FURTHER PAPERS RELATIVE TO THE CLERGY RESERVES IN CANADA. (No. 21.) No. 1. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Earl of ELGIN and KINCARDINE to Earl GREY. Government House, Toronto, February 4, 1851. MY LORD, 2. An application was indeed lately made to me, with the view of ascertaining whether it would be proper to transmit through me certain petitions to Her Majesty on the subject of the Clergy Reserves, which, it was alleged, were in course of preparation by congregations of the Presbyterian Church in Lower Canada in connexion with the Church of Scotland. This application was answered in the affirmative, but I have not received the petitions alluded to. I may observe, however, with reference to this point, that the present position of the Presbyterian Church in Canada greatly increases the difficulty of maintaining intact the settlement of the Clergy Reserve question, effected by the Imperial Act, 3 and 4 Vict. chap. 78. By that statute a certain proportion of the proceeds of the Clergy Reserves was set apart for this body, which was then united. Since the period of its enactment, however, the unhappy disruption of the Scotch Establishment has taken place, and a considerable section of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, by joining in the secession, has disqualified itself from sharing in this portion of the endowment. By this means the original intention of the Act has been to a certain extent frustrated. 3. Although, as the usual practice of transmitting such documents through the Governor-General has in this case been departed from, I am unable to give any information respecting the petitioners, I think it by no means improbable that petitions against the prayer of the address of the Legislative Assembly, signed to the extent which your Lordship describes, or even more numerously, may have been sent from this province. It is notorious that a large portion of the clergy of the Church of England and of the Presbyterian Church in connexion with the Church of Scotland are favourable to the maintenance of the existing settlement of the Clergy Reserve question. It would indeed * See Papers relating to the Clergy Reserves in Canada, presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command, February 1851, CANADA. No. 1. CANADA. argue a state of things in the province much to be regretted, if so highly esti- To the Reverend the Clergy of the Archdeaconries of Kingston and York. YOUR attention will before this have been called to the fact that a series of resolutions, and an Address to the Queen framed upon these resolutions, has passed the Legislative Assembly of the province, praying that the Clergy Reserves, believed to have been definitively appropriated by the Act of 3 and 4 of Vict. chap. 78., should be alienated from the purposes stated in that enactment, and applied to educational and other secular objects. That an effort of this nature, aiming at the total abolition of all grants and endowments for religious instruction, should have succeeded in a Legislature calling itself Christian, must far and near disappoint the expectations of all seriously-minded and pious persons. The discredit and peril to our country from such a decision it is most painful to contemplate; but the features of the case become much more lamentable and repulsive when it is reflected that the measure just passed designs, with that of other religious bodies, the direct spoliation of the Church of England of the residue of her property in this province, and a flagrant breach of the faith virtually pledged to her in 3 and 4 of Vict. already referred to. Although the high sense of honour and unbending integrity which characterize the British nation, but which are fast losing their weight amongst ourselves in public and high places,cannot allow us to believe that a measure so flagrantly wicked and unjust as that contemplated in the resolutions and address just passed will meet with the slightest countenance from our Gracious Queen and the Imperial Parliament, it becomes us, as a duty to the truth and majesty of religion, not less than to the interests of our own branch of the Church Catholic, to record our vigorous and decided protest against this criminal act of intended spoliation. If the Parliament of this province will sanction the infidel opinion that religion is not to be cared for, and that every existing provision for its maintenance is to be swept away, the members of the Church of England,-amongst, we will believe, thousands of others,—will stand forth in honest and bold repudiation of the reproach and the sin thus incurred. We recommend that meetings should immediately be held in your respective parishes, and at the out-stations where you may officiate, and that petitions should be adopted to the Queen, and the Houses of Lords and Commons, in firm though respectful protest against this fresh injustice to the Church of England. Every effort should be made to procure the signature of every male adult belonging to the Church, in every quarter which can by possibility be reached; and our impression is decided, that if, in this crisis, the members of the Church will be but true to themselves, and rise and speak in the might of their righteous cause, and of their own vast stake and influence in the province, their voice would not be disregarded, but would soon drown the cry of the evil-minded and ungodly faction which aims at her destruction. The three hundred thousand Churchmen in the United Provinces should testify, by the strongest steps which can be constitutionally exerted, that they will not be robbed of their property with impunity, but that they will withstand, with a determination and persevering opposition, those machinations of an infidel principle, combined with a Romish hostility, which aim at the subversion of the existence and influence of their Church in this land. Political intrigue, and the selfishness which prompts it, may have much to do with the present movement; but there is a deeper principle of evil at the root. This is our solemn duty, as Churchmen and as Christians, to resist, and that with earnestness and vigour, and without delay. A form of petition is subjoined as a guidance, and it would be well that the signatures obtained should be transmitted to Mr. Champion, at the Church Society's House at Toronto, by the 1st of August next at latest, that they may be forwarded to the Lord Bishop of Toronto, and reach him before he leaves England. We remain, &c. GEO. O'KILL STUART, D.D. and LL.D., Archdeacon of Kingston. July 2, 1850. FORM OF PETITION. To the Queen's most Exellent Majesty. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR MAJESTY, WE, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, the clergy and laity of the United Church of England and Ireland in the Diocese of Toronto and Province of Canada, most humbly represent: That in the year 1791, His late Majesty King George the Third, of blessed memory, caused the appropriation to be made within the province aforesaid of the lands called the Clergy Reserves, for the support and maintenance of a Protestant Clergy: That in the year 1823 the question was first raised whether these lands pertained exclusive to the Church of England, or whether other denominations termed Protestant were meant to be included in the provisions of the Act making that appropriation: That the discussion of this question led to much agitation and strife in this province, but that it was at length finally settled by an Act passed the 3d and 4th years of Your Majesty's reign, whereby two-thirds of the proceeds of the lands then sold, and two-thirds of one-half of the lands still unsold, were allotted to the Church of England in this diocese. That this enactment, made in the year 1840, was universally regarded throughout the province as a definitive arrangement of this long-agitated question, and that your petitioners, though believing those lands to have been intended exclusively for the Church of England, quietly acquiesced in that division. That from the passing of that Act up to the close of the year 1849 no discontent with the arrangement thus settled was expressed in any quarter, and that up to the present moment there has been no agitation or feeling in the province on that account. That your petitioners, with much surprise and indignation, have observed that, during the present session of the Provincial Parliament, a series of resolutions, and an Address to Your Majesty framed upon these resolutions, has been passed, to the effect that this property for the support of religion should be alienated from that holy object, and applied to educational or other secular purposes. That your petitioners regard with horror a public enactment which aims at the abolition of all grants and endowments for religious instruction in the province, and by the contemplated spoliation of the Church of England of the residue of her property herein, the direct and reckless violation of the faith pledged to her in the Act of the 3d and 4th years of Your Majesty's reign. That your petitioners would regard the success of such an attempt as a national sin of the deepest dye and a grievous moral degradation, as well as a heavy blow to the influence and spread of true religion in the province. That where religion is made to be wholly dependent upon the voluntary contributions of the people it may be supported with tolerable respectability in towns and villages of any considerable size; but that in the rural districts, where the population is comparatively poor, the means of ensuring stated instruction in the truths of the Gospel will not, in many cases, exist. This is evident from what is presented in the neighbouring United States of America, where in large tracts of country there exists no provision for the maintenance of a clergy, and where, consequently, the ministrations of religion, if at all, are only occasionally afforded. The effect of this is, the growth and spread of an infinite variety of sects, and the influence of many which propagate tenets in direct contravention of the truth and purity of Christianity. In many instances, as the result of leaving religion to the partialities and caprices of an uninstructed people, we find in that country churches and chapels erected by Unitarians, and even Universalists, who deny the existence of future punishments, amongst the most costly and best supported of all the edifices dedicated to religious worship. Your petitioners would further represent, that the sanction by Your Majesty of a measure of the godless character just passed by our Legislative Assembly would have the inevitable effect of speedily alienating from Your Majesty's throne and royal house the loyal attachment of a large number of Your Majesty's most faithful and devoted subjects; for experience has proved, and especially the history of the Rebellion in 1837-38, that the members of the Church of England, from the principles engrafted in her polity and ritual, and impressed from childhood upon her members, were ever foremost in defence of Your Majesty's throne. Your petitioners would also represent, with much grief and regret, that the fact of several members of the Romish communion in the Legislative Assembly voting for the alienation of the property of the Church of England, should that alienation be determined upon, will have the effect of re-opening and exasperating religious division and animosity in this province, and of creating at no distant period a movement, which it will be impossible to restrain, for alienating the ecclesiastical property held by the Romish Church in Lower Canada. If the property of the Church of England and of Protestants generally in this province is to be confiscated for public and secular purposes, it will never be borne that the lands and endowments held by a Romish priesthood should be inviolate and untouched. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that Your Majesty will refuse Your sanction to any measure for alienating the property of the Church of England in this diocese and province from the sacred purposes for which it was set apart; viz., for the support and maintenance of public worship and the propagation of religious knowledge. And Your Majesty's dutiful and loyal petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. CANADA. CANADA. No. 2. COPY of a DESPATCH from the Earl of ELGIN AND KINCARDINE MY LORD, to Earl GREY. Government House, Toronto, March 15, 1851. (Received April 7, 1851.) (Answered June 13, 1851, No. 609, page 18.) I HAVE the honour to transmit Memorials addressed to Her Majesty the Queen and to the two Houses of the Imperial Parliament by the Presbytery of Kingston in connexion with the Church of Scotland, on the subject of the Canadian Clergy Reserves, with a memorandum on the statement contained in these Memorials furnished to me by the Honourable Mr. Price, one of the members of the Executive Council of this province. Unto the QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. The Memorial of the Reverend the Presbytery of Kingston (Canada West), in connexion with the Church of Scotland. HUMBLY SHOWETH,* THAT by the piety and munificence of His late Majesty King George III. a grant of lands throughout this province, called the Clergy Reserves, was set apart for the support of a Protestant clergy. That your Memorialists and the church to which they belong were for many years excluded from a participation in this grant, on the plea that these reserves were specially and solely intended for the support of the clergy in connexion with the Church of England. That a decision was pronounced by the twelve judges of England, by which the clergy of the Church of Scotland were declared to be entitled to a share of the reserves. That in the year 1837 an Act was passed by the Imperial Parliament, and sanctioned by the Sovereign, providing for the final settlement of the question, according to the terms of the preamble of the said Act, wherein it is declared, that "it is expedient to provide for the final disposition of the lands called Clergy Reserves in Canada.' That the adjustment then effected has hitherto given general satisfaction to the loyal, welldisposed, and Protestant inhabitants of the province, and has been found to be productive of much good, in the support of religion in poor and thinly-settled localities, where, without such a provision, a regular supply of Divine Service and a settled ministry could not be maintained. That by these reserves a provision has been made for the support of religion neither infringing upon the rights nor affecting the interests of any portion of Your Majesty's subjects. That your Memorialists have perceived, with deep regret, that an address to the Imperial Parliament has been lately adopted by the House of Assembly, having for its object the diversion of the Clergy Reserves from the support of religion altogether, to that of secular education, from which religion is industriously excluded. That the said address in its leading principles was carried by a very slender majority in the House of Assembly, and of that majority the greater number are Roman Catholics, whose object is to subvert all Protestant religious institutions; and that it was never concurred in by nor submitted to the Legislative Council. That the House of Assembly, which now seeks to alienate the reserves set apart for the support of a Protestant clergy, has lately granted Acts of incorporation to numerous bodies of Roman Catholics, conferring on them extensive privileges, and entitling them to hold fixed property to an enormous value. That the object of the present attempt by the House of Assembly is to despoil the Church of Scotland and other Protestant religious bodies of any participation in the fund and lands specially devoted and appropriated " for the maintenance of religion and the advancement of knowledge within the province of Canada," and thereby to withdraw from religion that support which is so essential for its maintenance and extension in the present state of this country, and which your Memorialists regard it as the first duty of a Christian state at all times to afford. That the present attempt is likely to inflict a serious injury on the peace of this province, by opening up such an important religious question for fresh discussion; that if successful it *Similar Memorials addressed to the Houses of Lords and Commons. it will have the effect of leaving many of the poorer parts of this country miserably supplied with the means of grace, and in very few parts of it will the ministers of religion be able to obtain anything like a certain or adequate support; and that by repealing the Act of the Imperial Legislature, declared in the strongest manner to be a final settlement, all confidence will be destroyed in the stability and security of any Acts of the British Parliament in future. Your memorialists do therefore earnestly beseech Your Majesty to refuse assent to the address of the House of Assembly, and to preserve in all its integrity the settlement already made of the Clergy Reserves for the support of that religion which exalteth a nation. Signed in name and by appointment of the Presbytery, J. MALCOLM SMITH, M.A., CANADA. Moderator of Presbytery, Pro. tem. Enclosure 2 in No. 2. MEMORANDUM. THE Memorial of the Presbytery of Kingston having been forwarded to the Governor-General with a view to its being transmitted to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies for presentation, it is submitted that the following explanatory remarks should accompany the same. There is a studious attempt throughout the Memorial to persuade the British public, who must necessarily be but little acquainted with the state of public opinion in Canada, that the dissatisfaction which has been felt with the Imperial Clergy Reserve Act has been on the part of that portion of the population professing the Roman Catholic faith. It is difficult to understand how any parties so well acquainted with facts as the Presbytery of Kingston could venture on such a statement. The Clergy Reserve question has never been agitated in that part of Lower Canada inhabitated by the French Canadians who constitute the great bulk of the Roman Catholic population. It so happens that in Upper Canada, where, for the last twenty years, the Clergy Reserve question has been a fruitful subject of discord, as has been admitted by successive Governors, there is but one Roman Catholic member of the Provincial Parliament. It is, moreover, perfectly well known that the agitation against the present settlement of the Clergy Reserves has been conducted by Evangelical Protestants, both ministers and laymen, including lay members of the churches of England and Scotland. These are facts which cannot be disputed in Canada. It is true that the Roman Catholic members of the House, or a majority of them, have felt it their duty to aid the great majority of the people of Upper Canada in obtaining a more satisfactory settlement of a question in which the latter feel the deepest interest. The Memorial under consideration affirms that the Address praying the repeal of the Imperial Act was, "in its leading principles, carried by a very slender majority in the House of Assembly." The "leading principle" of the Address was the repeal of the Imperial Act, or an affirmation that the present settlement is an unsatisfactory one. It will be found by reference to the votes and proceedings in the House, that an amendment was introduced by the Hon. Mr. Cayley, that it is "inexpedient to disturb or unsettle" the existing law. Here there is a test of the opinion of the House regarding the " leading principle." The division was 16 to 52. The 16 were all members of the Churches of England and Scotland. Of the majority of 52, 26 are certainly Protestants, including members of the Church of England, Presbyterians, Methodists, and other denominations: 26 are Roman Catholics. The "slender majority" referred to in the Memorial will be found to have been that by which the 29th resolution was carried. On analysing that division it will be found that the "slender majority" was caused, 1st, By the secession of certain French Canadian and Roman Catholic members, who could not concur in one part of the resolutions; 2ndly, By the secession of certain other members who would not consent to recognise the claims of existing incumbents. The representation that the slender majority was obtained by Roman Catholic votes will be found to be incorrect, in point of fact, as the Roman Catholic votes were equally divided, and the resolution was carried by a Protestant majority, though a slender one, for the reasons already stated. It is scarcely necessary to notice that part of the Memorial which alleges as a grievance to Protestants that the House of Assembly which has passed the Address has granted acts of incorporation to numerous bodies of Roman Catholics, "entitling them to hold fixed property." The Parliament of Canada has shown every desire to afford facilities to all denominations of Christians to hold property purchased with their own means for the support of religion, or the maintenance of educational and charitable institutions. It is certainly not inconsistent with this policy to object to the endowment with the property of the public of one or more favoured denominations of Christians. It is alleged in the Memorial that "the object" of the Address is the diversion of the Clergy Reserves from the support of religion altogether to that of secular education from which religion is industriously excluded. This statement is incorrect in two particulars; 1st, The Address does not affirm the expediency of diverting the Clergy Reserves from religious to Encl. 2 in No. 2. |