The Sun.
London, England, 1853-03-05 00:00:00

urged them to commit this act, which was considere d to be
a breach of their national faith. He begged here to be
allowed to do justice to the conscientious and neve, c-failino.
efforts of the Church of England in Canada. Let it not be
supposed that they were relying solely upon those ftmds—
they were not, and had made efforts to sustain the Church.
Where the population was dense, and the congregations
were large, they exerted themselves for the Church ; but
there were parts of Canada in which the pioneers of civi-
lisation were advancing into the wilderness ; they were
scattered thinly over the ground, and, under those circum-
stances, were unable to exert themselves. To those men
the Gospel was preached, and by whom? By the travelling
missionaries, who went about from township to township,
and who collected congregations where they could, and
where they could not collect a congregation they pro-
ceeded from house to house. Those missionaries were

supported out of the fund which they were about to
endanger by enabling the Legislature to destroy it ;
and if the Legislature availed themselves of that power
the ministration of religion in those districts would be at
an end. That did not apply to Upper Canada alone • it
applied to Lower Canada also, where the Church of Eng-
land was, he believed, a poor Church ; it was surrounded
by the Church of Rome in wealth and pomp—and what
was to become of the Protestant population of Lower
Canadar,if this aid were withdrawn ? There was one other
consideration to which he begged to call the attention of
the house, and it was the view that he could not help bee
lieving was taken by the Roman Catholic population of
Lower Canada on this subject. Although some Roman
Catholic members of the lower province had, he was sorry
to say, swelled the majorities in the late division, there
were grounds on which he must believe that the oman
Catholic population were indisposed to this bill. In the
first place, as Christians like themselves—as men profess-
ing, like them, the same doctrine of Christian ity—they
must be indisposed towards this measure. Then the Ro-
man Catholics of the Lower province were endowed with
great wealth, drawing tithes to the extent of 163,0001.;
their numerous and most exemplary priesthood were amply
provided for by the religious endowments of a great State,
and he could not help believing that the Roman Catholic
population of that province had not any desire to deprive
their fellow Christians in the upper province of the compa-
ratively small pittance they received. (Cheers.) He per-
fectly understood that cheer; he understood it in this way
—that they tfiought it consistent with their duty to trust
to that Roman Catholic feeling for th.e protection of the
Protestant endowments. They had no right to rest upon
that ground ; they could not tell -what excitement might
prevail, or what party influence might be used, and they
had the fact before them, that some of the late divisions
were carried by the votes of the Roman Catholic mem-
bers of the lower province. (Hear, hear.) The second
ground on which he could not believe that the Roman
Catholics would be desirous to sanction the enactment of
this bill was the ground already adverted to by an
hon. gentleman opposite, namely, that their own endow..
ments would be assailed. (Hear, hoar.) Looking to tho
warnings of Lord Sydenham, and their experieiwe of the
Canadian troubles, they should beware of sowing the seeds
of the struggle that might possibly be the result of such
legislation. (Hear.) If they passed this bill the Roman
Catholic endowments might be endangered from attacks
being made upon them by a combination of indignant Pro-
testants, and that was a state of things which ho hoped
would not arise. (Hear.) From the time the act of the
noble lord had passed, religious peace prevailed, and for
the sake of that peace he hop:: d the house would. not con-
sent to pass this bill. (Hear, hear.) In conclusion, he
would call their attention to the last words of the petition
that had been presented by his hon. friend the member for
the University of Oxford, from the Society for the Propa-
gation of the Gospel, and which was signed by his Grace
the Archbishop of Canterbury. The petition dosed with
these words :—"ln conclusion, the society solemnly ap-
peals to the members of your honourable house, as they
respect Him in whose hands are the destinies of nations,
nations, and by whose approbation and favour their wel-
fare can be secured, to see that they disregard not that
justice which He commands for the interests of that reli-
gion of which He is the author." An appeal in more
solemn language was never made to the justice of the
house, and he adopted every word of that appeal. (Hear.)
He had already said he approached this subject with no
extreme views ; he would gladly approach it in the spirit
of peace, and entrust to the colonial legislature the distri-
bution of this property, provided only security could be
taken that the interests of the inhabitants of the upper
provinces would not be forgotten in its appropriation.
(Hear.) But if the noble lord persevered in forcing this
bill on Parliament in its present shape—if he -was content
to abandon that sacred trust which he (Sir J. Pakington)
maintained Parliament took on itself by the act of 1840—
then he (Sir J. Pakington) had no alternative ; and he
must tell the House of Commons that he was bound to
condemn, denounce, and resist this as a most unrighteous
bill. (Cheers.)
Sir W. MOLESWORTH said the right hon. baronet
who last addressed the house commenced his speech by
deprecating the treating of this bill as a party measure.
He cordially concurred with the right hon. baronet in that
deprecation. The bill raised two questions of the utmost
importance; the first was the great fundamental question
of the colonial polity of the British empire—whether it
ought to be a rule of colonial polity that all questions af-
fecting the local interests of a colony possessing representa-
tive institutions should be dealt with by the local legisla-
ture. That ought to be the axiom on which the whole
system of our colonial government ought to depend, and if
acted upon, it would tend greatly to strengthen and con-
solidate the relations between this country and its colonies.
The next question which this bill raised was whether this
boon ought now to be extended to an English dependency
with a population of 2,000,000 souls—namely, Canada—in
reference to the disposal of the clergy reserves in that
colony. The object of the bill was to transfer to the Cana-
dian legislature the power of dealing with the proceeds of
the clergy reserves, irrespective of the mode or manner in
which that legislature might think proper to (Teal with
those reserves. He contended that it was not a question
for this house to determine, whether the present applica-
tion of those clergy reserves should or should not be main
tamed, or whether they should be secularised. That was
a question which ought to be left entirely to the decision
of the colonial legislature. The right hon. baronet, in his
dispatches and speeches, had admitted that the rule of
colonial policy 'which he (Sir W. Molesworth) had laid
down was the general rule which ought to be observed
and acted upon ; but the right hon. baronet contended
that the treatment of the clergy reserves ought to be
considered as an exceptional case. The reasons the
right hon. baronet assigned in support of that exception
were two ; first, he asserted that the question of the clergy
reserves was essentially an Upper Canadian, and not a Pro-
testant question ; and secondly, that the act of 1840 ought
to be considered a final settlement of those reserves. The
right. hon. baronet asserted that the question of the clergy
reserves was an Upper Canadian one, and that the majority
which carried the resolutions which the House of Assembly
passed last autumn with reference to the bill now under
consideration consisted of a large portion of Roman Catho-
lic members, whose religion was already amply and muni-
ficently endowed in Canada. The right hon. gentleman in
the course of his speech, and in his despatches, had laid
great stress on the circumstance of the Roman Catholic
religion in Canada being munificently endowed. He (Sir
W. Molesworth) did not think that statement altogether
correct. The endowments of which the right hon. baronet
spoke were not strictly the property of the Roman Catholic
clergy, but were chiefly applicable to educational and cha-
ritable purposes, and to the conversion of the Indians ; and
there was no statutory provision to prevent the legislature
of Canada from dealing with this property in any manner
it might think proper. (Hear, hear.) The Roman Ca-
tholic clergy in Lower Canada were now supported as they
were supported before the conquest of the colony, namely,
by tithes and other dues ; but that support had much more
the character of voluntary contributions than of local dues;
and when, in Lower Canada, a man ceased to be a Roman
Catholic, or when he sold his land to a Protestant, the
priest immediately iost his tithes. But in Upper Canada
tithes had never been paid either by Roman Catholics or
Protestants ; and the Romon Catholics, who had become a
numerous body in the upper province—nearly as numerous
as the members of the Church of England, and three times
as numerous as those of the Church of Scotland—had never
had any tithes, endowments, or any statutory iprovision
for the support of their clergy. The legislature of Canada
had the power of abolishing the tithes, and that power was
exercised with reference to the Protestant tithes of Upper
Canada, in an act which received the royal assent in 1825.
He therefore contended it was not strictly correct to assort
that the Roman Catholic religion was munificently
endowed in Canada ; and on the principle of even religious
equality, he demanded that this bill should pass into a
law. (Hear, hear.) He would assume for the sake of
argument that this question ought to be decided, as the
right honourable baronet seemed to think, in accordance
with the wishes of the Protestant portion of the population
of Canada. But if it were to be decided in accordance
with those wishes, ho (Sir W. Molesworth) contended that
it would be so decided by the bill now under discussion.
He had carefully analysed the division lists of the House
of Assembly in Canada on the resolutions which had refer-
ence to the merits of the question whether the Imperial
Parliament ought to transfer to the local legislature the
power of dealing with those reserves. He found that
House of Assembly consisted of 84 members, of whom no
less than 54 were Protestants, and only 30 were Roman
Catholics ; therefore there was an absolute majority of
Protestant members of the House of Assembly, which was
equivalent to an absolute majority of 200 members in the
British House of Commons. It was impossible, there-
fore, that any measure could be carried in that House of
Assembly in opposition to the united wishes of the Pro-
testant members ' • and he found that on every one of the
resolutions which had reference to the merits of the ques-
tion, a decided majority of Protestant members were in
favour of the proposed transfer being made. (Hear, hear.)
For instance, on the 14th of September last a resolution
was moved in the House of Assembly to the effect, that
that house deprecated in the strongest manner anyattempt
to bring back the question of the clergy reserves to
those provinces for future legislation. That resolution
was rejected by a majority of 51 against 17; of that'majority
26 were Protestants, and the minority were all Protestants.
A second resolution in similar terms was rejected on a sub-
sequent occasion by a majority of 50 against 18, and 25 of
that majority and the whole of the minority were Protestants.
Again, on the 17th September, certain resolutions were
agreed to for an address to the Crown, condemning, in
effect, the conduct of the righthon. baronet (Sir J. Peking-
ton) and deeply regretting that he was not prepared to
bring in a bill to repeal the act of 1840, with regard to the
clergy reserves. All those resolutions were carried by a
majority of 52 against 22. Of that majority of 52, no less
than 26 were protestant members, while of the minority
19 were Protestants. Therefore on every one of those
resolutions there was a majority equivalent to a majority
of 77 members in a house as numerous as that which
decided the fate of the late administration—a fate which
saved our colonial empire from utter ruin, for if the views
of the right honourable baronet had been carried into
effect, the colonial empire of Great Britain would have
speedily crumbled into dust. (Cheers.) When 'he (Sir
William Molesworth) heard the right honourable baronet
on the 3d of December last, in reply to a question put by
him (Sir W. Molesworth), state that it was the intention
of the Government to refuse to comply with the pledges
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