IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) 1.0 I.I ■10 iM m li^ !^ us Z2 ^ lia ilia 1.8 1.25 1.4 j 1.6 ■* 6" ^ v] <^ % /2 ""l V Photographic Sdences Corporation 23 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716) 872-4503 L^ ^ CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. CIHM/ICMH Collection de microfiches. Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques The Institute has attempted to obtain the best original copy available for filming. Features of this copy which may be bibliographically unique, which may alter any of the images in the reproduction, or which may significantly change the usual method of filming, are checked below. L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire qu'il lui a at* possible de se procurer. Les details da cet exemplaire qui sont peut-^tre uniques du point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier une image reproduite, ou qui peuvent exiger una modification dans la mithoda normale de filmage sont indiquis ci-dessous. Q Coloured covers/ Couverture de couleur r~~| Covers damaged/ D n D D n Couverture endommagie Covers restored and/or laminated/ Couverture restaurie at/ou pelliculie □ Cover title missing/ Le tit itre de couverture manque □ Coloured maps/ Cartes g^ographiques en couleur Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/ Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur Bound with other material/ Reiii avac d'autres documents Tight binding may causa shadows or distortion along interior margin/ Lareliure serree peut causer de I'cmbre ou de la distorsion le long de la marge intirieure Blank leaves added during restoration may appear within the text. Whenever possible, these have been omitted from filming/ II se peut que certaines pages blanches ajouties lors d'une .'estau ration apparaissent dans I* texte, mais, lorsque cela itait possible, cas pages n'ont pas it* filmies. Additional comments:/ Commentaires supplimentaires; □ Coloured pages/ Pages de couleur D ^/ D Pages damaged/ Pages endommagies I — I Pages restored and/or laminated/ Pages restaur^es et/ou pelliculdes Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ Pages ddcolordes, tachetdes ou piquees n Pages detached/ Pages ddtachees Showthrough/ Transparence j~n Quality of print varies/ Quality inigale de I'impression Includes supplementary material/ Comprend du material supplementaire Only edition available/ Seule Edition disponible Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata slips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to ensure the best possible imagV Les pages totalement ou partiellement obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure, etc., cnt 6tu filmies d nouveau de faqon a obtenir la meilleure image possible. This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ Ce document est film* au taux de reduction indiquA ci-dessous. 10X 14X 18X 22X 26X 30X , t^:^^^^^ 1 12X 16X 20X 24X 28X 32X The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks to the generosity of: Harold Campbell Vaughan Memorial Library Acadia University L'exemplaire film* fut reproduit grAce A la gAnirositi de: Harold Campbell Vaughan Memorial Library Acadia University The images appearing here are the best quality possible considering the condition and legibility of the original copy and in keeping with the filming contract specifications. Les images suivantes ont 6t4 reproduites avec le plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et de la nettetd de l'exemplaire film6, et en conformity avec les conditions du contrat de filmage. Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed beginning with the front cover and ending on the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All other original copies are /ilmed beginning on the first page with a printed or illustrated impres- sion, and ending on the last page with a printed or iilustraced impression. Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en papier est imprim^e sont filmte en commenpant par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la derniAre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration. soit par le second plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires originaux sont film6s en commenpant par la premidre page qui comporte une empreinte d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par la dernidre page qui comporte une telle empreinte. The last recorded frame on each microficho shall contain the symbol — »> (meaning "CON- TINUED "), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. Un des symboles suivants apparaitra sur la derniire image de cheque microfiche, selon le cas: le symbole — »- signif ie "A SUIVRE", le symbole V signifie 'FIN". Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at different reduction ratios. Those too large to be entirely included in one exposure are filmed beginning in the upper left hand comer, left to right and top to bottom, as many frames as required. The following diagrams illustrate ;he method: Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent Atre film^s d des taux de reduction diffirents. Lorsque le document est trop grand pour Atre reproduit en un seul c!ich6, il est film6 d partir de Tangle 8up6rieur gauche, de gauche A droite, et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre d'images ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 ^;*5r^ru| ",' !< y U<' O? TUS^ 1% ' j» t €» « E 8 E OF a U E « 1^ -i: fMT nil 0i««»yt9i» of m/m^ fm^a$^ Aim WITH 'CHAT OP A HOPOWD HEETIHG OF CLESei AND LAY 9£LE6ATES m GEO. jr. liiOUNTAlN, D. I?:, 0. C. 1^ 1.0B& BtSBOP OF ^«ti^c. MMi|iHk«i«M>^ QOBBEC: 1853. ^^M^3 Si'. "Vk .^V "-' "isi, 'i"*'' .•;..''' 283.ni ;?Ut: ;.'Si;'/ ■iWSK''.*'?-.!'^ A PASTORAL LETTER TO THE CLERGY AID lAlTY 9^3, H A1 f t OF THE DIOCESE OF QUEBEC IN CONNECTION WITH THE SUBJECT OF The Bill introduced into the Imperial Parliament^ DURING THE LAST SESSION, For the Conveyance of certain Privileges v;n m TMl (D®MMI[1IL CeniPXElE! AND WITH THAT OF A PROPOSED MEETING OF CLEPiGY AND LAY DELEGATES IN THE DIOCESE. BY GEO. J. MOUNTAIN, D. D., D. C. L. Lord Bishop of Quebec QUEBEC: PRINTED BY T. GARY. 1853. -/> Dans un temps d'ignorance, on n'a aucun doute m6me lors qu'on fait les plus grands maux ; dans un temps de lumi^re, on tremble encore lorsqu'on fait les plus grands biens. Montesquieu. My Tl first ] whic Quel the C the! ment was ( visit Cler^ migh Ih begar from good correi It] once land, of the clesia: Wi party * Ih (limcus 20tli September, 1853. me lors lumi^re, lUIEU. My Dear Brethren, The date affixed to this letter indicates the time at which I first roughly threw together the heads of the materials of which it is to be composed. I was then far distant from Quebec, in the midst of my late journeyings in the regions of the Gulph, but having received intelligence of the defeat, in the House of Commons, (at least for the Session) of the Bill mentioned in the title page of this letter, I judged that the time was come, — since the atfair which had been the object of my visit to England was brought to an issue, — to render to my Clergy and their Congregations, some statements for which they might naturally be looking at my hands. I have been rather slow in the execution of the task, since I began it ; * for having been, altogether, eight months absent from Quebec this year, it may be conceived that I have been a good deal pressed by an accumulation of official business and correspondence. It may not be improper that I should, in the first place, state once more, some particulars connected with my visit to Eng- land, which have been already noticed in my Pastoral Letter of the 23rd of December last, published in the Canadian Ec- clesiastical Gazette of the following month. Without any previously concerted arrangement with any party whatever and without the most distant expectation on my • I had made it much longer and have since abridged it to its present uirnensions. 5tXlH own part, of being so invited, I was called upon from dillerent quarters, towards the end of last year, as being, by date of consecration, the senior B'sho[) of the Cliurcii of England, in the North American Colonies, to go home and meet the late lamented Metropolitan of Australia who was on his way to conler upon matters Ecclesiastical, with the authorities in Ciiurch and State. He had been in communication with those authorities upon the subject and it had been arranged that, for the greater convenience of discussion and the greater advantaff, in every way, of conducting the object, lie should pay a visit to England. I had not only no idea beft)rehHn(l, of going, but it was with much difTiculty and at a considerable sacrifice of my own private convenience and the public convenience of my Diocese, that I conditionally undertook to go. And al- though 1 had not seen my own country and my own friends there, for seventeen years, I endeavored to avoid going and waited (o the last moment to see whether the task could not, in the manner described in the Pastoral Letter just mentioned, devolve upon other hands. Under such circumstances as these, it is verv evident that I could not enjoy the benefit of gathering counsel from the dif- ferent portions of this great and straggling Diocese, before setting out upon my mission. I could only j)()int out, as I did, in that Pastoral, point out, the course which was open, of mv being favored with suggestions from my Clergv or their people after I should have reached England. And lliere was nothing to prevent, if anywhere it had seemed expedient, their holding local meetings upon the subject with which I had to deal, and communicating to me the result. Th;,t subject itself was per- fectly understood : it was put before the public in 1851, in the jMinutes of the Episco{)al Conference held in that year, at Quebec, as well in the answer of the assembled Bishops to the address made to them by the Clergy. All the seven North American Bishops, including the two who were absent, had concurred in those Minutes, and the particular object which they comprehended, of procuring relief for the Colonial Bishops in certain difficulties attaching to their charge, by means of new priviles^ea and powers to be conferred upon the Clergy at large and the Laity duly represented, which, so far as I had reason to believe was universally approved in the Dio- .: (lill'urciU date of gland, in tliG Ia(e 5 way to >ritics in Mill those tliat, for Ivantage, ly a visit oing, but ;ri(icc of ience of And al- I friends >ing and •uld not, jntioned, nt that I the dif- , before as I did, I, of iny ir people nothing hohlino- lea!, and was j)er- 1, in the year, at ps to the [1 North !nt, had t which Bishops leans of Clergy I far as I the Dio- cese, • was known and oflicially announced by myself, as the ground oi my mission. In this point of view, therefore, my way was perfectly sim- ple, strait and clear ; and I had shotvn at the same time ali that consideration and deference to the Clergy and Laity ol my Diocese which were most manifestly their due. I do not, let me request it to be understood, make these statements in the way of excuse for my proceedings : I may be often enough liable to need excuse and indulgence, but that is not the posi- tion which I now mean or am called upon to take. I otdy de- sire the facts to be known as they stood, which preceded and attended my departure for England, and feel it my duty to satisfy any enquiries which may suggest themselves upon the subject. In the jiart which I look there, I should be perfectly willing to sustain the reKponsihiUiy of the Bill which passed the Lords anil was introduced in the Commons, (although possibly I might desire lo alter or to modify some of its subor- dinate details) But I could not with equal unreservedness take credit for the Bill, in whole or in part. I did my best, — 1 hope faithfully and diligently, — but quorum pars magna fui, f is not what I am eutillcd to say of the proceedings. My own share was just that whicii may be supposed when it is considered that I was a j)arty unexpectedly called in to join in conferences upon a measure which had originated in other quarters — conferences at first, of certain Colonial Bishops only, who subsequently invoked iho aid, by application to their INIetropolitan of Canterbury, of the Prelacy at liomo, and who, in that full conclave presided over by the two Archbishops of England, which met repeatedly in kind response to their application, were in the proportion, sometimes, ol two \ to sixteen. * So I found in England that persons very stronj^ly opposed to the revival of Convocation there, yet saw very clearly and admitted very readily the expediency of Synodical action in the Colonies, — tlie obj'" 'ions, whetner well or ill-founded, which are conceived to exist in the on . ^e, having no application to the circumstances which attach to the other. t i. c. of which transactions, I have, in my own person, formed a great part. % There were, 1 think, soven Colonial Blsliops, besides myself, who were, some at onc.time and some at another, in England, during my stay ; but tlie number who could meet at once, was very small. 6 I spoak horo of tlio procecdinirs ol" llic Bishops, Hut it is not to 1)0 supposed that tlioy wuro the only parties concerned in the preparation of tlio IJill, or that flcr Majesty's Govern- ment, vvlion thuy brought it into the Cuinmons," liad simply put themsolves into the hands of the Episcopal body. There is one provision of the Bill for the 'maintenance of which, I hope and believe, that the sense of this Diocese will most distinctly pronounce, anil from which I am sure that we ought never to swerve— and that is the reservation to the Order of Bishops of what is rather invidiously called their veto, but ought properly to be regarded as the simple preserva- tion to the Cliurch, in her deliberative proceedings and her legislative character, of the integrity of her primitive consti- tution. The recognition (wherever there is, as we all agree that there ought to be here among ourselves, an admixture of the Laity) of the three constituent portions of the body, by making the consent of each alike, necessary to the validity of any regulation proposed, is, in my apprehension, an essential feature of all synodical action taken by Epkcnpalians— and if they can pass laws luithout the consent of the Bishop, their very distinctive character is gone. Men are not obliged to hold this view of the case: for they are not obliged to be Episcopalians, if they cannot be convinced that Episcopacy is the primitive system of the Church, any more than they are obliged to be Protestants, if they cannot be convinced that the Church of Rome is wrong. But if they are commonly con- sistent Episcopalians, it is difTicult to conceive how they can hold any other view ; or, if they only fall in, from motives of expediency, with the Episcopal system, they have no right, after so accepting it, to disturb its settled organization. And it would indeed be a miserably ill-understood delicacy of feel- ing, or rather a miserable dereliction of duty on the part of a Bishop himself, to forbear from asserting the principle in this behalf, of the Church in wiiich he has received a commission to govern, because he would better accommodate himself, by such forbearance, to any popular notions afloat in the world. It cannot be for his own sake tliat any Bishop will maintain tills principle. For if there be any one thing in the whole world h'om which a man, guided by worldly inllucnces, would shrink; in (he present day, i( is (lie niiiiiueiinncc by a Bishop of (he a^ree Chuicli of Eiitilaiid, ot the authority and phict; in the Church, <>l' his own Orilcr. It is to bo attrihutod, I think, to the accidental ascendancy of the democratic principio in the country and the extraordinarily dilFicult positio!! of the Church at the lime, that, in the consti- tution of most Dioceses in the United States, this reservation of the Episcopal control has been abandoned. Hut, in fram- ing the Constitution of some among the more newly created Dioceses, notwithstanding the force of this general example, the error ''as been corrected and the Episcopal veto, as it is called, has been restored to the Church.* And there is this marked difference between the case of the American and that of our own Colonial Churches, [n the General Convention of the whole Church in the United States of America, the Episcopal veto is in full force ; and, if in the Diocese of any particular State, the civium ardor prava jubentium^ should threaten, under some passing excitement, to work mischief and to over- bear rigbt, whicb it is no less lir.ble to do than, in other coun- tries, whether in Church or State or both together, the vultus instantis tyrannij;. the proper check and characteristic remedy remain in the General Convention — and there, ultimately, in the House of Bishops. But tbere are Colonies of Britain so isolated and detached that even if new Metropolitan Provinces (in the ecclesiastical sense) were created, and Provincial Synods permitted to be held, a vast time must elapse before those particular Colonies could be comprehended in any such jurisdiction. In the Diocese ot Toronto, wbere the members of our Com- munion are estimated at a quarter of a million, these principles appear to be most distinctly understood and received, at the same time, with the most cordial acquiescence. We find in the account of the recent important proceedings, held at the See of that Diocese, that the resolution which follows below, was carried unanimously and by acclamation : * It will bo found, I believe, that this has been the case in the Diocese of Vermont ; and I am under the impression that there are other examples also ; but I have not the means, at this moment, of ascertaining the particular-!. t The excitement of the citizens insisting upon vicious measures. t Tlie countenance of the peremptory tyrant. / 8 " That tliis meeting, convened by the Lord Bishop, and com- posed, firstly, of the Lord Bishop of tlie Diocese : secondly^ of the Clergy of this Diocese : and, thirdly^ of the Lay-Re- presentatives of the several congregations of this Diocese, are the Diocesan S'ynod of this Diocese, &c." I am thoroughly persuaded that the same intelligent apprecia- tion of the system of the Church, and the same well-affected adherence to it, will be found to predominate among ourselves, as well as that 1 shall not be thought wrong in this explicit exhibition beforehand, of the particular principle in question. But it is impossible, and if it were possible, it would be very unwise, to shut our eyes to the facts, that, while on the one hand, there never was a time known when the Church of Eng- land was better loved by her true children, or more deserved to be so — there does exist, on the other hand, in all, or almost all, parts of the British Empire, a spirit of opposition to the rightful claims of the Church, and especially of Church authority, which is neither a kind, a candid, nor by any means a scrupulous spirit ; and that this spirit is very far from being confined to persons who openly and honestly profess their dissent from the National system of Religion. It is a spirit which was signally exemplified in the manner in which the two Bills were treated, having reference to the Church in the Colonies, which were thrown out of the House of Commons, during the last Session ; but 1 will confine my observations to that which was connected with the object of my own visit to England. Certain Bishops in the Colonies had been long endeavoring to procure for the Clergy and Laity of their Dioceses, their share of power in the administration of their own Church affairs ; had been endeavoring to difiuse through many hands a control and authority, in certain points, which is lodged, at present, singly in their own ; had been endeavoring to obtain for the Church in their Dioceses, a free and representative Constitution, Yet, men are actually not ashamed to say, in and out of Parliament, that these Bishops, in this very endeavor, are grasping after more power, and aiming to increase their own authority over the Clergy, and to make the Clergy lords over the Laity. And so easy is it to raise an alarm upon this subject, — so soon will even a spark like this, dropped y and com- iecondly, Lay-Re- jcese, are apprecia- l-affected mrselves, s explicit question, be very the one 1 of Eng- deserved :>r almost n to the Church ly means om being ess their manner •e to the le House ifine my object of leavoring ses, their I Church ■ hands a adged, at obtain sent?tive 1 say, in lis very increase e Clergy irm upon dropped among combustible matter, kindle up a hiaze, so tiercely will it burst and so Avidely will it spread that, till the familiar aphorism shall be made good in the case, " magna est Veritas et prcevalebit,^^* we can hardly hope for the successful passage of the Bill. In the mean time, it is to be observed, that, al- though great numbers of well-disposed and pious persons, — persons, in their general character, entitled to our esteem and love, — may be, and undoubtedly are, carried away by the crowd and tumult of opposition to the Church, in ignorance of the real merits of the question, — an unwarrantable jealousy of power and a groundless suspicion of designs entertained by persons in authority, are not unfrequently resolvable into the latent love of power. Men cannot conceive or understand a different order of motives in the breasts of others, from that which exercises a secret sway in their own. It has been the course followed oy that combination of heterogeneous parties who are opposed, under different »'i(ies, to the real interests and right action of the Church, aou ,/ho, in their aggregate capacity, may be conveniently and correctly described (although it is painful, for a reason just above inti- mated, so to describe them,) as the Anti-Church party, to take to themselves credit for being the champions of the people against the Bishops, while in point of fact they are, whether wilfully or otherwise, doing reither more nor less than seeking to defeat the conveyance to ihe people of advantages which the Bishops are seeking to gain for them The Bishops and their supporters are seeking to gain tor their own people the common privilege enjoyed by all other religious bodies and denied to the Church : this boon must, as it appears to myself and others whose opinions I have the highest reason to respect, come from home : it must be conferred by means of a declaratory or permissive Act, framed for the Colonial Em- pire, —an Act forcing f nothing upon the people of the Church abroad, but simply and solely relieving them and enabling them to deal with their own difficulties : if this Act * Truth is great, and will prevail in the end. t Mr. Fox, I think, in the debates upon the " Quebec Act" of 1791, ex- pressed hirrself in favor of a course of action differing from this. He said (I speak from memory) that if the people of Canada did not want a free ))olitical constitution, it ought to be forced down their throats. B 10 were passed, they would then be put in a position to delibe- rate in a formal and legal manner, respecting their own affairs and under necessary restrictions, to legislate upon them : but It is, m the strictest sense of the word, preposterous to raise a cry of rights and privileges infringed, or liberties invaded and taken by surprise because the best and truest friends of the Church have tried to procure for her members in the Co- lonies, at once, by a comprehensive measure, that freedom of action which is the ^rs< stepixi their defined rights and privi- leges, from which all the rest are to follow. If it had been judged necessary to invite the expression of public opinion upon the subject, from every corner of every Colonial Diocese of he Empire, before proceeding to confer this boon upon the Colonists of our communion, I conscientiously believe that no two things upon earth would have been more contrasted than the deliberate and undisturbed judgment of the Colonists upon the subject, and the result which might, in some places, have been obtained by the agitation and misrepresentation of the held ^^'*^' *" *^^'^ endeavors to have the boon with- For my own part, after all which can be said, I do not in the least shrmk from declar.ng my private opinion that we should mistake our present position, if we were to hold that the Government of England, acting in concert with the Eccle- siastical authorities, is not competent to initiate and carry through a measure which shall ascertain our powers and set us free to pu our machinery in motion. If we quarrel with this, we are only flymg in the face of our benefactors. We are, in this Diocese, certainly, very far removed from a state of mde- pendence : we are not only part and parcel of the Church of England ; not only comprehended in the superior jurisdiction of the See of Canterbury, (in both which relations we should have continued to stand under the Bill,) but we hancr on upon England still, for almost the whole support of the Church; we bear a loose, unformed, and, for the most part, a merely missjonary character, drawing our strength from a dis- ance ; and if different prospects are, by little and little, openincr themselves before us, and new duties begin to present them° selves and new efforts are becoming indispensable, we may be glad to have things put in train for us, which will enable us to II assume a new position. It would be \.v un ill grace, in any case, that we should bluster, (if I may vr, no familiar a word ) about our independence, unless we are liberally upholding the Church upon the spot and helping her operations. The loud- ness of our tone ought to be a little subdued upon this point, m some kmd of accommodation to the amount of our personal sacrifices and exertions. Upon a review, therefore, my brethren, of all these parti- culars, I have to say that, in having complied with the call made upon me to proceed to England and take part in the deliberations to be held upon the ecclesiastical arrangements in question, I have nothing whatever to regret. I went upon the service of the Church and under the abundant conviction that I was promoting both your interests and your wishes. But since the general measure has, for this time, failed, and we have opportunity given to confer together upon the sub- ject and to consider the best measures to be taken for pro- moting the ends in view, before the Bill, or a modified Bill in substitution for it, can be carried through the Imperial Parlia- ment, I invite you, in all confidence, to meet me for this and other, purposes, according to the tenor of a Circular which 1 am sending off to the Clergy and of which you will all duly receive communication.* If I apprehended that the Anti- Church spiut which, to whatever confined extent among our- selves, has manifested itself in the agitation of these questions, would be infused in any prevailing degree, into our delibera- tions, I should feel satisfied that it would be happier for us not to meet at all, as, again, if I anticipated that the same effect would be largely developed by our being authorized to engage formally and legally in Synodical action, I should feel that it would be more advantageous for us to go without it till we can be better taught in the school of Jesus Christ. But I bless God that I think I know the temper of my Diocese at large, of which, among many other proofs, one eminently conspicuous, was afforded in the earnest and cordial disposi- tions of the meeting of our Clergy and Lay Delegates, upon the subject of the Clergy Reserves, in 1851; and as I am conscious to myself that I shall meet those two bodies, in no magis terial spuit and with the fulkv^t sense of needing help and * A copy of the Circular is subjoined to thip Lt'tter. r J2 counsel at their hands,— so I am not without an encourGoina hope that some pel- ns who have made a grievance of the course taken in this matter, only because they have misunder- stood It may be brought by the character and the result of our approaching proceedings, to a different estimate of that course and that others may learn from us a new and happier spirit! than that which before reigned within their besoms A grea; raany misrepresentations, of our local Church mat- ters, a great many false and some most injurious constructions of my own proceedings, have latterly been anonymously put abou tin this community, of which I have not seen, I suppose a tenth, perhaps not a twentieth part, and of which I should have seen none, if they had not, in some special instances, been brought under my eye by friends. I pray God to forgive the authors of them and to turn their hearts— but I shall ^ake no other notice of them here than by applying to the case between these masked assailants and myself, the words of ^n ancient Roman, which came lately in my way.-Quintus Vanus ail Marcum, regid pecunid corruptum, rempubli- cam tradere volm^se. Marcus Scaurus huic culpee affinem esse negat : utri magis credendum putatis ?* To those, however, who are accessible to the'voice of their Bishop I would most earnestly and affectionately address mv pa ernal charge that, in all which iiow seems to be before us m the proceedings of the Church, they will endeavor to keep the umty of the spirit m the bond of peace. And O pray for the peace of Jerusalem ; they shall prosper that love thee. .For myself,-let other parties do what they will and assail the Church and her guardians as they please,-«one of these things shall move me from my course: through eiM report and good report, f I shall, by the help of God, go on so long a i I may be yet spared in the administration of the Diocese and the instruction of the fold, acting upon the same principles by which I have been guided from the first and which arem harmony with those of my two venerated predecessors. * Quintus Varius says that Marcus Scaurus, having been corrunted hv money received froni the [Numidian] King, wanted toitray theSubli^^ t Eph, iv. 3. Ps. cxi. <;, Ads xx, 21, 2 Cor. vi, 8. icourcging mce of the misunder- sult of our hat course, •ier spirit, urch mat- nstructions nously put ' suppose, I should nces, been to forgive shall take the case ords of ^n -Quintus "empuhli- (B affinem e of their Idress my before us r to keep \ O PRAY that love will and -none of ough evil d, go on, 3n of the the same nd which ecessors. rrupted by 1 republic. the two do 13 But whatever be my attachment to Church principles, I am identified with no party^ properly so called ; and I do know, within myself, that I breathe a spirit of peace towards all, and hope the day may come when we shall be all united. I pray then, that in the present crisis of our affairs, we may, both among ourselves and to all men^ manifest, as the dis- ciples of Christ, such a temper of heavenly love as may tend to disarm the adversary and to heal the hurts of Zion. We shall never cease to misunderstand one another, more or less, so long as we are encompassed with the infirmities of the flesh : we see but darkly now with reference to things human, as well as to things divine : let it be our aim to prepare for that day when we shall see face to face ; and let each of us for himself, so prepare his own heart, by the grace of Christ, and so fulfil his own task, as remembering that every man's work shall he made manifest, for the day shall declare it* * 1. Thess. V. 12. 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 1 Cor. iii. 13. I am, my dear brethren. Your affectionate servant in the Gospel, G. J. QUEBEC. Circular to the Clergy of the Diocese of Quebec, Quebec, 31st October, 1853. Reverend Sir, In consequence of its having appeared to the assembled Clergy and Laity, at the Anniversary Meeting of the Diocesan Church Society, before my return from England, that it would be for the convenience of the members generally, to hold the meetings in future, in January instead of July, and of the pass- ing of a resolution to that effect in which I am, in my capacity of President, about to afford the necessary concurrence, — I have now to request that you will take that opportunity of attending also the Triennial Visitation, which otherwise would have been held at the time of. the Church Society Meeting in July next. You will be pleased, therefore, to appear in your gown and bands, in the Cathedral Church, at Ten o'clock, A. M., on Wednesday, the 11th of January next, to attend Divine Service and receive the Episcopal Charge, with the customary formalities upon such occasions observed. I have also to request that, in conjunction with your Church Wardens, you will, with all convenient expedition, take mea- sures for the election, by the members of the Church within the limits of your charge, of Lay Delegates, (being esta- blished communicants of the Church,) two for your Congre- gation and two for each Congregation, if you have more than one, to represent their interests at a meeting of the Clergy of the Diocese and the Delegates so chosen, to be held in the National School-house, at Quebec, on Thursday, the 12th of January, at Ten o'clock, A. M., to take into consideration the object of procuring by Imperial Legislation, the privilege of Synodical Action for the Colonial Churches, as well as the steps which may be necessary for preserving the rights and promoting the interests of the Church, upon the spot. I take the liberty of suggesting that the expenses of (he Delegates should be defrayed by the Congregations. I am, Reverend Sir, Your atTectionate brother, G. J. QUEBEC.