The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-08 00:00:00

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111011 WATHR Al' LONDOM BRIDOB.
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LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 8.

Wernorr auguring ill from the fact—fact never-
theless it is—that the only member of the ABER
'MEN Cabinet who as yet has mentioned the subject
of Colonial Reform is Sir WILLIAM NItiLESWORTIL
Of our vast tranamarinc empire neither Lord ABER-
DEEN in the programme of his policy made in the
House of Lords, nor Lord Jolts Ressett in the
renewal of his profession of Liberal opinions in
the City, uttered one word. Equally silent in their
addresses to their constituents are Sir James
GRAHAM, Mr. SIDNEY HERBERT, Lord PALMER-
groN, and Sir CHARLES WOOD. The new Colo-
nial Secretary, the Duke of NEWCASTLE, cannot of
wave, speak ; and what peculiar fitness he has
he Colonial Administration of a higher and
better character than has of late been gradually
alienating the colonies from the mother country, time
alone can show. Mr. GLADSTONE, as Chancellor of
the Exchequer, will have enough to do in that
office; and though of all Ministers who have pre-
sided over the colonies, Lord Jous RUSSELL gave the
most satisfaction, what between tho House of Com-
mons, which he has to lead, and the Foreign-office,
which he now administers, small must be the influence
Lord Joilv can exercise over Colonial Reform. In
a Cabinet thus composed and situated, the public
will naturally look very much to Sir WILLIAM
Mol.Eswunru, in his unlaborious office, for security
against any continuance of that bureaucratic system
of mismanagement,—a part of which, it appears,
"HENRY GEORGE, Earl GREY," is abort to justify
and defend at length in " 2 vols. Svo."
The first subject which Sir WILLIAM MOLES-
WORTH will have to see is attended to by his col-
leagues is the great question of the Canada Clergy
Reserves, on which, in opposition, he had moved
for papers, just delivered, and given notice
of a motion,—with, it is understood, the hearty
eoncurrence of Lord Joys RUSSELL. This
question is, all things considered, a happy
one, whereon to test the Colonial policy of the new
Cabinet, for it involves the principle of self-govern-
ment; and it is that principle, the denial, or frustra-
tion, or imperfect application of which, lies at the
bottom of all Colonial grievances. We have given,
and wisely given, to Canada, a constitution as free
in all other particulars as our own ; we have given
to it a parliamentary system of administration ; we
have given to it responsible government ; we have
yielded to its just demand the settlement of its own
Civil List; we have conceded to it the management
and control of its waste lauds; in short, Canada is
now governed on all subjects but one by the freely-
expressed will of its own inhabitants—and that one
is exactly the subject on which, of all others, free
men will not submit to external dictation—Re-
ligion, and the maintenance of public worship.
On that alone the Imperial Parliament has, un-
wisely, -interfered and legislated for the people of
Canada—his appropriated no less than one-seventh
of the waste lands of the upper province
to the support of the Churches of England
and of Scotland, which are not the Churches of
Canada, but merely voluntary religious communities
there ; —and by this appropriation, has at once violated
the soundest of all constitutional principles, and im-
pinged on the tenderest of all human feelings. And
the question is, whether the ABERDEEN Cabinet will
adopt the policy of the RUssELL Administration, and
repeal the monstrous statute passed in 1840, or will
persevere in the unrighteous determination of the
DKRBY Government to defend that act as the last
relic of religious intolerance.
The facts of the case lie in a nutshelL In 1793,
the Quebec Act reserved one-seventh of the waste
lands of Canada " for the support and maintenance
of a ProleWast Clergy." tinder this description,
the Clergy of the English Communion in the pro-
vince, and the Church of England at home, set up
the extravagant claim to have the entire benefit of
this reservation ; on the ground that they alone were
Protestant Clergy ;" though from the time of the
Reformation down to 1840 there is no single statute
of the realm in which the Clergy of the Church of
England were so described.
In giving the re-united province of Canada a Consti-
tution in 1840, it was deemed advisable to settle this
question of the Clergy Reserves, which had always
been a great source of discontent; and Lord MEL-
BOURNE, with that rare good and solid simplicity
which distinguished him, contended that the words
in the Quebec Act were chosen to embrace every de-
nomination of orthodox Protestant Christians. The
Bishops scanted this just interpretation; claimed the
whole for their Church; and Mr. GLADSTONE and
the then blatant Conservative Government re-echoed
their claim. The Bishop of EXETER induced the
House of Lords to take the unusual course of con-
sulting the Judges, in the hope of getting from them
a legal opinion in favour of Church of England
monopoly. He was, however, disappointed ; the
Judges included the Church of Scotland in the
words " Protestant Clergy;" and on this basis
the Act of 1840 was passed. After providingfor exist-
ing incumbencies, it gave two-thirdsof a certain amount
of the surplus to the Church of England, and one-
third to the Church' of Scotland ;—enabling, however,
the Governor, with the advice of his Esseutive Coun-
cil, to apply any residue (of which there has never
been any), " for the puposes of public worship and
religious instruction in Canada."
To this statute there are two objections—the one
on the constitutional principle, that it withdraws a
question of their internal affairs from the Parliament
of the Canadian people; the other on the ecclesiastical
principle, that it endows and renders dominant in
Canada two religious communities, whilst by a Cana-
dian statute it is declared and enacted that all
religious persuasions are there on a level.
The details of the act, nobody, not even Sir JOHN
PAKINOTON, defends. On its third reading, Lord
JOHN Itrasett expressly said, " that the arrange-
ment made was not all he could wish, but that it
was better than leaving the question unsettled."
Subsequently the great bulk of the Canadian Pres-
byterians haying seceded from the Established
March, and adhered to the Free Church of Scot-
land, the provision of the act in their favour is for
all practical purposes inoperative; and the only
Church really benefited is again the Church of
England.
Under these circumstances, session after session
the Canadian Parliament have addressed the Crown
for the repeal of the imperial statute. Lord GREY
advised the QUEEN to promote their desire, and
promised to bring in a bill for its repeal, ex-
pressly laying down the principle see his
despatch to Lord ELGIN of the 27th January,
1831 —that the question whether the exist-
ing arrangement "is to be maintained and al-
tered, is one so exclusively affecting the people of
Canada, that its decision ought not be withdrawn
from the Provincial Legislature, to which it properly
belongs, to regulate all matters concerning the do-
mestic interest of the province." With the DERBY
Cabinet came a change of policy. They refused to
refer any such question as this to the Parliament, to
which it legitimately and conclusively belonged.
They spoke of" the sacred object of the fund," talked
of "accidental majorities," took council of the bigot
at home; and all they would do was to "entertain
any proposal" for the modification of the Act of
1840, which might be made to them. To this un-
happy determination Mr. HINCKES, on the part of
the Canadian government, replied:
I em bound by a sense of duty to her Majesty to express
toter confidential advisers that it is with the most serious
alarm that I bass read the concluding portion of your de-
spatch. Most devotedly attached as I am to the mainte-
nance of the suhststing conno Mon between the mother
country and the Britok American colonies, I cannot view
without grave apprehension the prospect of collision be-
tween her Majesty's government and the parliaincet of
Can on a quotation regard ng which ouch vrong fecliligs
pn tail among the great mass of the population. Such •
diflteulty Is the more to be reser tted, beesuse the question
of the clergy Meters is the only one, .0 far as I am aware,
at all likely to lead to collision. It happen*. most unfortu-
nately, that public ',phi m in England differs very widely
hem that is Caned. on questions St all part acing of • 'cli-
nk.. character , end, as the people of Cans la err con-
vinced that they are better judges than any parties in Eng.