''TT-- mf" .•-^y--""'^'^ Eccic ^ .m n CONCISE HISTORY ■| OK pFeneh^Gafea potestantism 'yi HEY. JOHN Ci\iTPBie:M IL.D., .Prokks?or of Church I^istory .VND-ApOLo■ 11 ^ FREflGli'^GTlNfiDIAH PROTESTflflTlSIVI. Protestant writers on the history of the church date the period of Deformation, as opposed to Reformation, from 1540, when the order of Jesuits was founded. During succeeding centuries, vast numbers of Protestants in Poland, Hungary, Tran- sylvania, Bohemia, Moravia, Southern Germany, the Low Countries, France, Italy and Spain, were, through the machinations of this order, put to death or compelled to apostatize. Canada also shared in the horrors of the Deformation. To such an extent was the history of New France in the hands of the authors of the Relations des Jesuites and their friends, that it is only by the merest accident one can discover the truth as to the original state of religion in the colony. French Canadians writer.-, ignore or belittle the primitive Proter tant element, and persons in our midst, of British parentage, who have little sympathy with French Canadian evangelization, look upon the Pro- vince of Quebec as front the beginning part of the inalienable estates of the church of Rome. Fortunately there is ample ground for a strong appeal against such a decision, ■ ) • PROTESTANTS WERE FIRST. Jacques Cartier and Samuel Champlain were Catholics, and the latter a very zeal- ous one. But, in the last year of the six- teenth century, the first real founder of a colony in New France was the naval off '^^r Chauvin, or Calvin., of Rouen, a Huguenoi, whose unfortunate settlers at Tadousac were, >ome of them at least, of the same creed. The expedition of De Monts in 1604 was composed very largely of Huguenots, and although Henry IV. commanded him to make Catholics of the Indians, the utmost freedom of worship was allowed his set- lers, first at Port Royal and afterwards at Quebec. In his vessels there were Hugue- not pastors and Catholic priests, whose discussions Champlain relates with evident Romanist bias ; but neither seem to have settled in the colony, for it is recorded that no priests were resident in Canada before 1615, when Champlain brought out four Recollets. The Huguenot pastors were not encouraged to stay in a public capacity, yet religious services were certainly held and the jsacraments administered, according to the order of the "Reformed church, which leads to the beliefH:Jiat ordained men were found in private life. COMING OF THE FIRST PRIESTS. A contest speedily began between the two creels, owing to the desire of Madame de Guerchevii--^ to send two Jesuit Fathers, Eiard and Masse, to convert the Indians of Acadia. Du Chesne and Du Jardin, Hugue- not merchants of Dieppe, who had a lien on the vessel chartered for this expedi- tion in 1610, refused to allow it to sail unless the Jesuits were excluded, whereupon the devout Marchioness raised the amount of the bond at court, and the vessel sailed. Thus these two Jesuit Fathers were the first priests to settle in New France, and gave tone to the whole of its religious life. The captain and the sailing master of the ship in which they arrived were Jean D'Aune and David de Bruges, Huguenots both, and apparently men of liberal mind. The next Huguenots after De Monts to lead settlers to Canada were the De Caens, uncle and nephew, William and Emeric, whom the Duke of Montmorency mado superintendents of the Quebec colony. The De Caens were devout men of a fight- ing type, and held religious services with their Protestant compatriots from 1621 till 1627, when their charter was revoked. The Jesuits meanwhile arrived in 1625, and the strife became more deadly. In the year of the appearance of the De Caens, the first child of European parents was born in Canada. This was Eustache, son of Abraham and Margaret Martin, which Abraham gave name to the famous plains of Quebec, and was called the Scotch- man. He seems to have been an apostate from Protestantism, as his youngest son, Charles Amador, born in 1648, was the first Canadian ordained as a priest. It is T>.at a little interesting in a pathetic way to ob- serve that the sponsor of Charles Amador was Charles de la Tour, another pervert, whose father Claude, and his own heroit wife, were both devoted Huguenots. BEGINNINGS OF ROMISH AGGRESSION. In 1623 the troubles of the Refornded Canada began. Montmorency's nephtAT, the Dukede Ventadour, purchased the vice- royalty of Canada from his uncle. He was a bigot and a lay brother, and had the spiritual interest of the colony solely in view. The Huguenots of France had been looking over to Canada as a refuge from pro- bable oppression, and resented the change of viceroys equally almost with those resi- dent in the country. Both parties, that in Quebec led by the De Caens in particular, are accused of doing all in their power to thwart De Ventadour 's designs. He could hardly find Roman Catholic sailors or set- tlers to fill his ships. He did indeed suc- ceed in obtaining captains of his own faith, but by far the greater portion of his crews was Huguenot. The consequence was that, on the ocean two-thirds of the whole com- mand regularly engaged in religious exer- cises and that publicly. As a concession, however, to the Duke's prejudices or scru- ples, they forbore to make their hymns sound too nosily on the St. Lawrence. But the Jesuits soon put a stop to external wor- ship on the part of Protestants, So far as can be judged from contempor- ary records, the two parties, Catholic and Huguenot, must have been about equally matched in New France at this time, if, indeed, the Huguenot did not preponder- ate. But Louis XIII. devoted to the Virgin, was on the throne of the mother country ; Rochelle had fallen ; and Richelieu had , seduced Sully, Rohan, and other Hugue-. not peers of France. What wonder that defection on a smaller scale should take \ place in France's posesssion beyond the sea! The religious disputes between Champ- , lain and the Jesuits on the one hand, the - the De Caens and the Huguenots on the ^ other, are alleged as the reason for putting the American colonies on a new basis. In point of fact the De Caens and their fello' ' Protestants simply asked for liberty of con- J science and equal rights. PROTESTANTS LOSE THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS. In 1627 came the blow directly aimed at the Huguenot party. Richelieu deprived the De Caens of their charter, and gave it to the company of One Hundred Associates, on, among others, the foUwing conditions : that their emigrants should be Frenchmen and Roman Catholics ; that no stranger or heretic should be allowed into the country ; and that the company should place and provide for the maintenance of three priests in each settlement. Thus in 1627 came the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes for the Huguenots of New France. The following year, the yonnger De Caen, smarting under his wrongs, joined the Hu- .;. ■ ■;-' ■• -^ 8 - . . _, , , ^• guenot refugee in England, Sir David Kirkt, ■ in the Duke of Buckingham's invasion of Canada. That year they were unsuccessful, but in 1629 Champlain surrendered Quebec into their hands. The colonists received the victors with something approaching joy, certainly v/ith the utmost good will, which would indicate a considerable population friendlj' to the Reformed faith. Sir James Le Moine does not know whether Abraham Martin, the Scot, fraternized with the new Governor and his Protestant chaplain, but he does inform us that the latter was sent for to christen the little daughter of Monsieur Couillard, who was a man of note in the city. How many more Huguenots there were in it then, future research may declare. Charlevoix ■ furnishes the names of five : Le Baillif , a native of Amiens, to whom Kirkt gave the key of the Magazine ; his fellow deserters, Etienne Brule, of Champigny, Nicolas Mar- solet of Rouen, and Pierre Raye, of Paris, which last he calls " one of the most wicked men it was possible to see." The fifth was ** the furious Calvinist Jacques Michel," who had incited Kirkt to his expedition, and was actually on board it as vice-admiral. There is no mistaking the rancour of Charlevoix. In 1632 the Treaty of St. Germain en Laye restored the colonies to France, and the Hun- dred Associates. HOW THE SCOTCH DISAPPEARED. Meantime, Claude de la Tour, the Hugue- not, in connection with Sir William Alex- i 9 ander's grant of Nova Scotia, had estab- lished a hundred Scotch colonists at Port Royal, of whom many died from hardPhip or were killed by the hostile Indians. In 1635 La Mothe Cadillac saw two men of one of the surviving families at Port Royal, who had become Roman Catholics and married French wives. The same state of things happended, on a far larger scale, after the British Conquest of Quebec, when the discharged men of Eraser's, and Montgomery's, and other High- land regiments, settlr * ^11 along the Lower St. Lawrence, and, maiiying French wives, lost their language and their religion. These are but some of the lost sheep of our Pro- testant House of Israel. We surely have a duty to bring them back into the fold. Charles de la Tour, who deserted his father's church, was rewarded "for his zeal for the Catholic, apostolic and Rodman religion," as was the commander de Razilly, with grants of land. Yet they do not apear to have carried their zeal to the ex- tent of persecution, for Dr. Gregg seems to indicate that descendants of a Huguenot remnant are to be found about Lunenburg and River John. They may, however, be descendants of later immigrants. A CURIOUS CONVERSION. Thirty years pass, and still there are Huguenots in Canada. Parkman, in his Old Regime, says of the year 1665 in Quebec: " The priests were busy in converting the Huguenots, a number of whom were to detected among the soldiers and emigrants. One of them proved refractory, declaring with oaths that he would never renounce his faith. Falling dangerously ill, he was carried to the hospital where Mother Catherine de Saint Augustin bethought her of a plan of conversion. She ground to powder a small piece of a bone of Father Brebeuf, the Jesuit martyr, and mixed the sacred dust with the patient's gruel; where- upon, says Mother Juchereau, ' this in- tractable man forthwith became gentle as an angel, begged to be instructed, embraced the faith, and abjured his errors publicly with admirable fervor.' " In the ranks of the regiment Carignan Salieres, a Huguenot captain, and fifteen men were converted, or perverted, and re- ported joyfully by the intendant Talon to the bigoted king. Many of the non-resi- dent merchants of Quebec were Huguenots from Rochelle. **No favor was shown them; they were held under rigid restraint, and forbidden to exercise their religion, or to remain in the colony during winter without special license." This sometimes bore very hard upon them. SORER PERSECUTION. The governor Denonville, sdn ardent Catholic, states the case of one Bernon, who had done great service to the colony, and whom La Hontan mentioned as the principal French merchant in the Cana- dian trade. " It is a pity,' says Denon- ville, " that he cannot be converted. As V . 11 he is a Huguenot, the bishop wants me to order him home this autumn, which I have done, though he carries on a large busi- ness, and a great deal of money remains due to him here." Louis XIV. sent orders to imprison heretics who should refuse to abjure, or to quarter soldiers on them, whereupon the pious Denonville, having stated that a few had abjured in the former year, added " Praised be God, there is not a heretic here." a Denonville's report was, perhaps mercifully, untrue. Charlevoix indeed tells how La Salle's pilot Tessier abjured his Calvinism in the parish church of Montreal in 1688. But, in the annals of 1690, he relates that the most accomplished officer in New Prance was the Sieur de La Porte Louvigny, a re- formed captain, and the leader of the Mont- real convoy to Machillimakinac. In the re- cords of •the same year, he mentions the Chevaliers de Clermont and de La Motte, reformed captains ; the Sieur Colombet, a reformed lieutenant ; the Sieur Des Marais, a reformed captain, who commanded the ■ fort at Chateauguay ; and the Sieur de Vil- lleu, a reformed lieutenant, who, at Quebec, bravely opposed the English Sir William Phipps. In the annals from 1691-1693, Char- levoix adds the names of M. de Beaucourt, captain ; the Sieur de Lusignan, captain ; ' the Baron de La Hontan, captain ; and the Sieur d'Argenteuil, lieutenant. In a des- patch of M. de Monseignat, Comptroller- General of the Marine of Canada, giving an account of hostilities against the British Colonies in 1689-1690, he says : " The best 12 qualified Frenchmen were the Sieiirs de Bourepos and de La Brosse, Calvinist offi- cers, who served as voiinteers/ And in the despatch relating to Frontenac's Expedi- tion against the Onandaga Indians in 1696, mention is made of Sieur Dejordis, a Cal- vinist captain who commanded Fort Fron- tenac ; of Sieur de Saint Martin, another Calvinist captain at the head of the Quebec battalion ; and, further on in the document, appears the name of Dauberville, a third Calvinist captain. The Abbe de Belmont, in his history of Canada, mentions a Re- formed captain Arabelle who was killed by the Iroquois in 1689. M. Benjamin Suite, in a note to his paper on "Les Tonty," states that the Comte de Bangy commanded seven companies of the Reformed in Canada before 1689, when they were ordered back to France. These are but small samples of what the archives of Canada will yet furnish* in large measure to patient research. As for indi- vidual Huguenots of humbler rank, it is hardly probable that their record has been preserved. In his *' Frontenac," Parkman says " the church, moreover, was less successful in excluding heresy from Acadia than from Canada. A number of Huguenots estab- lished themselves at Port Royal, and formed sympathetic relations with the Boston Puri- tans. The bishop at Quebec was much alarmed. " This is dangerous," he writes, ** I pray your majesty to put an end to these disorders." But the priests were busy there also, for M. des Goutins, who was judge in the colony, wrote to the minister in 1689, .13 charging one Trouve, a priest, witli causing the banishment of a family of nineteen persons. What are these, however, save acciden- tal records, preserved doubtless against the will of the dominant religious party, of a relentless and untiring persecution of the unhappy Huguenot, until he was compelled to apostatize or betake himself in exile to the New England colonies. What happened to the faithful who refused to deny the faith ? Mr. Smith, in his History of Cana- • da, says : " During the time that Canada was a colony of France, a person suspected, with or without foundation, was seized, thrown into prison, and interrogated with- out knowing the charge against him, and without being confronted with his accuser ; and was deprived of the assistance of rela- tions, friends, or counsel. He was sworn to tell the truth, or rather to accuse himself, and was never confronted with the person who had accused him, except at the moment before judgment was pronounced, or when the torture was applied, or at his execution." Where are the records of that secret tribu- nal before which the law called the Hugue- not heretic ? Cana ia and Acadia as well as France lost much of their best blood when the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes was put in force on this side of the Atlantic. Yet there are well known French Canadians at the present day who point with not a little pride back to their Huguenot ancestry. The Roman Catholic clergy, backed by royal authority, said, " the French speaking Pro- testants shall not live in Canada," and vir- tuaily kept their word. Is it too much that we should answer with " he shall ! " and keep our word too ? A SMALL REMNANT LEFT. « In 1759 Quebec was taken by Wolfe, and in 1763 the Treaty of Paris ceded the whole of New trance to Great Britain. In 1774 there were only 400 Protestants, exclusive of the army, in the Province of Quebec, and these were, with few exceptions, of recent importation. But before that time, there was, as Dr. Gregg informs us, on the roll of the church of England a Rev. M. Mont- mollin, a native of Switzerland, who preached to a small congregation of French Huguenots in Quebec as early as 1768. It would be very interesting to discover his parish register, and learn if the members of his flock were connected with such old Que- bec families as the Couillards of the time of the Kirkts. An obscure but apparently truthful piece of French Canadian Protestant tradition that links the Huguenots of the past with the missionary labors of the present cen- tury is the fact that, prior to 1795, two Frenchmen were found selling bibles, the version of Martin, in the Province of Quebec or Lower Canada, and were compelled to retire before the activity of the priesthood. They withdrew to Niagara, and there a M. Filiatrault bought a bible from them, v/hich he carried back to his home at St. Therese, in which it exercised a salutary influence. Whence these two Frenchmen came or by whom they were employed, who can tell ? BEGINNING TO WIN THEM BACK. It was reserved for the beginning of the present century to see ar effort inaugurated for the evangelization of Lower Canada. The British Wesleyan conference sent out the Rev. Jean de Putron to preach the Gospel in the French language in Quebec and other places, a work which he continued from 1815 * till 1821, the year following that in which ^ the Montreal Branch of the Bible Society was formed. Captain Anderson, R.A., after- wards general, being stationed in the pro- vince, took a deep interest in Protestant in- struction, and was grieved over the success- ful aggression of the Romish priesthood. He apparently succeeded in obtaining for some years an agent of the British Refor- mation Society to do home mission work in Quebec and elsewhere about 1830, but there are no traces of his name or influence. The church of Rome seems to have had all its own way without let or hindrance. But in i99.i thp Rev. Henri Olivier, who had been sent out by a missionary association of the . Lausanne Churches, together with his wife and two young men, to labor among the In- dians, was arrested by the Macedonian cry of French Canada. The young men went en to evangelize the Sioux, but the Oliviers remained in Montreal, where they formed a smaM Baptist Church that exhibited three French Canadian converts as the result of a year's work. At the end of it, the climate compelled them to go home. Before they left Montreal, they were joined by Madame Feller, whose name stands so 16 . . high in the annals of French Mission work, and by M. Louis Roussy, delegated by the Associated churches of French Switzerland. M. Roussy continued the Roman Catholic French School, which had been commenced by Mr. Dentan, one of M. Olivier's two young friends who afterwards went to the Sioux ; but was soon driven out by priestly influ- ence. Then Madame Feller and he labored for a while in Montreal and St. Johns, and at last in 183G returned to Grande Ligne and established the mission, which has there proved so successful. They continued the Baptist traditions of the Oliviers, and the record of their faithful and victorious years of service, down to the year 1868, when Madame Feller went home to her rest, is told in the memoir of that sainted woman by Dr. Cramp. All honor to the Swiss Bap- tist missionaries. They broke almost fal- low ground, and inaugurated the educational system which has been followed with most beneficient results. The Haldane brothers, who had aroused the evangelical sentiment in French Switzerland that affected Madame Feller and M. Roussy, did not forget their disoiples, but formed at Edinburgh about 1835 an ** Edinburgh Committee for the man- agement of the French Canadian Mission." Not all on the Committee were Baptists, but they helped the Baptist Mission as the only one then in the field. ?■ WORK OF THE BIBLE SOCIETY. • But others were not idle. The Bible Society, which appears to have distributed copies of the Scriptures in French, long be- fore the Montreal Auxiliary was formed, was aroused by the state of affairs during the Rebellion of 1837, with which the French converts sympathized, to do something for the spiritual well-being of the once priest- ridden but now revolting Canadian. The state prisoners in the goal received 200 copies of the Scriptures in their own tongue, and read them. As early as 1836 the Montreal Auxiliary had employed an agent to circu- late French Scriptures in Montreal, and, in 1838, there appears the name of Mr. P. V. Hibbard as colporteur for all the French Canadian parishes in the district. This was the sowing of the seed, and it was well sown, and fell in many cases upon good ground and bore fruit. Since that time all the Canadian agencies have scattered French sacred and religious literature broadcast, with gratifying results, from Halifax to Quebec, from Montreal to Cornwall, from Ottawa to Bayfield, and from Algoma to Manitoba. The Bible and Tract Societies have furnished the Lumbermen's Mission of our own Church, and many similar evange- listic bodies, with the printed sinews of war for the great contest between priestcraft and divine enlightenment. FRENCH CANADIAN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. The Rev. James Thomson was the agent of the Bible Society in Montreal, a society in which all denominations of Protestants met on a common platform. Owing largely 18 to his instrumentality, there was formed in 1839, the French Canadian Missionary So- ciety, an undenominational body in name and management, but sustained almost ex- clusively by Presbyterian gifts and offerings. Among its founders may be mentioned the Rev. Dr. Taylor of Erskine Church, Dr. Wilkes and Dr. Strong, and Messrs. John Redpath and James Court. The Society at once opened communicatior for financial purposies with Glasgow, Scotland, and for missionary supply with Geneva, Switzerland. Money came from Glasgow, and from Gen- eva came several noted missionaries, inclu- ding M. and Madame D. Amaron, and Mm. Moret and Prevcst. They arrived in 1840, and, a little later, came the Rev. J. E. Tan- ner and his wife, and M. Chevallez. Inde- pendent of the French Canadian Missionary Society, and the Baptist Mission of Grande Ligne, was M. E. Lapelletrie, who left France in 1839 as the agent of the British and For- eisTP Bible Society, and, in the end of the fol- lowing year, another Frenchman, M. J. Ves- sot, joined the ranks of the F. C. M. S. BEGINNING OF MISSION SCHOOLS. Th undenominational French Canadian Society, emulating the Baptist Mission of Grande Ligne, engaged at various times, in four branches of missionary work ; pri- mary Protestant education, colportage, evangelization by preaching, and the train- ing of missionaries. Mission-school work was begun by Madame Amaron at Belle Riviere in 1840, with comparatively small 10 attendance, and was in 1846 transferred to Pointe aux Trembles, so far as the boys' school was concerned, under the care of Messrs. Tanner and Vernier. The school for girls, begun by Madame Tanner in Mont- real in 1846, was, three years later, also transferred to Pointe aux Trembles, where, under many able and devoted directors and directresses, the twin-school has since gathered in large numbers of French Cana- dian Roman Catholic youth, and has made through them a permanent impression upon the religious thought and life of the Pro- vince. A very complete history of this school and its eminent teachers is contained in the 42nd annual report of the French Canadian Missionary Society in 1881. The invaluable services of the colporteur have not met with the same recognition. Only a name here and there has been preserved of the men who, more than all others, spread abroad Grospel light among those whom Rome's system had left in almost pagan darkness. Messrs. Vessot and Chevallez commenced this good work, which extended to all parts of the present Dominion in which French-speaking Canadians were to be found. In 1848, the Rev. John Black, afterwards the pioneer missionary of the North-West, be- gan his three years' service in the F. C. M. S. . A FRENCH CANADIAN CHURCH. The Society made an effort to unite all French-preaching ministers in a French Canadian Reformed Church. These included its own ordained missionaries and the minis- 20 - ters of churches that had independently taken up French work, such as Mr. Roux. a Baptist, and Mr. Doudiet of our own Church. This was in 1858, but the Synod, which at one time consisted of ten congregations, with about 2,000 adherents, disintegrated in 1876, and its components returned to the denominations of their choice. The effort, however, had not been in vain, for it had drawn the isolated pastors into mutual sym- pathy, and enabled them to present a united front to the common enemy of their work. The training of missionaries was first un- dertaken by the Rev. P. Wolff in 1852, whose four students were A. Solandt, E. Jamieson, A. Geoffroy, and R. P. Duclos. The latter, and subsequently the two Groulx and J. M. Des Ilets, also studied at Geneva. In 1867, the Society procured the services of the Rev. D. Coussirat, B.D., of Montauban, as profes- sor of theology, and transferred the semin- ary from Montreal to Pointe aux Trembles in 1869. But in 1870, the Canada Presby- terian Church havihg taken up the work of French evangelization. Prof. Coussirat cast- in his let with it, and occupied a chair in the Presbyterian College, Montreal. It is hard to over-estimate the importance of the influence brought to bear on French-speak- ing Canada by the French Canadian Mission- 8,ry Society in the matters of primary reli- gious education, the dissemination of the Scriptures, the direct preaching of the Gos- pel and care of souls, together with the training of Christian workers. Nevertheless, there was a weakness in the ar'ministration, not arising out of the char- 21 . acter of the men who composed it, for rarely has a more able and truly consecrated body of Christian philanthropists been assem- bled : nor out of any lack of zeal or pru- dence on their part : but out of the lack of cohesion which undenominational ;enter- . prises are ape to exhibit, and partly out of the impatience of ordained missionaries of being dictated to by a committee composed largely of laymen. WORK BY THE CHURCHES. The Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland had its separate mission of St. John's Church in Montreal since 1862. A little later, Messrs. Labelle and Groulx and Paradis had began work under the auspices of the Canada Pres- byterian Church. The Church of England had its mission of Sabrevois ; and the Methodists were working up towards their present flourishing French Institute in the western suburb of Montreal. Also, as early as 1859, a great event took place. Father Chiniquy, priest of the parish of St. Anne, Kankakee, in the State of Illinois, partly through the teachings of the Rev. T. Lafleur, of the Baptist Mission in Montreal, had thrown off the yoke of Rome ; and several years after, with 600 of his people, was re- ceived into the Canada Presbyterian Church. Added to this, the members of the Presby- terian churches who were the chief suppor- ters of the French Canadian Missionary So- ciety, and the ministers and elders who were on its Board, saw the necessity for having 22 •• ■ - ': church work under church control, inasmuch as this would only mean ceasing to share its direction with the comparatively small Congregational Church in British North America. OUR OWN WORK : FATHER CHINIQUY. In 1869, Prof. Coussirat began to give in- struction in the Presbyterian College, Mont- real, which had been founded in 1867, and in 1870 the Presbytery of Montreal petitioned the General Assembly of the Canada Pres- byterian Church to enable it to engage in French work. At the following Assembly, Dr. R. F. Burns read the flrst report of the Committee on French Canf.dian Evangeliza- tion, which emphasized Professor Coussirat's good work, and referred to the mission- ary labors of ten students. Principal MacVicar succeeded Dr. Burns as chair- man of the Committee ; and it was deemed advisable by hini and his colleagues, of whom the writer was one, to strike a blow for free religious speech in French Montreal, the Protestant churches of which had fre- quently suffered from the violence of Roman Catholic mobs. It was felt that the man for the work w^as the Rev. Charles Chiniquy, better known as Father Chiniquy. Dr. Mac Vicar's report of the Committee to the Assembly of 1875, contains the substance of the story of the remarkable movement which took place in Montreal during the previous winter, and can hardly be improved upon, but the writer, as a participator in all but one of Father Chlniquy's meetings, can add some picturesque particulars. : 23 THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY IN • MONTREAL. , : . -; The object of the struggle was freedom to preach the Gospel to French Canadians. In response to the Committee's desire and pro- mise of substantial help and defence, Father ChiJiiquy came to Montreal on the 22nd of January, 1875, and labored till the 25th of March. He began his preaching in the Craig , Street Church, then under the French Cana- dian Missionary Society. It could not hold the crowds that came to hear him, for the committee advertised him by posters all over the city, and the Craig Street people were unable to give the venerable missionary the protection we guaranteed him. The church windows were smashed, and preacher aud congregation stoned out of the building. Other churches farther removed from the French element were asked for the use of their buildings but their managing boards, "earing violence, declined to grant them. CENES IN COTE STREET CHURCH. x'hen it was that the office bearers of Cot6 St. Church, the nearest among Canada Pres- byterian churches to the French quarter, ventured into the breach and welcomed the apostle of French Canadian Protestantism. The Protestant press was aroused ; the city police placed in requisition ; a corps of 300 able-bodied Protestant sympathizers, num- bering in their ranks Dr. Beers, Mr. William Greig, and many other brave men whose names it would be a privilege to mention. > did space permit, occupied the basement as a reserve force, and helped the students of the Presbyterian College, led by the stalwart Charles MacLean, as ushers and preservers of order in the sacred edifice ; all were armed, many, indeed, only with stout walk- ing sticks, but the writer had occasionally more dangerous weapons thrust into his hands by watchful friends. Three large sleighs formed the escort of the apostle. The first, full of armed men, broke the w^ay; the second contained Father Chiniquy, Principal MacVicar, the writer and occasionally such aids as Professor Cous- sirat, Mr. Doudiet, and Mr. Tanner, together with a complement of Protestant defenders; the last was like the first, and its object was to guard against an attack from the rear. The writer accompanied the preacher into the pulpit, partly because the mob would hardly care to injure an English minister, and party to take notes of his gospel ad- dresses, a synopsis of which w^as published weekly in the Canada Presbyterian. Others who stood by the brave Father . were Principal MacVicar, the organizer of the whole work, Professor Coussirat, the - Rev. Dr. Burns, and the Rev. Messrs. Dou- diet, Lafleur, and Tanner. Many who should • have been there stood aloof. The congre- gations filled the whole of the large church to overflowing, and consisted for the most part of respectable men eager to learn the truth. There were occasional interruptions, but so well did the ushers and guards do their duty that offenders were speedily handed over to the police, and the magis- .25 trate, to give him his due, meted out justice to them. , FATHER CHINIQUY MOBBED. But one evening, the students of the Col- lege held a public meeting, and the profes- sors, judging from the good order of the past, that their services in the Cote Street Church could be dispensed with that night, accepted the students' invitation. As the meeting was about to close, a sleigh drove up to the door, and soon Father Chiniquy came in, a melancholy figure, yet full of cheerful- ness. The mob had broken through the im- perfect guard, and assaulted the pulpit. The brave old Father had to save his life by flighty and in getting over a back wall had injured at least his clothes. At the college he displayed his torn "pantalon," as he called it, and said that as he thought of death and going straight to heaven, he wondered if St. Paul would call attention to his ignominious flight and the state of his wardrobe, and was prepared to answer, " But I had no bas- ket as you had at the wall lof Damascus, Paul ! " Thereafter, the hero of the hour, and those chiefly interested in his work^ en- joyed the hospitality of Principal and Mrs. Mac Vicar, in whose residence his story was retold more fully. THE BRITISH VOLUNTEERS. Next morning the news of \he outrage was all over the city, and young active men everywhere laid their heads together and 26 looked out serviceable weapons. In the evening Father Chiniauy's escort of the sleighs was at the church shortly before eight, and the students and the 300 were there to meet it, while a strong detachment of police guarded the doors. The veteran surpassed himself that night, and at the close of his address was preparing to withdraw, when a tumult arose outside. A large body of French Canadian students and others well inspired, made an assault upon the building to carry it by storm, as they had done the night before, when sud- denly a new army made its appearance. Twelve hundred British volunteers in every day dress charged up the street. There was a crash and a brief scuffle, work made for the French doctors, and then a hasty retreat. The battle of liberty was fought and won. The twelve hundred deprived the 300 and the students of their privilege of home es- cort for that night, all eager to see the gal- lant champion of the faith. Since then the French Canadian Protestant has as much Tight to speak in Montreal as the Archbis- hiop. Let us not forget how that light was gained ! RESULTS OF CHINIQUY'S MISSION. As to the results of Father Chiniauy's Montreal mission, I cannot do better than quote the report of Principal MacVicar. He says, " It is difficult to give an adequate im- pression of the arduous labors of Mr. Chini- quy, while night and day seeking the salva- tion of his countrymen ; and your Com- 27 mittee record with gratitude the fact that the LfOrd was pleased to crown his efforts with signal success. During the two months referred to, he delivered 27 public addresses in French to audiences averaging about 800 each ; so that many thousands of French Canadian Roman Catholics heard the gospel from his lips, and thus a work was accom- plished which would require years, even by several missionaries going from house to house. He delivered also, thirteen addresses in English to audiences averaging about 1,000, besides many i:rivate meetings which he hv.ld with converts and others. In addi- tion to these public labors, he conversed with about 900 inquirers, more than half of whom were led to see and acknowledge the errors of Romanism. The total number of converts already gathered is over 300 ; and I -now place on the table of the Assembly the autograph list of signatures of those who sent their demission to the priests, and thus publicly renounced their connection with the Church of Rome. A large propor- tion of these, your Committee have reason to hope, are exercising faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and are not satisfied with hav- ing simply abjured the errors by which they were long enslaved. On the 24th of March, these converts and their friends held a social meeting in the Lecture Room of Cote Street Church, to which about 700 persons were admitted by ticket. Professor Cous- eirat presided. Resolutions were proposed, ably spoken to and unanimously adopted by the converts, expressive of their renuncia- tion of Romish errors, and their attachment 28 to the Gospel and the freedom which it se- cures. The meeting was addressed by the Revs. C. Doudiet, Theo. Lafleur, C. Chini- quy and others, and was fitted to be most useful to those so recently brought out of darkness, in uniting their hearts and synipa- thies, and strengthening them to endure the reproach and persecution which they have since encountered." OUR " FRENCH BOARD " ORGANIZED. At the union of the Presbyterian churches in that same year, 1875^ the first act, framed by Principal MacVicar,'Dr. Jenkins, and the w^riter, and passed, was : " That the work of French Evangelization hitherto carried on by the churches, be united under a General Assembly Board of French Canadian Evan- gelization, w^hose office shall be in Montreal." The minute provides that that the training of missionaries shall be a first charge on the fund. The Rev, C. A. Tanner was appointed General Secretary ; and in the following year, the Rev. Mr. now Dr. Warden, was made agent, and infused new life into the Board's finances. Mission work was conse- quently largely extended. In view of the increasing efficiency of the denominational missions, Presbycerian, An- glican, Methodist, and Baptist, the French Canadian Misisonary Societv somewhat re- luctantly decided to hand over the resuUs of its long and successful labor of love, tO them. In accordance with this decision it transferred to the Board of the Presbyterian Church in Canada the schools at Pointe aux Trembles, receiving for the property there the sum oi' $5,500, and with them the whole work of the Society. The Craig Street Church, however, it made over to the Metho- dist Conference. The Presbyterian Board bought Russell Hall in the east, and built Canning Street Church in the west of Mont- real, and established preaching stations and schools in many parts of the country, as well as in Quebec, Ottawa, and other central lo- calities. PRESENT POSITION OF OUR WORK. The Rev. Principal MacVicar is still the chairman of the Board, and the Rev. Dr. Warden its treasurer, but for several years past the Rev. S. J. Taylor, M.A., an accom- plished French scholar, has efficiently dis- charged the various duties of secretary and personal director of mission work. The gross income of the Board last vear was over $36,000. The Rev. Dr. Coussirat still occu- pies the position of French Professor of theology. The efficient head of the Pointe aux Trem- bles schools, during the past twenty-five years has been the Rev. Jules Bourgoin, whose Christian zeal, devotion and scholar- ship have t'^nded greatly to place them in their present prosperous condition. The following statistics are taken from Mr. Taylor's admirable report to the General Assembly. There have been engaged in missionary labors during the past year 28 pastoral and ordained missionaries, 17 evangelists, col- V ~ 30 porteurs and students, and 20 teachers, in all 65 toilers in the French Canadian vine- yard. Of mission fields there are 37, and 93 mission stations, in the presbyteries of St. John, N.B., Quebec, Montreal, Ottawa, Glengarry, Barrie, Algoma, and Huron. "The average Sabbath attendance was 2,415 ' There are 928 families under our care, with 1,079 church members, and 990 pupils atten- ding Sabbath Schools and Bible Classes. There were 153 members added to the church during .the year, and there were distributed 901 Bibles or New Testaments, and 21,976 tracts, etc. The amount contributed by con- verts for salaries and other expenses was $5,917.70 ; amount paid as school fees, $1,602.30, making a total of $7,520.00. There were 25 mission schools in active operation, some during the year, others for a shorter period, with an aggregate attendance of 809 pupils. We cannot emphasize too strongly the im- ■'. portance of these schools. Those at Pointe , aux Trembles have already given a Chris- tian education to about 5,000 pupils, a large ' proportion of whom became true converts, and have exerted an immeasurable influence for good in various walks of liie. Not a few have become missionaries, pastors and teachers ; and others lawyers., doctors, arti- sans and agriculturists." OTHER WORKERS AND WORK. Definite statistics are hard to glean from the reports of the other churches. The Baptists have at least 142 pupils in 31 their schools, and their average attendance on religious ordinances must be considerably- over 1,000. To these must be added the French Canadian Methodists, not so num- erous, the Anglicans, who are fewer, and a j very large number, " probably far exceeding S^. those found in French churches, who have become Anglicized, and worship in English churches by preference. Many French Canadian Protestants, in- cluding some descendants of the old Hugue- not settlers, and of the disbanded Highlan- ders, who have returned to the faith of their r^fathers, live remote from mission stations, ^*^and thus have no part in church statistics. The common report with which the late Premier Mercier is credited, is that there are in the Province of Quebec over 30,000 ^ . PYench Canadians who call themselves Pro- testants whether they go to church or not. There is also a large body in the United States, including thousands of converts made in Canada, who were driven across the ?nes by social persecution, and who are ga- thered, some into the many French mission churches of New England, others into Eng- lish Protestant congregations. Dr. Amaron in his book, entitled " Your Heritage," esti- mates the French Protestants of New Eng- land at 10,000, and thosi^ of the United States at 40,000. A GREAT dlHANGE. I The dissatisfied with IRome's teaching, in Canada, are far more ihan 30,00. The old * stat*i of affairs is chaliged. Dr. Chiniquy m. r 32 may walk and talk where he pleases, and be treated with respect. Roman Catholics send, their children to the English public schools, in spite of discriminating fees. They pur- chase " L'Aurore," the French Protestant' paper, and read it publicly. Their intelli- gent men and women seek the society of the intelligent and cultivated among our French Protestants, ami in many ways show that the old barrier Vetween Catholic and heretic has been i broken down. Wise people say this is the progress of, modern ideas, the influence of the. neighbor- ing' States, ^nd many things beside, but those who are familiar with life and society in the Province of Quebec see in this change the fruit of good seed laboriously sown through long years o! painful weary wait- ing. The bread cast upon the waters is found after many d2,ys, and teaches the apostolic lesson, " Ijei us not be weary in well-doing : for in due season we shall reap if we faint not." Witness " Prinf ing House, Montreal.