so averted beforehand, usually take against
that which they are loath should be poured into them."
Now, with reference to the Church, in the American States,
which is simply our own Church under different political cir-
cumstances, God forbid that I should speak of it in any other
terms than those of the warmest affection and the most cordial
respect. I should violate, were I to do so, my own personal
feelings, no less than the common claims of truth and justice.
And let it be admitted that, in some particulars, that branch of
the Church may possess advantages denied to our own. —
Men, in questions of this nature, are apt to seize hold of
what suits them, in carrying out a favorite idea, and to pass
unregarded all countervailing considerations — but to look fairly
at the question here before us, there are two points of enquiry
which we should set in the front of our survey — 1. assuming
that there are advantages and disadvantages on both sides, on
which side the benefits, upon the whole preponderate ; and 2.
whether the actual process of the change would not carry
with it injurious consequences which it could not be thought
desirable to encounter, except for the unequivocal promise of
somethinir very great to be gained beyond.
It is quite foreign to my intention to undertake here the dis-
cussion of tbe question at large between the two branches of the
Church in the British Empire and the United States respectively,
or to pursue any tecbnical argument, article by article, upon the
subject ; but I am desirous of drawing your attention more closely
8
I
.'!
perhaps llinr!, in some quarters, il has been bcstuvvcd, upon
certain points of comparison between the Church in the British
Colonies, subsisting as a dependency upon the Church at home
and parti'.king of iis characteristics, and the Church in the
foreign country which I have just named.
i must premise, althougli I trust that it would be sufficiently
understood without any formal and specific statement to such an
effect, that nothing can be further from my intention than to
treat the question of" annexation" as a mere question of cjjpe-
diency. We must regard the question as men who aolemnly
pray to God^ in the constantly repeated forms of the Church,
that we and all the subjects of the Queen, duly considering
WHOSE authority she hath, may faithfully serve, honor, and
humbly obey her, in Him and for Him, according to His
blessed word and ordinance, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
But it is plainly incumbent upon us all, at the same time,
to take into the range of our contemplation, and upon the
watchmen who stand upon the walls of Zion, to indicate
to their people, all the consequences of such a project,
if those who agitate and recommend it, could actually suc-
ceed in their aim. ll" there are any who think that the Church
of England in Canada would gain by the exchange, let us warn
them that, in point of duty and christian principle, they have
no right to make the experiment : let us also take them upon
their own ground, and see whether they cannot there be shewn
to be wrong.
That the Church in that which is now foreign Ame-
rica, left to languish by the Government of Britain, with-
out even the means of her proper organization, shook herself
from the dust and arose, by the divine blessing, in an unex-
pected strength after the independence of the country had been
accomplished ; and that her subsequent history in that country,
has proved her to be not (he mere creature of circumstances,
but a body possessed of an inherent and energetic vitality,which
may benefit by the aids of the civil power in one instance, or
tissert her character and extend her ramifications, without them,
In another, — these are facts which, far from having any motive
to deny, we must contemplate with the deepest thankfulness for
what we have been permitted to sec, and the happiest feelings
of faith for V a future. I believe it is admitted that no other
religious bony has there advanced in any comparable degree ;
and it is well known that the ranks of Episcopalians, with
reference both to Ministers and people, have been swelled and
are swelling, year by year, by recruits from the columns of the
dissenting armies. But where, after all, does the Church most
flourish in the United States ol America, and in what Diocese
have we witnessed, as it we»e, the focus of her prosperity,
beneficially affecting her character and interests throughout the
Union ? Is it not in the Diocese of New York ?* — And from
what cause, under God, has that pre-eminent prosperity and
advancement been derived ? — Has it not been from the munifi-
cence, in that particular instance, of the Monarchs of England,
the fruits of which are still enjoyed at the head-quarters of that
Diocese, in the appointed course of divine Providence and in an
auspicious fulfilment of the prophetic word of God that Kings
should be the nursing-fathers and Queens the nursing-mothers
of his Church ? And have we heard none among the wisest of
her Bishops, her Clergy, and her laymen of note, deploring
the want of general endowments and forebodiVig darkly upon
this very ground, for the years to come ? And, at this day, is
is there any candid man, observant of passing events in the reli-
gious world, who will say that the Church in foreign America
receives no impetus from the movements of the Church at
home ? that she does not keep an eye to her mother there and
walk in her steps and fashion herself after her adornments ? that
many of her best efforts, ( and it is by no means to her discredit)
are.simply successful imitations of what she sees on the other
side of the Atlantic ! Or again, if the Church in that country,
the day of its independence, is far more flourishing
days anterior to
in any sequence
that crisis, does it
whatever of just
that the Colonial Church now, occupymg
smce
and vigorous than in the
follow, as a corollary
argumentation,
a totally different footing and exhibiting a totally different
aspect from all which 4imm attached then to her situation,
requires, in order to the effectual invigoration of her sys-
tem, to pass under the standard of democracy, and to plant the
stars and stripes upon her steeples ? I trow not. Look, on
one side, at the Church in foreign America : look, on the other,
at the Church as branching from the parent stem, in the British
• I think it wholly unnecessary to advert to any mere passing and accidental
cloud over the affairs of that Diocese, which carries no manner of permanent
damage, and has not forbidden the steady advance of the Church.
B
A//"
10
■]\\'
I ill '
it
i!
Colonics : both, by a special and visible blessing from on liigli,
are, in tliP face of many and severe difficulties, slrengthening
their stakes and lengthening their cords, to stretch over their
children the shelter cf the tabernacle of God — but are we, on our
side, to be afraid of the effect of comparison, or should we be
making a challenge to our own shame, on behalf of an inert and
worn out establishment? I do not say that christian countries
any where are doing all which they ought to do, or anything
approaching to it, for the cause of Christ on earth — that is
what will nevor be seen among the unthankful sons of Adam —
but was there ever a period, since the reformation, when the
Church of England, at home and abroad, took such a start (if
so familiar a term may be applied to an impulse which comes
from heaven,) as she has taken of late ? Not to speak of all
her efforts to recover the external honor of her sanctuaries in
the mother-country, the happy indication of an increased con-
cern in the minds of men, upon the subject of religion — not to
speak of the literally unparallelled multiplication of her churches
and the munificence of her nobility, gentry and clergy, in rear-
ing these abiding testimonials to the faith and providing for the
maintenance of worship within their walls — not to speak of the
extensive and diversified efforts which are made within the
Church at home, for giving new facilities or additional
advantages to the poorer classes in public worship and in
generally useful as well as religious education, and for
a variety of kindred objects, — look at what is more directly to
the purpose, look at the advance of the Colonial Church in her
connection with the Church at home and dependence upon
her mother ;^the memory of man can reach to a point at which
there was not one Colonial Bishopric in the whcle extent of
the British dominions — thirty-five years ago there were only
three — some sparing additions at intervals were subsequently
made — till all at once, within years which are yet recent, the
Church sprang into r.ew life and is now drawing her belt, as it
were, to encircle the world, — the two last-created Sees having
been, one in China and the other in tlie Hudson's Bay Terri-
tory, and among the new Bishoprics are some which are en-
dowed in perpetuity by the pious munifictnce of individuals.
— This particular feature in the operations of the Chuch
is only the accompaniment or the basis of G*her plans and
proceedings and institutions for carrying m the work of
hili
11
as it
the Gospel — Missionaries are multiplied, Schools are estab-
lished, Colleges are founded, stately Cathedrals are built
— frames fur Churches are forwarded for thousands of
miles across the deep, to countries deficient in the means
or the materials of construction — books are showered forth, the
book of God with the liturgy, and a variety of devotirnal and
instructive works, in a multitude of diflerent tongues — men are
sent out, charged, in virtue of their Apostolic olfice, with the
supervision of these undertakings, endued with practical wis-
dom, replete with energy, devoted, heart and soul, to the cause,
in tol indefatigable and exemplary in life — and they have those
working under them, who manifest the same spirit within their
sphere — the heathen, under their teaching, may be seen, in one
quarter of the Globe, casting their idols to the motes and to the
bats, and bringing forth all the fruits of righteousness which
are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God — the poor
and long neglected fishermen ot a rude and desolate shore, may
be seen in another, gathered in seemly houses of prayer ar.d
blessing God for their mercies. And can we ever forget, in
this country, a benefit of another order, received from the same
source, — the free, [)rom[)t and generous contributions poured in
upon us, four years agi>, 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 <hat I am now contending for, is,
that whatever reformation is proposed, should be considered with
some reference to the established Constitution of the Country."*
* It will not be useless here to observe,— although there may seem to be and
there is some force put upon feelings of delicacy, in ntiaking the observation as
proceeding from myself,— that these remarks will perfectly apply to the sug-
gestions which ever and anon are put forth respecting the rednction of the emo-
luments of Colonial Bishops to a scale which would, in effect, put them upon a
footing of decided inferiority in point of income, to some of the Presbyters in
their Dioceses. England has given to her prelacy, a rank to maintain in Soci-
ety. S!ie has judged that the Fathers of the Church should appear, as men
whom the Kin^ delighleth to honor. The Archbishop ofCamerbury is next in
rank to the Princes of the blood, and the Bishops are lords of Parliament. That
is pan of her system; and the extension of its spirit to the Colonies appears in
the particular instance of her having assigned rank to the Colonial Bishop, next
after the representative of Royalty and the military Commander (if any) who,
in the event of a vacancy in the Government, would succeed to that representa-
tion. We may quarrel with this principle, if we choose : but ivhite this tribute
of honor is paid to Religion in the established usages of the Empire, it would be
manifestly inconsistent to strip the parties in question of the means required for
some decent exterior maintenance of the position assigned to them. I shall not
argue the question here ; but, although the Bishops themselves ought,of course, to
know both how to bs abased and how lo abonnd, and everywhere and in all things,
should be instmcted both to bi full and lo be hungry, 1 believe it might be shewn
that the principle is right in itself and advantageous to the Church and the nation.
Independently, however, of considerations such as have been here touched upon,
it might possibly be not out of place that the gentlemen who take these propos-
ed retrenchments in hand, should at least comprehend in their calculations, duly
informing themselves of the probable amount, the expenses to which the
Bishops are subjected for travelling, printing, postage and other items! provided
C
III!
18
i !
t !: I
'if'
i !
But, farther, it is a great question whether in the present con-
dition and ciri'umslancesof the Church, and with tlie growing
disposition which exists to transfuse into all public proceedings,
even wlien it is the cause of God wliich is in hand, the tactics
and manffiuvres of the political worhl, it would he wise and
Siife to revive the elective principle in the appointnnent of
Bishops. Among the things passed down from the earliest
times, or consonant to the principles and practice of those times,
relating to hor frame-work and her operations as a Church,
there are snmc which the Church to which we belong, (with
whatever allowance and whatever respect she may regard others
upon ./horn circumstances have forced a different condition)
must, for herself, always regard as indispensable, such as her
Apostolic form of government and the succession of her Bishops :
there are others which she must regard as very highly i'lipor'
tont and very necessary^ when the time shall serve, to be res-
tored if they have been lost or suspended, such as her power of
meeting in Convocation, her claim to be consulted, in the per-
sons of proper representatives, respecting the nomination to her
higher offices, her legitimate exercise of discipline, and her
ability to give full and practical efficiency to her Order of Dea-
for by extra-allowances in the case of other public functionaries — and also the
calls upon the Bishops, whiih they may be presumed to be not always backward
to answer, in the way of hospitality to the Clergy and others, and in the shape of
contributions to different objects of a charitable '^r religious nature in different
parts of their Dioceses. The late Bishop Stewart never travelled upon his visi-
tations in Canada, without being attended by both a Chaplain and a servant —
and few persons probably thought it otherwise than desirable upon public as
well as personal grounds, that he should enjoy the official assistance and the
saving of his own time which were secured to him by such an arrangement.
In the United Sjtates, the entire frame of society is different. Things also are
done there for relieving the Bishop of expense and in part provided for by
some of the Canons, which in our dominions, he does for himself. Yet there, I
believe that, in consequence of the shifts to which the Bishops are seen to be put,
instances might be found of etecting men ns Bishops because they had private
means to viaintain their si<ua<iort, who, although no* unfit men, were no/ the
men who would otherwise have been chosen as iho Jillest, In New York, the
income of the Bishop, with the advantage, among others, of an exceedingly
handsome official residence, is believed very greatly to exceed the scale of epis-
copal salaries in oar North American Colonies, and more than to double the
salary which has been fixed for the projected new see at Montreal.
The single effect of the suggestions which are the subject of this animadver-
sion, is to beget a new and strange feeling of uneasiness between the Bishop ami
some portion of the Clergy and Laity of his Diocese, and to invest his office and
authority with a mixture of odium in their eyes. It would be painf* i to be com-
pelled to think that this could be regarded as autant gagnl by any among the
authors or favorers of such suggestions. It is certainly oufanf grngn^ in favor of
a loaning towards anntxaiion.
19
cons, according to some immediate objects comprehended in its
original institution, and sucii as are specitied in uur own Ordi-
nal* : there are others still which are more freely susceptible
of variation end adaptation to circumstances, exemplifying the
words of Bishop Hall, who treats this subject at large, that
'• those tools which serve for the foundation, are not of use for
the roof: yea" that " tiie great master-builder chose those work-
men for the first stones which he meant not to emph>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;|^,.