Crown within the said Provinces, every such act or acts shall, previous to any declaration or signification of the King's assent thereto, be laid before both Houses of Parliament in Great Britain; and that it shall not be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs or successors, to signify his or their assent to any such act or acts, until thirty days after the same shall have been laid before the said Houses, or to assent to any such act or acts, in case either House of Parliament shall, within the said thirty days, address his Majesty, his heirs or successors, to withhold his or their assent from such act or acts, and that no such act shall be valid or effectual to any of the said purposes, within either of the said Provinces, unless the Legislative Council and Assembly of such Province shall, in the session in which the same shall have been passed by them, have presented to the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or person administering the government of such Province, an address or addresses, specifying that such act contains provisions for some of the said purposes herein before specially described, and desiring that, in order to give effect to the same, such act should be transmitted to England without delay, for the purpose of being laid before Parliament previous to the signification of his Majesty's assent thereto.

In these few sections the reader is presented with the charter of the Church's Right. We think, nay, we are persuaded, that it would be impossible for a person whose judgment was unbiassed to rise from the careful perusal of this act without declaring his conscientious belief that to the Church of England, and to the Church of England alone, belongs the right of possessing the lands so reserved. It is when party feelings and sectarian policy interpose, that a different interpretation is entertained, an opposite conclusion formed. The permanency of the provision, as well as the Church's right to it, has been made the subject of discussion and doubt. If language can define permanency, then it must surely be allowed, that the meaning of the act on this important bearing cannot be misunderstood. To this we have more especially referred in our answer to Lord Glenelg's despatch of the 7th of August. One remark, however, may be made here, which deserves especial attention, and which it is believed furnishes an answer to the objections to the permanency of the provision which may be drawn from the 41st section. It is this:-If the principle of a legislative measure be permanent and unalterable, then however the details of the measure may be modified or repealed, as circumstances may require, or even an entirely new act become necessary, still no stretch of legislative power can annihilate the principle: this must survive every effort at alteration and subversion. What is the principle of

the act of 1791? the duty of the state is to provide for the religious instruction of the people. In the performance of this bounden duty the act was passed. Opposition from the enemies of the Church or of the State cannot release the "powers that be" from their responsibility to God and to the people committed to their charge. The manner of providing for the ministers of the Established Church may require modification or alteration, but without a plain dereliction of duty they may not be left to the precarious support of the people. We stop not to notice at any length the delusions of the voluntary system, or of the duty of Government to sanction and support all sects and denominations alike. The former has been exposed by the experience of our own country; for its inefficacy to supply the people with religious instruction is too obvious to need any proof. The latter argues so little foresight, so little discernment of the effects of simultaneously cultivating and fostering systems which are morally as well as politically opposed, that our wonder cannot fail to be excited that even in this age of novel extravagancies any one should be found bold enough to advance it. Let toleration be co-extensive with Christianity, unless, indeed, the form of religion plainly interfere with the maintenance of peace and order, as established in our community. Such a "cloak of maliciousness" should not be permitted. But widely, indeed, does the toleration and the pecuniary support of a system of religion differ. It is moreover a vain excuse for refusing the exclusive support of the "powers that be" to the national faith, to urge the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of deciding which system is right. Such a plea involves the admission that truth itself cannot successfully be sought or assuredly attained-a doctrine few Protestants would be disposed to receive. When the Church of England shall be found wanting in her adherence to the truth of God's word, and the due ministrations of Christ's sacrament,-when she shall pertinaciously maintain the "corruptions of the Church of Rome or any other errors incompatible with the truth as it is in Jesus, then let her place, as the National Establishment, be occupied by some more pure, more apostolical church till then her maintenance and enlargement, to the extent of our gracious Sovereign's dominions, by the legislative and executive bodies, is a plain and positive cuty,

:

For nearly thirty years no attempt was made to call in question the exclusive right of the Church of England to those lands called the "Clergy Reserves." The notion was then broached that there is so peculiar a vagueness in the letter, and such an elasticity in the spirit of the act, as admits of the interpretation that the Church of Scotland at least may claim a share in the provision thus made for a Protestant clergy. It is not from any inimical disposition to the Church of Scotland that we reject this notion, but simply because we believe that it is at variance with the letter and spirit of the act itself. The claim of the Church of Scotland rests on the fact, which we are not disposed to deny, that she is an established Church,-established, indeed, in Scotland, but in no other part of the British dominions. We submit, in proof of this assertion, a few sections of the "King's Instructions" sent to the governor of the Canadas in the year 1818. This document cannot fail to show that the Government at that time did so interpret the Constitutional Act of 1791, as recognising the Church of England as the only Established Church in Upper Canada.

§ 41.-Whereas the establishment of proper regulations on matters of ecclesiastical concern is an object of very great importance, it will be your indispensable duty to take care that no arrangements in regard thereto be made, but such as may give full satisfaction to our new subjects, in every point in which they have a right to any indulgence on that head, always remembering that it is a toleration of the free exercise of the religion of the Church of Rome only to which they are entitled, but not to the powers and privileges of it as an Established Church, THAT BEING a PREFERENCE WHICH BELONGS ONLY TO THE PROTESTANT CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

$44. It is our will and pleasure to reserve to you the granting of licenses for marriage, letters of administration, and probate of wills, as heretofore exercised by you and your predecessors, and also to reserve to you and all others to whom it may lawfully belong, the patronage and right of presentation to benefices; but it is our will and pleasure that the person so presented shall be instituted by the Bishop, or his Commissary duly authorised by him.

$45.-You are to take especial care that God Almighty be devoutly and duly served throughout your government-that the Lord's Day be duly kept, and the services and prayers appointed by and according to the Book of Common Prayer be publicly and solemnly performed throughout the year.

$52.-You are not to present ANY Protestant minister to ANY ecclesiastical benefice within our said province by virtue of the said Act, passed in the 31st year of our reign, and of our commission to you, without a

proper certificate from the Bishop of Quebec, or his Commissary, of his being conformable to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England.

$53. And you are to take especial care that the table of marriages established by the canons of the Church of England be hung up in all places of public worship, according to the rites of the Church of England.

In the above five sections of the King's Instructions there is contained a direct and explicit recognition of the Establishment of the Church of England. Very strong supplementary proof of the same position may be gathered from the seventh, ninth, and tenth paragraphs of the 42d section, and from sections 43, 46, 47, 48, 49, &c. &c. They go to the full extent of proving that the British Ministry of 1818 considered the powers and privileges of an Established Church, within the province of Upper Canada, a preference belonging ONLY to the Protestant Church of England.

The pretensions of the Scotch Church to a portion of the Clergy Reserves, were soon succeeded by those of the friends of various other denominations of dissenters. It is very natural, that as long as the shadow of a hope existed, of successfully impugning the Church's exclusive right, the agitation of the question would be increased with increasing bitterness and violence. The subject was referred to the Home Government, in 1818: the ministry submitted it to the law officers of the crown, who delivered their opinions in the subjoined letter.

Doctor's Commons, 15th Nov. 1819. My Lord.We are honoured with your Lordship's commands of the 14th September last, stating that doubts have arisen how far, under the construction of the act passed in the 31st year of his present Majesty, (c. 31.) the Dissenting Protestant Ministers resident in Canada have a legal claim to participate in the lands by that act directed to be reserved as a provision for the support and maintenance of a Protestant Clergy.

And your Lordship is pleased to request, that we would take the same into consideration and report to your Lordship, for the information of the Prince Regent, our opinion, whether the Governor of the Province is either required by the act, or would be justified in applying the produce of the reserved lands to the maintenance of any other than the Clergy of the Church of England resident in the Province: and in the event of our being of opinion that the Ministers of Dissenting Protestant congregations have a concurrent claim with those of the Church of England, further desiring our opinion, whether in applying the reserved lands to the endowment of rectories and parsonages, as required by the 38th clause, it is incumbent upon his Majesty to retain a proportion of those lands for the maintenance of the Dissenting Clergy, and as to the pro

portion, in which, under such a construction, the provision is to be assigned to the different classes of Dissenters established within the Province.

We are of opinion, that though the provisions made by 31st Geo. III. c. 31, §36 and 42, for the support and maintenance of a Protestant Clergy, are not confined solely to the Clergy of the Church of England, but may be extended also to the Clergy of the Church of Scotland, if there are any such settled in Canada, (as appears to have been admitted in the debate upon the passing of the act,) yet that they do not extend to the Dissenting Ministers, since we think the terms, Protestant Clergy, can apply only to the Protestant Clergy recognized and established by law. The 37th section which directs, "that the rents and profits of the lands, &c., shall be applicable solely to the maintenance and support of a Protestant Clergy," does not specify by what authority the rents and profits are to be so applied. Supposing the Governor to be duly authorised by the act to make such application, we think that he will be justified in applying such rents and profits to the maintenance and support of Clergy of the Church of Scotland, as well as those of the Church of England, but not to the support and maintenance of Ministers of Dissenting Protestant congregations.

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With respect to the second question, the 38th clause, which empowers his Majesty to authorise the Governor to constitute and erect parsonages or rectories according to the establishment of the Church of England;" provides also, "that he may endow every such parsonage or rectory with so much of the lands allotted and appropriated, in respect to any land within such township or parish which shall have been granted, as the Governor, with the advice of the Executive Council, shall judge to be expedient."

Under these terms he might endow any particular parsonage or rectory, with the whole lands allotted and appropriated in that township or parish.

It would be inconsistent with this discretionary power, that any proportion of such lands should be absolutely retained for any other Clergy than those mentioned in that clause, and we think that it is not incumbent on his Majesty so to retain any proportion of such lands. We have the honour to be, my Lord,

Your Lordship's most obedient humble servants,
(Signed)

EARL BATHURST,

&c. &c. &c.

CHRIST. ROBINSON,

R. GIFFORD.

J. S. COPLEY.

It cannot be denied that the opinions, here expressed, of the law officers of the crown, very distinctly favour the claims advanced by the members of the Scotch Church, for a participation in the "rents and profits" arising from the Clergy reserves, while they do as distinctly reject any supposed right of that Church to a share of them for parochial endowments. The notion of the right of other dissenters from the Established Church, is sum