The Sun.
London, England, 1853-02-16 00:00:00

induced them to consent to any part being diverted to
secular purposes.
The papers moved for were then ordered to be pro-
duced, with certain exceptions.

THE MERCANTILE MARINE. ,
' Lord COLCHESTER referred to the various acts re-
lating to the mercantile marine, the complexity andxnul-
tiplicity of which formed a grievance which was com-
plained of by the shipping interest. A bill to,consolidate
them had been prepared by the late Government, and.
would have been laid before Parliament by them had it
not been for the change of Administration. He now
-wished to know whether it was the intention of the pre-
sent Government to lay before Parliament any consoli-
dation and amendment of the laws relating to the mer-4
cantile marine ?
Lord STA.NLEY of Alderley observed, that his right
hon: friend the President of the Board of Trade intended
on Tuesday next to state the intentions„,of the Govern-
ment in regard to all subjects connected with the mer-
cantile marine, and he thought that the noble lord had
better not press for any answer to his question until the
whole maAter was Laid before Parliament.
The house then adjourned at a quarter to 8 o'clock.

HOUSE OF COMMONS--(YESTERDAY.)
(contitued fro= our Third Edition of last evening.)
Several private bills were brought up, and read a first
time.

PLACARDS AGAINST THE MILITIA.
Mr. HIAJDLEY gave notice that on a future day he
would ask the Secretary of State for the Home Depart-
ment whether the Government intended to proceed with
the prosecutions which had been commenced against cer-
tain parties for distributing placards in reference to the
Militia Bill.
CLERGY RESERVES (CANADA) BILL.

, .
Mr. F. PEEL—Sir, I rise to ask for leave to introduce a
bill which shall empower the legislature of Canada to
exercise a control over the provisions at present regulating
the arrangement of the clergy reserves in that province,
and I trust that the house will bear in mind how impor-
tant this question is, and how great an interest the people
in.that province take in it, if, in doing my best to put
the house in possession of the precise nature of this bill, I
trespass for some little time on its attention. The clergy
reserves constitute a fund of no inconsiderable magnitude
they take their origin from a period as far back as the
year 1791. At that time the province of Canada was divided
into two parts ; in the place of the single council of Govern-
ment which then legislated for the whole province, there
were substituted two representative legislatures, one for
each province ; and in the act known as the Constitutional
Act, which made that alteration in the constitution of
Canada, it was provided that whenever the Crown disposed
of its waste lands, one-seventh in value of the lands which
were disposed of should be reserved for the benefit of the
Protestant clergy. Now, that proportion of the value
of the waste lands disposed of continued to be reserved
for a period of fifty years; but in the year 1840 an
act was passed which put an end to any further reser-
vations of land for that purpose. In the course of
years I need not say that a very great quantity of land had
. been reserved. A great portion of it no doubt had been
sold, and at the present time the clergy reserves consist in
part of land and in part of money, of investments in the
funds of this country and of Canada, which have arisen
from the sale and disposition of lands which originally
were reserved for this purpose. The manner in which this
fund is appropriated is this. Its revenue is applied to the
payment of stipends to ministers of different religious de-
nominations. It is not the case that these denominations
participate in that fund in proportion to their relative
numbers, or to the strength of each, because it will be
found that, notwithstanding the change which took place
in the year 1840, the Established Churches of England and
of Scotland derived by far the greatest advantage from the
existence of this fund. I will read an extract from a de-
spatch of Lord Elgin, accompanying what is known as a
blue book in the year 1851, showing how the clergy
reserves were appropriated in that year. I find that in
the year 1851 the clergy of the Church of England in the
two provinces received a sum of about 12,0001. The
population professing that religion amounted altogether
to just about a quarter of a million. The Church of
Scotland received a sum of 6,5001., having a population
of 61,000 souls. The other Churches which received
money from this fund were the United Synod of Pres-
byterians in Upper Canada, 464/. ; the Roman Catholic,
Church, 1,369/. ; and the Wesleyan Methodists of Upper
Canada, 6391. Now, 'pen what authority is this distri-
bution made ? It is made on the authority of an Act of
rarliament passed in the year 1840; and as the circum-
stances which preceded and led to the passing of that act
are considered to exercise a very important bearing on the
conclusions which ought to be arrived at in the present day,
I will give the house a very short summary of those cir-
cumstances. The great bulk of the clergy reserves are
placed in the province of -Upper Canada. In consequence
of a term used in the Constitutional Act of 1791—the term
Protestant clergy—the Church of England advanced and
succeeded in establishing, down to the year 1840, an ex-
elusive claim to the advantages of this fund. Now the
majority of the population of Upper Canada profess a reli-
gion which was not the religion of the Church of England ;
and therefore it is not surprising that the monopoly of that
Church gave rise to considerable jealousy and agitation in
he Legislature of Upper Canada. And you will find that
rem the year 1823, or so, when the reserves began to be of
value and began to be sold, down to the year 1840, there
were continual proceedings in the House of Assembly aid
Legislature of Upper Canada • and you will find motions,
addrem3s, resolutions, and bills passing through the House
of Assembly, at ono time urging the admission of other
denominations into a participation in the advantages of
this religious endowment ; at other times proposing that
they should be applied to secular purposes. Well, the Le-
gislative Council of that legislature never concurred in the
views of the House of Assembly. The two branches of the
legislature were permanently at variance with each other—
they could not be brought to acquiesce even in any compro-
mise of the question ; and in the year 1835 the Legislative
Council, despairing of coming to any terms with th House
of Assembly, proposed that the whole subject should be
referred to this country, and that the Imperial Parliament
should put an end to the difference between them. Now it
is important to notice the words in which Lord Glenelg,
at that time Colonial Minister, answered that application
in the year 1835. [The honourable gentleman then pro-
ceeded to read an extract from Lord Glenelg's dispatch,
which appeared among the Parliamentary papers of the
year, 1840, No. 205, which (as nearly as we could catch)
. was-as follows :—" The chief practical difficulty is whether
his Majesty should be advised to recommend to Parliament
the assumption by Parliament itself of the office of deciding
on the future appropriation of these lands. There are two
distinct reasons, both of which appear to me conclusively
to forbid that course of proceeding—first of all, that Par-
liamentary legislation on any subject of exclusively inter-
nal concern in any British colony possessed of a represent-
tive assemby is, as a general rule, unconstitutional.l The
honourable gentleman continued :—Lord Glenelg gave an-
other reason, which was that the Constitutional Act of
1791 had purposely left this subject to be dealt with by the
local.legislature of the province. That was the impression
which prevailed at that time, and down to the year 1840,
and which, as I shall show, turned out to be an erroneous
construction of the act of 1791. Well, the legislature of
Canada, thus prompted by the Colonial Minister to dis-
pose of the question, again entered upon its discussion.
I find that between the years 1835 and 1839 bills again
passed through the House of Assembly to which the
Legislative Council refused to assent, but in the year
18a`3 both houses concurred in a measure investing those
. lands, free from any conditions, I believe in the Crown,
or, at all events, referring this question to be dealt
with by the Imperial Parliament. Now, at that time,
the noble lord, now the leader of this house, was Colo-
nial Minister ; and this was the language in which he re-
plied to that proposal. He said (as near as we could follow
the reading of the extracts), " I cannot admit that there
exists in this country greater facilities than in Upper Ca-
nada for the adjustment of this controversy. On the con-
trary, the provincial legislature will bring to the conside-
ration of it an extent of accurate information, as to the
wants and the general opinions of society in that country,
in which the Imperial Parliament would be unavoidably
deficient." Thus you see that a second time the Colonial
Minister refused to advise the British Parliament to deal
with this question, and referred it as one proper to be dealt
with by the local legislature. Well, upon this second invi-
tation, I find that the two houses did succeed in agreeing
to a measure, and passed—l believe mainly owing to the
tact and Parliamentary management of Lord Sydenham,
then Governor-General—a bill, which was carried by the
Legislative Council by a narrow majority. in the House of
Assembly ; but 1 niust say it was a bill giving the Church
of England much more favourable terms than could have
been expected when you remember the previous acts of the
House of Assembly on the subject. That bill came home
to this aaairtry,
and,
according to the constitutional provi-
sion, Was laid on the table of this and the other house -of
Parliament for thirty days prior to her Majesty's pleasure
being signified 'with respect to it. An objection was taken
by the Bishop of
Exeter that the Legislature of Upper
Canada had exceeded its powers in dealing with this ques-
tion—that the Constitutional Act of 1791 gave it no power
at all, except such as was prospective only. That question
was referred to the judges,
and they reported upon it in
these words (as we understood them)—" We are all of opi-
nion that the effect of the 41st section of the act of 1791 is
prospective,
and that the powers thereby vested in the Le-
gislative Council and the House of Assembly and their pro-
visions cannot extend to the waste lands already appro-
priated." Nothing, therefore, remained but to introduce
a bill into Parliament, embodying the Principles and de-
tails of the bill which had passed through the House of
Assembly and Legislative Council of Canada, at the invi-
tation of the Government of this country. That bill was
accordingly brought in, but at a period in the history of
Canada when it' was of the utmost importance that there
should be as little division and as great unanimity as possi-
ble in the Imperial Parliament with regard to all measures
passing affecting Canada, and, therefore; before the bill so
introduced 1 t llis house, in order to conciliate opposition
in the Ho , Lords, it underwent very considerable me-
dificaction , as it was finally passed it certainly &I-
-*
fered very materially from that bill to which the Legisla-
ture of Upper Canada had given its assent, and made a
provision very much more favourable to the Church of
England and of Scotland, than even that Legislature
had sanctioned. Well, it was hoped, at that
time, that the act of 1840 might be regarded
as having finally disposed of this troublesome question.
I myself think it would have been better to have
anticipated what has now occurred - that we might have
foreseen that differences of opinion based onprinciple could
not possibly be prevented from bursting out merely by
being kept down by the weight of an act of Parliament.
Nevertheless, no such provision was inserted in the bill ;
and I need laot say that no colonial Legislature has any
power to alter the provision of an act of Parliament.
Now, just see what is the state of things in Canada. Since
1840, 12 years have now passed by. Events have been
crowded in that period in a new country which might
rEssispateared an age in any old one. I find that the popu-
'more than doubled since the year 1840. You find
ey."„ry,..-1-p--..- „ us denominations shifting about—now this one
'-'4.;:----='' I ,- , now another falling into the rear, just
a'ai47 aaa .-- a'a:- ' roiight an acaexaioa t 9 this or thatarPartj iGulaZas
r,
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