Part 68 (1/2)
In January, 1840, the two branches of the Legislature of Upper Canada passed a Bill (the Legislative asseislative Council by a y reserve--provided for the interests of their existing incu the proceeds of the sales of said lands a to a census taken once in five years, and leaving each religious persuasion free to expend the su to its pleasure, whether for the support of its clergy, the erection of places of worshi+p, or for purposes of education Though the great majority of the people of Upper Canada desired the application of the proceeds of these lands for educational purposes only; yet a reed to a compromise which could be defended as just to all parties, whatever preferences ht be entertained on the subject in the abstract But instead of the Royal assent being advised to be given to that Canadian Bill on a local Canadian question, a new Bill was introduced into the I about three-fourths of the proceeds of the clergy reserves (including past and future sales) to the clergy of the churches of England and Scotland, giving nothing to any other church, but leaving the re one-fourth (or half of future sales) at the discretionary disposal of the Executive for religious purposes This part of the Imperial Act has proved inoperative to this day; and should any religious persuasion receive any portion of this coy land funds, it would do so not as a land and Scotland in receiving their lion's share), but at and during the pleasure of any party in power--a position in which no religious community should be placed to the Executive, and in which the Executive ought not to be placed to any religious community Such an Act can be justified upon no principle of justice or sound policy, and is at variance with the almost unanimous and often recorded wishes of the people of Upper Canada The _Christian Exaan of the Church of Scotland in Upper Canada--expressed not only the general sentiments of the e, in the folloords, contained in an elaborate editorial which appeared in that publication a fewof the I the last decade, the general sentiment in this colony has been uttered in no unequivocal fores derived fro us It cannot be doubted that this is the conviction of nine-tenths of the Colonists Except aland, we never hear a contrary sentieneral cry And although several assemblymen of the present House have chosen to misinterpret the public voice, and to advocate a different principle, we doubt not that on their next appearance before their constituents, they will be taught that this is not the age, nor this the country, in which the grand principle of equal rights can be departed froh the Inates”
of the Church of Scotland to unite with other ” the ”grand principle of equal rights”
to their ious persuasions, yet the ”convictions of nine-tenths” of the Canadian people reed circuyrand principle of equal rights to be departed from with impunity”
5 I observe, likewise, that the continuance of the Imperial Act of 1840 is desired by a mere fraction of the Canadian population, while its repeal is dee The assertions of any interested parties on a ainst the proceedings and statements of the representatives of the people The Address of the Legislative assearded as the authoritative and true expression of the opinions and wishes of the Canadian people It is true, there was diversity of opinion as to the y reserve fund should be dealt with, and also as to certain other declarations contained in the Address of the asseislature ventured to justify the provisions of the Imperial Act, and very few ventured to vote in favour of its continuance, even upon the ground of expediency, in behalf of the ”nates” of two favourable Churches When the resolutions of the Address to Her Majesty were islative assembly of Canada on this subject, an amendment was es of the Churches of England and Scotland in Canada an a words:--
That in the opinion of this House it is inexpedient to disturb or unsettle, by resolution or enact in Upper and Lower Canada for religious purposes; that the well-being of society and the groants of the various Christian bodies in Canada demand that the several provisions of the Imperial Act 3 and 4 Vic, cap 78, should be carried out to their fullest extent
In favour of the amendment, that is, in favour of the continuance and operations of the Iainst it voted fifty-two Who would think of perpetuating a law in England at variance with the sentiments of three-fourths of the e proportion of the constituency of Great Britain? Could the present constitution of govern prevented, if laere retained on the statute book condemned by three-fourths of the Commons, and more than three-fourth of all classes of people in the land, and those statutes involving religious questions? And is that to be perpetuated in Canada which would not be retained in England for a ress of the controversy connected with the clergy reserves, it is needless for me to enter They are sufficiently stated in the Address of the Legislative assembly of Canada to the Queen, a copy of which is herewith annexed, together with the majorities by which each of the thirty-one clauses of the Address was separately voted It will be seen that the first twenty-three clauses of the Address were carried by a majority of 52 to 18; the 24th clause by 51 to 20; the 26th clause by 48 to 19; the 27th and 28th clauses by 47 to 20; the 29th clause by 36 to 34; the 30th clause by 40 to 28; the 31st clause, containing the prayer of the Address, by 45 to 23 The only clause of the Address, therefore, in favour of which the e and decided, was the 29th; and in a vote to that clause, I have shown that the smallness of the majority was occasioned by objections to different parts of the clause upon quite opposite grounds, of three classes of members--the sixteen supporters of the present pre-eland and Scotland, a section of the Roland would be called the extreround of the opposition to this clause by each of these three classes of members It will be seen that the 29th clause is rather speculative than practical, and does not affect the character and completeness of the Address, every other clause of which was carried by a large majority It is, however, curious to remark, that while the supporters of the present exclusive privileges of the Churches of England and Scotland are indebted to the assistance of Roman Catholic e; yet in England so been carried chiefly by Ro all Protestant institutions in Canada
7 No enlightened and candid person can look at the religious history and social state of Canada and desire the perpetuation of the Imperial Act 3 and 4 Vic, ch 78 It is now quite sixty years since Upper Canada was forovernment Its population was then 7,000 souls; it is now about 700,000 During the first and most eventful half of that sixty years, the land and Scotland can scarcely be said to have had an existence there The present Bishop of Toronto, in a discourse published on the occasion of the death of the first Canadian Bishop of the Church of England, states that down to the close of the war between Great Britain and the United States in 1815, there were but four resident clergyland in all Upper Canada--a statement which is confiration of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; and the say of the Church of England in that province down to a recent period We learn froyman of the Church of Scotland in Upper Canada, and that in 1827 there were but two It is, therefore, clear that during the first half of its sixty years' existence as a province, Upper Canada y of the Churches of England and Scotland for religious instruction; yet during that thirty years, it is adious, an intelligent, and loyal people To whom the people of that province were ious instruction, and for the forious character, appears in a report of a Select Committee of the Upper Canada House of asseious condition of the country, and before which fifty witnesses, chiefly land, were exa words from the report of that Committee, (which was adopted by the assembly by a majority of 22 to 8), a report which was partly prepared in reference to a letter addressed by the present Bishop of Toronto to His Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1827:--
The insinuations (says the report) in the letter against the Methodist clergyret To the disinterested and indefatigable exertions of these pious men this province owes much At an early period of its history, when it was thinly settled, and destitute of all other ious instruction, these ministers of the Gospel, animated by Christian zeal and benevolence, at the sacrifice of health, and interest, and cos, and consolations, and sanctions of our holy religion
Their influence and instruction have been conducive in a degree which cannot be easily estimated, to the reformation of the vicious and to the diffusion of correct morals, the foundation of all sound loyalty and social order
This religious body has now 180 regularplaces, and eations one-seventh of the population[137] Yet this oldest religious coether with the Free Presbyterian Church of Canada, the United Presbyterian Church, the Baptists and Congregationalists, are treated as nobody by the Iland and Scotland are exclusively endowed, and that by setting aside legislative rights which the Constitution of 1791 had conferred upon the people of Upper Canada! In Great Britain the Established Churches are associated with the early and brightest periods of British history, and are blended with all the influences which distinguish and exalt British character; but the feelings and predilections arising from such res, predilections and institutions of Canadian society As Englishs and wants, and clai for themselves; so do the people of Canada best know their oishes and interests, and ought to judge and legislate for thee any ilishman can refuse this ishes to do to others as he would have others do to him
8 But it should also be observed, that down to the passing of the Imperial Act of 1840, the influence of the Church of Scotland itself was adverse to any such act of partiality and injustice, and in favour of applying the proceeds of the clergy reserves even to educational as well as religious purposes The discussion of this question was first introduced into the Legislative asseentlearded and acknowledged as the guardian of the interests, and representative of the sentiments, of the Church of Scotland
December 22nd, 1826, Mr Morris moved a series of resolutions on this subject, of which the following are the 9th and 10th:--
9 _Resolved_,--That it is the opinion of a great proportion of the people of this Province that the clergy lands, in place of being enjoyed by the clergy of an inconsiderable part of the population, ought to be disposed of, and the proceeds of their sale applied to increase the provincial allowance for the support of district and common schools, and the endow, and in aid of erecting places of public worshi+p for all denominations of Christians [Carried by a majority of 31 to 2]
10 _Resolved_, That it is expedient to pass a Bill, authorizing the sale of the clergy lands within this Province, for the purposes set forth in the foregoing resolution; and to address His Majesty, huive the royal assent to said Bill [Carried by a majority of 30 to 3]
On the 28th of the same month, Mr Morris reported a draft of Bill for the sale of the clergy reserves, pursuant to the foregoing resolutions
The Bill passed the asseislative Council, and was rejected Si in like manner and fro on this subject was adopted by the assembly in March, 1831, and supported, if not introduced, by Mr Morris That address, which was adopted by awords:--
That a large majority of the inhabitants of this Province are sincerely attached to your Majesty's person and government, but are averse to any exclusive or dominant Church That this House feels confident that, to promote the prosperity of this portion of your Majesty's dominions, and to satisfy the earnest desire of the people of this Province, your Majesty will be graciously pleased to give the most favourable consideration to the wishes of your faithful subjects That, to terminate the jealousy and dissension which have hitherto existed on the subject of the said clergy reserves--to remove a barrier to the settlement of the country, and to provide a fund available for the pro places of worshi+p for various denominations of Christians: it is extremely desirable that the said land reserved should be sold, and the proceeds arising from the sale of the saislature, to be applied exclusively for those purposes
This address was replied to the January following, 1832, by a for sentences:--
The representations which have at different times been made to His Majesty and his Royal predecessors of the prejudice sustained by his faithful subjects in Upper Canada, froed His Majesty's most attentive consideration It has, therefore, been with peculiar satisfaction that, in his inquiries into this subject, His Majesty has found that the changes sought for by so large a portion of the inhabitants of Upper Canada,the just clailand and Scotland His Majesty, therefore, invites the House of asseiven the Provincial Legislature by the Constitutional Act to vary or repeal this part of its provisions, can be called into exercise eously, for the spiritual and temporal interests of His Majesty's faithful subjects in the Province
It will be seen that the Address to the Crown and reply, above quoted, contemplated the application of no part of the proceeds of the clergy lands for the support of the clergy of any religious persuasion, but the application of the whole to the pro places of worshi+p I do not make these references to advocate this view of the question, but to show that the Crown has long since assented to the alienation of the whole of the proceeds of the reserves froy of any Church, should the Canadian Legislature think proper to do so, and that the Church of Scotland in Upper Canada agreed with the other religious persuasions, and the great majority of the Canadian people, in the advocacy of such an alienation of said reserves The sarounds to what they heretofore advocated on those saed that the people of Canada have acquiesced in the provisions of the Imperial Act, and are satisfied with it At the ti the Imperial Act, in 1840, and down to within the last two years, the discussion of questions relating to the organization and systeovernment itself occupied the attention of the public mind in Canada; but no sooner was the public mind set at rest on those paramount and fundamental questions, than the Canadian people dehts on the question of the clergy reserves What they have felt for two years, and often and strongly spoken, through the local press and at the hustings, they now speak in the ears of the Sovereign of the Ieneral dissatisfaction in Canada on this subject, will appear froes the rights, and contravenes the wishes of the Canadian people; (2) It inflicts an injustice and wrong upon the great ious persuasions in that country, where the ”convictions of nine-tenths” or rather ninety-nine one-hundredths, of the inhabitants are in favour of ”equal rights upon equal conditions,” aislative assembly, by a majority of 51 to 20, declare that the Iitated question, has left it to be the subject of renewed and increased public discontent;”
(4) The comparative silence of the Wesleyan body--the oldest, the most numerous, and the most unjustly treated, of all the excluded denominations--is expressive and oland in 1840, reainst this Bill, then before Parliaht the assent of Her Majesty's Secretary of State for the Colonies to be heard at the Bar of the House of Co been refused, they presented to hiainst the Bill On the Bill becorounds which were explained, a few an of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada, in the folloords:--
On Lord John Russell's Bill becoed from a denominational to a Provincial one--froer a question between one denomination and another, but a question between Upper Canada and the I in behalf of a large section of the Canadian community, the representatives of the Wesleyan Methodist Church expressed their convictions, their feelings, and their apprehensions to Her Majesty's Govern before Parliament; but when the execrable Bill became an Iyious persuasion to strive to fulfil their own predictions, or set on foot a Colonial civil contest, as it would have been pusillanimous in them not to have reainst the people of Upper Canada The question is now being taken up in the right place, and, we trust, in the right spirit
10 Under such circu remain in its present state, and it is for the Imperial Parliament to say what shall be done It is adland and Scotland in Canada are more wealthy in proportion to their numbers, and, therefore, less needful of extraneous aid than the ious persuasion; and in proportion to their numbers and wealth will be their cos of their own Legislature It is a grave question, whether the Imperial Parliament will place itself in an attitude of hostility to the Legislative asse questionable pecuniary distinctions upon the clergy of the two most wealthy denominations in that country?