The Ff^ench Canadian 
 
 IMPERIUM m IMPERIO. 
 
 A Lecture 
 
 on Qu^ Si^eeb 
 
 dvih Siace ^1^06 Ec 144, by- 
 Rev. John Burton, M. A., B. D. 
 
 Northern OorujregcUional Church, Toronto. 
 
 TORONTO: 
 THE COPP, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED. 
 
 1887. 
 
t 
 
THE FRENCH CANADIAN, 
 
 / 
 
 IMPERIUM IN IMPERIQ. ' 
 
 A Lecture on OUR CREED 
 and RACE PROBLEM, by 
 Rev. John Burton, M.A., B. D 
 
 Northern Cotujregational Church, Toronto. 
 
 TORONTO : 
 THE COPP, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED 
 
 1887. 
 

The following lecture was given to the young men of 
 the Church of which the writer is pastor as a simple 
 statement of a political problem by one who for over 
 twenty years has had no part in part)' politics. It was 
 given to inform, and to aid in the cultivation of an im- 
 partial spirit in looking at questions which unfortunately 
 divide. It is printed with the same purposes in view, 
 for a wider constituency, and in the fear of Him whose 
 only is the supreme right to reign, and whose word is 
 the ultimate arbiter of our differences and disputes. 
 May His blessing not be withheld. 
 
 Toronto, March 26th, 1887. 
 
THE FRENCH CANADIAN 
 
 IMPERIUM IN IMPERIO. 
 
 For many years the relation to our representative Govern- 
 ment, of our fellow citizens of French descent, their ecclesias- 
 tical institutions and alien customs, lias been an anxiously per- 
 plexing question, and is growingly so to thoughtful patiiots 
 and to earnest Protestants. It is the design of this lecture to 
 discuss the question by presenting facts rather than by sug- 
 gesting theories ; to indicate the problem to be solved rather 
 than to attempt at this stage a solution. This may seem a 
 gi'aceless task, but a little reflection will show that at this 
 present it may prove a useful one. *' Slaves cannot breathe in 
 England ; they touch our country and their shackles fall," is 
 now our proud boast. It was not ever thus. In 1834 went 
 iorth the word that the chain from every slave in Britain and 
 her colonies should be struck off. But before the edict was 
 passed, and the necessary details of the measure settled, the 
 public conscience had to be aroused to the fact that the holding 
 of a slave either at home or in the colonies was a crime. Once 
 convinced of that, the remedy came. In like manner regard- 
 ing the French Canadian problem, let it first be impressed — 
 there is a problem — let its magnitude be realized, the solution 
 then will be earnestly sought for, not before, and doubtlessly 
 then will be found. That there is a necessity for pressing the 
 fact, that there is a problem, may be made plain by the fol- 
 lowing extract taken from an editorij' ' in the Toronto Globe, 
 
criticizing in a very fiioudly tone the locturo as first delivered 
 and reported : — 
 
 Freedom docs not aulFer in Canada. Both Canadian races value much 
 that they liavo in common, liotli have been, and can be still further, 
 educated in tolerance and political sagacity by the union, fho Koman 
 Catholic clergy are influential ; but their influence is wholly employed, 
 not in attacking Protestantism, but in preserving those privileges for 
 which Roman Catholics particularly value Canada. VVe do not under- 
 stand how any Protestant who is attached to Great Britain and Canada 
 can think it adviaal)lc to attack Separate Schools in Ontario, or the 
 position of the French Canadians in (Quebec. One may wish Roman 
 Catholics were willing to abandon Separate Schools, and Frcncli Cana- 
 dians their language and peculiar institutions. But we say it is far better 
 for Ontario to have Separate Schools than a discontented Roman C5a- 
 t'lolic population, and far better for the Dominion to stand with the 
 Quebec tithe law, and the otiicial use of the French language, than not 
 to stand at all. 
 
 To this we reply : Class legislation is an evil, and the recog- 
 nition of religions or national castes by the State, adverse to 
 that unity which ought to be the end of our Dominion politics. 
 To establish a distinction which is to be perpetual between 
 English-speaking and French-speaking Canadians is to leave a 
 heritage of strife to our children. This especially when it is 
 demanded by a body such as the Uoman Curia, which owns 
 no nationality but its own despotism, and which claims the 
 right to overrule all other ride whatsoever. Did the Church 
 of our French-Canadian fellow-citizens keep the tradition of 
 their fathers, maintaining what are known as the Galilean 
 liberties, I should have little to say, but the Church of Que- 
 bec is thoroughly under Jesuit teaching, and that means tolera- 
 tion for us as long as exjiedient, and then Well, their 
 
 tender mercies have been ever cruel. For our Parliaments to 
 perpetuate, in such an interest, the division of our children by 
 the Separate school system into practically two hostile classes, 
 and the jealousies of race by the continual recognition of two 
 
Iang\iage8, is to invite future discord. Wo are to-day 'j)oliti- 
 cully, whoro wo were when (Joufederation loouiod up as a 
 niiglity cure-all, fast approaching a legislative dead lock. And 
 therefore I say, let the true cause be known and recognized, 
 not in bitterness, but in *^he free, frank intercourse of those 
 who are determined to perpetuate no root of future liittornoss. 
 To illustrate and press this position is therefore our object in 
 this treatise. 
 
 I. — A few words as to our stand-point. We believe in 
 Christianity, the Christianity of Christ ; for that of uhe schools 
 we care comparatively little. Christ taught tis to pray " Our 
 Father," — and the children of a common father ai'e brethren. 
 It is one of the most difficult works of life to overcome prejudice. 
 We scarce realize the immense step taken in advance of native 
 prejjidice when Peter declared at Joppa " Of a truth I perceive 
 that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that 
 feareth Him and worketh righteousness is acceptable to Him." 
 He only stepped, however, into Christian light when he made 
 that confession. Paul, to the novelty loving crowd on Mars 
 hill, declared the same in those words which rmg thi'ough the 
 ages, " God hath made of one every nation of men for to dwell 
 on all the face of the earth." I have no unkind word for the 
 French Canadian. Having lived for two summers among 
 them, my testimony is cheerfully borne to their haj)[)y, kindly, 
 virtuous character ; inoffensive and simple-hearted, theliabitant 
 has my esteem. Nor have I a word to siy here against the 
 faith which Fenelon cherished, and in behalf of which Pascal 
 wrote. Nor would I if I could deprive my fellow-citizen of 
 French descent of a single right I claim for myself. I would 
 say ever ; — 
 
 O, brother man ! fold to thy heart thy brother ; 
 
 Where pity dwells, the peace of God is there ; 
 To worship rightly is to love each other, 
 
 Each smile a hymn, each kiudly deed a prayer. 
 
\ 
 
 '8- 
 
 Nor am I less a Briton, a Protestant or a patriot, for stand- 
 ing on cosmopolitan ground. Assuredly Tennyson forfeited no 
 such claim because he " dipt into the future, far as human eye 
 could see " — _,...... . 
 
 " 'Till the war drum throbbed no longer, and the battle flags were 
 furled 
 In the Parliament of men, the Federation of the world." 
 
 Brotherhood, however, invites honest talk, the openness of 
 confidence, the utterance of the heart, not the smouldering fires 
 of discontent, or a silently gi'owing sense of injustice. If I am 
 right, the truth musu win ; if wrong, my brethren can put me 
 right, and I ought to rejoice therein ; but he like myself should 
 welcome the truth and not repel the searcher. 
 
 II. — A simple truism : The French Canadian is here. 
 According to our last census the population of the Dominion is 
 summed up at 4,324,810. Of these, 108,547 are Indians, 66,583 
 Africans, Chinese and unknown. This leaves 4,149,680 emi- 
 grants from the old lands and their descendants. One-third of 
 this number would be 1,383,227. The census gives 1,298,929 
 as the number of those of French descent. We are not far 
 from the actual state of things if we say that the French Can- 
 adians constitute one-third of the Dominion population. Of 
 these there are in our North-West Territories, 2,896. In Man- 
 itoba, 9,949 ; in Ontario, 102,743 ; and in the Province of 
 Quebec, 1,073,820. The total population of the Province of 
 Quebec is 1,359,027, leaving a non-French element of 285,207, 
 or the poportion 1 to 4.76, say 4|. How many of the French 
 Canadians are Protestants, we have no means of knowing, but 
 the poportion is so small that it need not enter into our consid- 
 eration. This is clear, that the French Canadian, with his 
 unquestioned franchise right, forms no inconsiderable factor in 
 pur Dominion, 
 
9 ' 
 
 III. — His Church is here. This follows inevitably, just 
 as inevitably, as that the Scotchman is here with his presbytery, 
 the Englishman with his bishop. There are 1,170,718 Roman 
 Catholics in the Province, and 1,073,820 of French descent. 
 From the 7,500 Indians and 123,750 of Irish birth or descent, 
 come the greater part of 97,000 Roman Catholics not of French 
 origin. The proportion of French Canadian Roman Catholics 
 to those of other nationalities, must be at least as twelve to one. 
 The Roman Catholic Church in Quebec, therefore, is virtually 
 French Canadian. 
 
 Let us digress a moment from Quebec and take a wider 
 range. Of the 4,32f5,000 that make up our Dominion, 1,792,- 
 000 are Roman Catholics, i.e., 350,000 more than one-third of 
 our population is Roman Catholic. As our Government is 
 representative, and the Roman Ci>tholic vote is in emergencies 
 a solid vote, I do not see how, under our present system of 
 party government, any politician can ignore the solid third of 
 the electorate. . .^ .- 
 
 It may be here interjected that the Protestant population of 
 Montreal — the most Protestant part of Quebec Province — is 
 as 1 to 4"5 = 4|. (This includes Hochelaga, giving a total 
 population of 180,826). In Quebec city it is as one to ton» 
 The French Canadian is here, and his Chukch also, 
 
 T suspect they are here to stay. It is a simple problem to 
 solve. The Protestant and non-French population is decreas- 
 ing steadily in the Lower Province, except in Montreal, where 
 it about holds its own — and the Church plans for all time. 
 To illustrate the last remark, one fact. Thirty years ago 
 Bishop Bourget projected a metropolitan cathedral which 
 should reproduce on a reduced, yet grand scale, that great 
 centre of Papal worship, St. Peter's at Rome. Means were 
 limited, but the work began. Every year witnessed some 
 
10 
 
 little addition to the pile. Progress seemed alow, however ; 
 so slow as frequently not to be observed. Two years ago the 
 roof was begun, last year the dome was finished externally. 
 Another quarter of a century may pass before the building is 
 even passably complete. The workmen may be buried, but 
 Rome continues, and her work goes on. She builds for the 
 ages ; she has ftiith to watch and wait, and she yet intends 
 to make Canada her own. St. Peter's at Montreal is but a 
 faint type of the advancing tenacity of her hold which, once 
 taken, never lets go. 
 
 IV. — The French Canadian has a right to be here, and 
 HIS Church, TOO. ;. , ; ; 
 
 The early English Puritan settlers along the Atlantic coast 
 were sorely perplexed about the Indians, whose hunting 
 grounds and streams wore being appropriatcsd by the pale face. 
 To them that grandest and best of all books — the Bible — was 
 a supreme guide ; to it they went for guidance. They did no 
 more than hosts of theologians have done, and numbers of 
 sectaries and cranks are doing still, they chose their texts 
 and strung them together after their own fashion ; in this case 
 a logical sequence, and here are the steps and conclusion : 
 
 Resolved, I. : Ps. xxiv., 1 — The earth is the Lord's to give 
 to whom He pleases. . 
 
 Resolved, II. : It has pleased the Lord that the seed of the 
 saints should thus possess it. Ps. xxv., 13 — "His seed shall 
 inherit the earth." 
 
 Resolved, III. : We are the saints, for (Acts ii., 39) "the 
 promise is unto you and to yoiir children." 
 
 Therefore, resolved, that we enter upon our inheritance. 
 
 Unless we are prepared thus to assume the victor's rights, 
 
 I 
 
■ • '11 ;.♦ ■ 
 
 we must concede that the French Canadian is our fellow-citizen 
 in this Dominion, and has a right to be here — with his 
 Church. .,.(,» 
 
 We Anglo Saxons are here hy right of conquest — force. The 
 French Canadian is here by the right of discovery. Jacques 
 Cartier, three centuries and ahalf ago, with his compatriots, 
 first from European lands, steered up the great St. Lawrence 
 Gulf and River, navigating its intricate channels, exploring its 
 banks ; dealing with rare prudence and justice with the na- 
 tives of the unknown wilds. In an age when the seaman spirit 
 prevailed, the discoverer of Canada found no superior in 
 bi-avery, skill and generosity. With just pride can the habitant 
 claim Cartiftr as his own. But discovery is not colonization. 
 Champlain was the virtual founder of the colony — a man of 
 remarkable character. Comraanding in presence, of gentle 
 manners, hardy, adventurous, and withal a consistently devout 
 Catholic, he occupies an honorable place in Canadian history. 
 At an assemoly of Indian chiefs in Quebec, the orator said to 
 Champlain : " We entirely love you ; all that you say is true." 
 Cham})lain was no needy adventurer. He had served his 
 country with distinction as he embarked for this dread terra 
 incognita. No blush need come to the French Canadian's cheek 
 as he claims kin with the jieroic and first Governor of Canada, 
 Samuel de Champlain. This was the class of Frenchmen who 
 began the work of opening up in these Canadian forests a 
 home for many, and who really laid the foundation of that 
 Dominion which can now be continuously travelled from ocean 
 to ocean, in luxury and ease, along the iron road. 
 
 I cannot tariy to speak of early French outposts, where now 
 our cities are : At Frontenac, Toronto, (before it was Little 
 York), Niagara, posts were established by these early settlei-s ; 
 and the Frenchman, La Salle, first of Europeans, floated down 
 the Mississippi from its head water to ihe Gulf of Mexico. To 
 
12 
 
 tae Frenchman belongs the undoubted right of being esteemed 
 Canada's discoverer. 
 
 In this discovery his church took au equal share. "We may 
 smile at the superstition which made the waters of baptism a 
 passport for heaven to the fierce filthy savages the Frenchman 
 found ; but those eai-ly discoverers believed that such they 
 were, and had, vrhat too many enlightened Protestants ha^^e not, 
 the courage of their convictions. When we see men — tenderly 
 born and cai'efully cultured — leaving sunny France knowingly 
 to do battle with the rigours of, to then), an arctic clime — see 
 them through the gloomy winter months travelling during the 
 prevalence of foul epidemic from one infected Indian village 
 to another, " wading through the sodden snow, un^er the bare 
 and dripping forests," drenched with rain or blinded by the 
 pitiless storm, entering the wi-etched huts of disease, dirt and 
 death, simply to perform the religious rite that was to send the 
 sufferer to a brighter home than his dim hunting grounds be- 
 yond the western waters, — you must feel that if* any have a 
 right to transmit perpetually to their children the result of 
 their toil, the proud, and in many respects as we shall show ei'e 
 we are done, threatening position held by the Church in Quebec, 
 has not been attained without terrible sacrifice on the part of its 
 children. Read Parkman's volume upon the Jesuits in Canada 
 — of Isaac Jogues in the hands of the fierce Indians, whose 
 children, even in his tortures, he baptized, taking the drop of 
 water his parched lips craved, to send a soul to heaven — of 
 Bressani, an Italian Jesuit, his hands split with knives, burned, 
 bruised, lacerated, torn, finger nails and joints eaten, burned 
 off, one by one ; tortures prolonged, not for hours only, but for 
 days, for weeks, for months ! respited, fed, only to undergo 
 fresh inflictions. Read, sympathize and ponder well whether 
 the Church that produced such children has not some claim on 
 the land which thus, in a measure, was won by their blood. 
 
n 
 
 Believing as I do in religious equality, in liberty of con- 
 science, and in the brotherhood of man, I am not here to vitu- 
 I)erate a religioxis faith. Life, not dogma, is Christ's test of 
 Christianity, and a sincere Roman Catholic is as safe in God's 
 hands as the most orthodox Protestant. We have, I believe, 
 the greater light — let it shine ; and being the greater it will 
 outshine the feebler, as the electric arc makes dim the miser- 
 able gas with which it is attempted to light our homes and 
 streets. No fault or mei'it of theirs or ours ; they were and 
 are born French Canadian and Papal ; we, Anglo-Saxon and 
 Protestant ; they are here with us, possessing with an unani- 
 mity we have not, a form of religious faith. They have equal 
 rights with us of being here with their Church, for the claims 
 of toilsome discovery and of heroic pioneer settlement is an 
 offset in full against any claim that conquest may possess. As 
 on the fatal plains of Abraham the names, Wolfe, Montcalm, 
 are graven on the same stone, so must, or ought, Anglo-Saxon 
 and Gaul to live side by side in one national peace and pros- 
 perity. 
 
 V. — I now come to that which, I confess, is the more un- 
 pleasant part of my task. Is there anything threatening our 
 ])eace or to mar our prosperity in this race and creed foreign 
 to our own ? To very many there is, to me among the num- 
 ber, and some points in this direction I propose now to discuss. 
 
 Roman Catholicism is more than a religious faith. 
 
 It is a compact organization that avowedly only tolerates any 
 other power that owns not its supremacy. Over kings and 
 '* sects " it claims supreme rule. Presbyter in Milton's day 
 may have threatened to become priest written large ; Anglican 
 canons abound in anathema sits, but thfso are almost entirely 
 matters of the past — the Vatican Council and its Syllabus are 
 of yesterday. 
 
And by that Syllabus (whose propositions are astutely put as 
 negatives) are condemned the contention that the Church, i.e., 
 the Roman Catholic, may not employ force ; or that in tlie 
 conflict of law, civil and ecclesiastical (N.B., not moral), the civil 
 law should prevail ; or that any other religion than the Roman 
 religion may be established by tlie State ; or that in countries 
 called Catholic the free exercise of other religions may laud- 
 ably be allowed. 
 
 And the Vatican maintains, that " not only in matters be- 
 longing to faith and morals, but also in those that ajipcrtain to 
 the discipline and government throughout the world," the Pope 
 speaking ex cathedra is to be implicitly obeyed. 
 
 Semper eadeni is the proud boast of the Roman Church, and 
 
 her claims are only in abeyance to-day. That these claims are 
 not dead letters may be clearly seen from the following extract, 
 taken from the address to the electors of Champlain (February, 
 1887) by the Nationalist candidate for that district. It is fair 
 to say that he was not elected, but the fact is suggestive tluit 
 the words were uttered : — 
 
 " I shall make it my duty to obey the orders of His Holinees Pope 
 Leo the Thirteenth, which require us to combat the influence of secret 
 societies ; and am of opinion that it is not by elevating their coryphees 
 to the highest potion in the State that we can fulfil the commands of 
 the Holy Father in this respect. It is clear to me that when the Holy 
 Father says at times it may be expedient, in a country of mixed races, 
 or of mixed creeds, to tolerate things which could not be done away 
 with without precipitating dangers still more serious, he does not mean 
 to incliide secret societies in this exception, but only the difTerent Pro- 
 testaut sects, since secret societies cannot be called creeds. Without 
 holding absolutely to this interpretation, which is. perhaps, beyond my 
 competence, I nevertheless intend to act upon it, because I believe it to 
 be sound, until directed otherwise by the proper authority. It appears 
 to me that we should not be justified under existing circumstancs in 
 declining to combat Orangeism and Freemasonry, especially in the per- 
 sons of their leaders ; for the conditions may never again be so favour- 
 able as they are at present," 
 
Let^it tlicu be understood that adverse ci'eeds are only 
 tolerated. Protestantism protects every man in the free exer- 
 cise of his religious opinions, provided he docs not invade the 
 rights of others, or antagonize the State. There is an immense 
 difference hetween toleration and protection^ and the avowed 
 principle of tJie Roman Curia is toleration only, leaving the 
 niieusy feeling that when the opportune time shall arrive, that, 
 which for expediency's sake is meanwhile tolerated, will be pro- 
 liibitod, and, as in France after the revocation of the Edict of 
 Nantes, stami>cd remorselessly out. Had Rome at the great 
 Vatican Council disavowed her old claim to supremacy, or even 
 have passed it by in silence, we might have been more at ease ; 
 but the old principles were re-affirmed, and her supreme right 
 to reign most unequivocally maintained. Did Roman Catholi- 
 cism exist, as other sects exist, simply as a religious body, her 
 right to worship, convert or pervert by moral suasion, would be 
 IX n quest ion ed ; but her claim to state sui)i*emacy, and her mani- 
 festly aggressive policy, causes us to ask in simi)lo self-defence. 
 What are her intentions ? and what are her munitions of war 1 
 And have we adequate means of defence? — for attack we re- 
 pudiate. 
 
 Here first is suggested, " What of the sinews of war T No 
 means ai-e available for summing up the possessions of the 
 Roman Church in Canada. Denouncing all secret societies, 
 Rome is herself the greatest secret society the world contains; 
 Her wealth can only be approximated by outsiders. We shall 
 attempt the task, and sis wo probably shall err, we shall take 
 care to err on. the safe side. Our figures shall be within the 
 mark, not over. 
 
 Two million one hundred and seventeen thousand one hun- 
 dred and seventy-nine acres of land belonged to various Roman 
 Catholic corporations at the time of the conquest, and let it be 
 remembered that all such corporations centre at Rome. De- 
 
16 
 
 ducting the Jesuit estates, forfeited when the order was sup- 
 pressed towaids the close of the last century, 1,223,333 acres 
 were theirs in mortmain. By a series of visions and divine 
 i-evelations the Island of Montreal was secured to the Seminary 
 of St. Sulpice, whose wealth is estimated as in excess of the 
 entire capital and property of the Bank of Montreal. That the 
 Roman Church is a great land syndicate goes without saying. 
 Anticipating civilization in our North-West Territories, she 
 bargains with Indians and Half-l)reeds for preemption rights 
 which she will take care to have respected by-and-by. Bishop 
 Grandin has already secured 6,000 acres in the North-West, 
 and Archbishop Tache thirty-five square miles near Winnipeg 
 for "the Church." 
 
 By the federation of the British North American provinces, 
 questions regarding provincial lands are under the control of 
 the Provincial Legislf^nve As the Jesuits are fast becoming 
 the ruling spirit of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec, it is 
 nothing but what might be expected that their eyes should be 
 on the forfeited estates; and as education in Quebec, other 
 than dissentient, means education under the Church, it is more 
 than likely that that astute and perpetual corporation may 
 again become seized of the coveted property — now indefinitely 
 advanced in value — under the guise of education. Indeed it 
 is a matter of public notoriety that the XJltramontanes, i.e., the 
 Jesuits, are scheming for " compensation " from the Quebec 
 Legislature for these forfeited estates, which simply means in 
 the present bankrupt position of Quebec finances, a fresh draft 
 upon the Dominion treasury, perhaps under the name ot " bet- 
 ter terms." We liave not withheld from the Jesuits their 
 deserved praise, but we cannot forget that the hand of a Jesuit 
 robbed France of her best King (Henry IV.) because he was 
 simply just to his Protestant subjects. Our own Elizabeth 
 would have fallen too, had their plots succeeded ; this so-called 
 
17 ■' ■ 
 
 society of Jesus virtually kindled the Tliirty Yeare' War, 
 which for that period desolated some of Eiirope's fairest pro- 
 vinces ; nor^ has their riglit hand forgot its cunning, foi" tlieir 
 influence upon a woman, the devout wife t)f Napoleon III., — 
 more devout than faithful — brought Germany and France into 
 conflict in 1870, and introduced that armed peace which is 
 Europe's terror at this very hour. They directed the savage 
 cruelties which in Bohemia overthrew Protestantism ; their 
 intrigues caused the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, with 
 the extermination from Franco of the Hugenots. The massa- 
 cre of St. Bartholomew followed hard upon the visit to the 
 French Court of the general of the order, and William the 
 Silent, the great and noble Prince of Orange, fell beneath the 
 ball of a Jesuit assassin. And yet we are being asked to supply 
 to them the munitions of war, to warm back to life the viper that 
 in return at any moment may play havoc in our homes. That 
 society which Rome hei'self suppressed, is to be strengthened 
 and enriched at the expense of the colony it would enslave. 
 ' ; Are wo to permit it 1 
 
 The late Bishop Strachan in 1854 estimated the amount of 
 capital bearing revenue in possession of the Church in Quebec 
 at $20,000,000. Taking into consideration the advance in 
 value, and constant acquisition since, $50,000,000 will not be 
 too much for the estimate to-day. The Toronto Mail is likely 
 to be well informed; in an editorial (Jan. 29, 1887) it says: 
 " The Church in Quebec is probably worth, all told, a hundred 
 million dollars." Allowing one-half for church edifices, grave 
 yards, hospital buildings, etc., our estimate of $50,000,000 as 
 interest bearing capital is a safe one, our only hesitancy being 
 as to whether the entire $100,000,000 ought not to be taken 
 in, for churches yield revenue in i)ew rents, which are remorse- 
 lessly collected ; in baptism fees, which range from $8 to $20 ; 
 
18 
 
 masses for tho dead and in funerals, ace ):(Iing to scenic effect, 
 are valued from $10 up to $300. 
 
 Then tithes are legally to be collected for the Church. One 
 twenty-sixth of all >^heat, maize, rye, barley, oats and peas, 
 has to ]je delivei'ed threshed and clear at the Presbytery by 
 the children of the Church. I shall attempt an estimate of 
 income, which would be none of our business were it not for 
 tho practical application of the supremacy claim already re- 
 ferred to. There are 200,000 Roman Catholic and French 
 Canadian families in Quebec. Dr. Macvicar estimates the 
 value of tithes at $20 i)er family. Some well-informed legal 
 gentlemen of Montreal think that it should be estimated at 
 $40. I have ventured, considering the comparative poverty of 
 very many of the fishing class, to place it $15. We then 
 obtain the following figures ; — 
 
 'ir 
 
 Tithes, 200,000 families, at $15 $3,000,000 
 
 Interest ou $50,000,000 capital, (> per cent 3,000,000 
 
 Pew rents, lotteries, fees, purgatory, etc 5,000,000 
 
 Estimated annual income of Church in Quebec. . . $11,000,000 
 
 The total income of the Presbyterian Church in Canada 
 averages $1,500,000 annually for all purposes, foreign mis- 
 sions included. That Church repi'esents one-fourth of the 
 entire Protestant community, and certainly one-fourth of ec- 
 clesiastical wealth. Six million dollai'S will therefore represent 
 the outside cost of Protestant work among two- thirds of the 
 people of the Dominion ; eleven million that of Roman 
 Catholicism among less than one-third. To be equal, the six 
 millions ought to be twenty-two. At the lowest estimate the 
 annual income of the Roman Catholic liierarchy in Quebec 
 amounts to nearly one-half of the Dominion revenue ; it would 
 not surprise me to learn that it was fully equal. In Toronto 
 the priesthood is so poor that not one of them from the Arch- 
 
19 
 
 bishop downward liiis an income sufficiently large tt> be 
 taxed ! 
 
 In Montreal, according to the assessment i-oll of 1884, 
 Chnrches, liospitals, schools, jjarsonages, are valued thus : 
 Roman Catholic — Churches, $1,350,000 ; hospitals, schools, 
 &c., $3,870,000 ; parsonages, $280,000. Protestant— Churches, 
 $1,240,000; hospitals, schools, «kc., $1,150,000; paiisonagos, 
 $210,000. Will anybody believe who knows ] Roman Catho- 
 lic Church property in Montreal, $5,500,0000 ; Protestant, 
 $2,000,000 ! " It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer ; 
 but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth." Unlike the 
 master, Roman Catholicism pays no tribute to Cresar, she 
 oxac^8 it the rather. .i; : .■ • 
 
 It is surely a principle of good government that no legisla- 
 tion in favour of one class should be given advei'sely to the 
 rest. In truth, no government ought to recognize class in 
 legislation. Yet what are the facts? This organization insists, 
 with the authority of public law and with monies publicly c(»i- 
 lected, upon educating her children secretly and adversely to 
 the other part of the community. She com[)els the State to 
 give her what no other body, lay or clerical, enjoys, recognition 
 as a privileged religious caste; thus perpetuating a division iij 
 the civil status of the people. 
 
 Nor is this all. The French Canadian Catholic is the sub- 
 ject of a foreign power. The Roman Catholicism of Quebec is 
 notoriously Ultramontane. If you care to enquire. What is 
 Ultramon'vianism ] the answer is ready. In its mildest form it 
 may be defiued by a sentence from an authorized catechism of 
 the Syllabus: "In sanctioning liberty of conscience and equality 
 of worship, the Church would lose her raison d'Hre, since it is 
 apparent to the whole world that there is only one true reli- 
 gion." In 1869 Cardinal Antonelli wrote to the Bishop of 
 
20 
 
 Nicaragua regarding freedom of worship and of education, 
 " Both of those principles are contrary lio the law of God and 
 of the Church." And in the catechism of the Syllabus already 
 quoted the right to teach error — i.e., what the Church of Rome 
 does not teach — is placed on the same footing as the right to 
 murder and to rob. This is comfort for Protestant ministers. 
 In other words, the preposterous claim is put forth by Ultra- 
 montanism that the Pope is su})remo judge in all matters tie 
 fideiy and with him remains the right to determine what are 
 matters concerning the faith, whether schools, taxes, or national 
 policy. 
 
 In brief: We h.ave a compact organization in our midst, 
 possessed of onormous wealth, grasping steadily for more, 
 virtually controlling under our present system of party politics 
 the election for the Houses of Legislatures, Dominion and Pro- 
 vincial, confessing to a nationality foreign to our flag, and 
 under the control — where it is deemed expedient to exercise 
 that control — of an Italian priest and his Jesuit advisers, for 
 all branches of the Papacy centre at Rome, which at the right 
 moment can bring every agency, however diverse, into line. 
 
 Have we any cause of present complaint? From our 
 stand-point — Yes. We have adopted the principle of Public 
 Schools. This is just, especially in view of our practical 
 democracy. Yet what do we find ] In Quebec the schools are 
 bitterly sectarian, for tlie Papacy in this relation is the most 
 remorseless of the sects. The Protestant minority, with rights 
 guaranteed on paper, are practically deprived of Public School 
 privileges; by the parish divisions made by the hierarchy 
 and ratified by the Government, the dissentient schools are 
 either made impossible or handicapped efiectually. In Ontario 
 we have the Separate School, which not only breaks up the 
 Public School system, but establishes scliools where children are 
 
■•■ '21 ■■ . 
 
 taught to view their Protestant neighbors as heretics, and as 
 given over to uncovonanted mercies. Is this nothing ? 
 
 The immense estates of the Papal corporations in Quebec 
 l)eing untaxed, impose ruinously unjust burdens upon the 
 remaining property holders, who are largely Protestant. 
 
 And the State is pej-potuating the existence of a foreign ele- 
 ment in our very midst, by means of whicli Ontario is practi- 
 cally separated from the Maritime Provinces, even more than 
 by distance. 
 
 Tn this connection it is well to say a few words on treaty 
 rights. The terms of capitulation agi*eed upon between France 
 and Great Britain at the conquest, simply guaranteed to the 
 the French, at a time when Roman Catholics were under many 
 civil disabilities according to British law, that the King's " new 
 Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship of their 
 religion according to the rites of the Roman Church, as Jar as 
 the laws q/ Great Britain permit." Were this interpreted 
 according to the letter and the time, there would be few special 
 privileges enjoyed by our Fi'ench Canadian citizens. It wjus 
 simply a matter of Roman Catholic emancipation for Canada. 
 Right glad are we that a liberal interpretation has been given 
 to the treaty, but there ought to be no presuming thereon. The 
 spirit of the treaty is broader than its letter, and it accords to 
 the French Roman Catholics equal privileges, not special, with 
 his Protestant fellow-citizen. The rest is simply a matter for 
 legislation, and can be changed as any other law is subject to 
 change. The terms of capitulation guaranteed the rights of 
 British subjects to the French Canadian and to his Church. 
 Actually nothing more. 
 
 What is to be done 1 
 
 Let the truth be known. Knowledge is power, and a calm 
 statement of facts will do much to clear the way. 
 
• • ■ 22 
 
 Speak the truth firmly, but in love. Ha/e the courage of 
 honest conviction, but with due regard to the rights of others. 
 
 " We want no triumphs sprung of force, ,.i--. 
 
 They stain her brightest cause : ; i 
 
 'Tis not in blood that liberty ' ^ - 'f' 
 
 Inscribes her civil laws. T ' 
 
 She writes them on the people's Iioarts, . ' 
 
 In language clear and plain ; " 
 
 True thoughts have moved the world before, ■ ; i'/ , 
 
 And so they shall again. 
 
 And the truth requires us to say that we can never found a 
 united Dominion so long as we perpetuate under the Constitu- 
 tion natural diatiiactions and religious castes; and aHow our 
 children to be by law ediicated under two hostile systems. 
 Never ! Therefore, with tender appreciation of the memories of 
 fatherland and the words the mother taught, the distinction of 
 two languages make must come to an end. So must the vicious 
 system of having a due proportion of Roman Catholic repre- 
 sentation. Why not an Agnostic, Plymoutliite representation, 
 with every other ? And the anomoly of Separate State Schools 
 must be blotted out if our peace ic uo be maintained. We miist 
 retrace some steps if we would remain united. 
 
 The late George Brown saw in representation by population 
 the great catholicon for all these woes. Protestantism being 
 then in the ascendancy. Alas for all systems that govern by 
 mere majorities, without regard to the eternnl principles of 
 justice and of truth. We have been enjoying representation 
 by population for about twenty years, and are on the eve of a 
 deadlock more bitter than that which precipitated Confedera- 
 tion, and gave our Lower Canadian Protestant friends over 
 nolens volens to the absolute control of the Quebec hierarchy. 
 Unless some changes, such as I have indicated, are made, the 
 only other solution will be — dare I utter the word 1 — anneya- 
 
r '■:':[ . >. „ : ■■ ..; 23 
 
 tion : for, the race and religious cry having been raised, the de- 
 mands made by the Roman Curia upon our Government will 
 soon be intolerable. Then will come more serious divisions, 
 and divisions mean — unless the great Republic shall fail — 
 absorption piece by piece into the company of united states. 
 This is not pessimism, but a simple statement of what men 
 unwarped by any political creed know to be inevitable. Of its 
 desirability or otherwise I have nothing to say. 
 
 Finally. That thi^ problem • may be peaceably, righteously 
 solved, allow me to put in an earnest plea for Christian states- 
 manship : Christian, not in the sense of the schools and of the 
 creeds, but Christian in the sense of fearing God, working right- 
 eousness, and esteeming the lesson of the cross — "It is more 
 blessed to give than to receive," as the guiding star of private 
 and public life. That grand old gospel, that knows no respect 
 of ))ersone,, in which there is neither Greek nor barbarian, bond 
 or free ; that knows no party save as the distinction between 
 right and wrong, truth and lies, draws the line, is the true herald 
 of Liberty and Equality ! In that sense we would have Chris- 
 tianity the religion of the State. Roman Catholicism is not 
 Christianity, nor the divisions of Protestantism either — " they 
 are but broken lights of Thee ; and Thou, O Lord, art more 
 than they." Let the Sun of Righteousness shine into hearts, 
 homes, and legislative halls. Then, only then, shall we lay 
 broad and deep the foundation of a Canadian State — free, just, 
 from ocean to ocean, embracing rock and vale, prairie and 
 mountain, in one harmonious whole, giving homes to a people 
 hapj)y, loyal, prosperous, worthy allies of free Britain, and j)eace- 
 ful subjects of a Christian Queen, whom may God preserve 
 long beyond the Jubilee year of a prosperous reign. 
 
 •mv, COPt>, CLARK COMPANY, LIMITED, PUIMTKRS, COLBORNK BTRKRT, TORONTO.