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McDOXELL, LORD BISHOP OF KmaSTOA''. -^ fyr^ /"N/-^^ /-*w^s /'~s./??\ /"vy\ jTs^gfc^^^^^g^-gr^fg^ j"^^yff\ ^^ BIBLIOTHEQUE DE M, I'abbe VERREAU .A^ Divisioth Ct< ^/ // .-. --/^-^4 i ASer/' l^A/g^/^ /gN/-> rsg^ '^ f=^\C\ rn^O 1^1 'I f^"i f^r^r^ M KINGSTON: PRINTED AT THE CHROXICLE & GAZETTE OFI^iefcT- r\ X 1837. / , ^"^N Ancast£R, Gore District, Sept. 11, 1837. TO THE HOJV. ^JVD RIGHT REV. DR. j1. McDOAELL, LORD BISHOP OF KLXGSTOJV. My Lord, — As it appears to rae that the period is at hand, when a final arrangement will be made for the religious in- struction of this Province, I beg permission to offer a few observations to your Lordship, as the venerable and respected director of the Catholic Church in Upper Canada, on the claims which the Roman Catholics have on the British Govern- ment, in the settlement of this very important and neglected question. If it is the duty of a good government to take care that the spiritual necessities of the people shall be provided for, is there a single reason, founded either in law, justice or expediency, why the Catholics of this Province should be excluded from this benefit ? At the conquest of Quebec the Roman Catholic faith was the professed faith of the people ; the Priests had a provision made for them, and secufed to them bylaw; the British Government bound itself by solemn treaty to preserve their sacred privileges inviolate. Upper Canada was then part of the Province of Quebec, and by virtue of this treaty, and by sanction of law, did the first Catholic Missionaries in this Pro- vince receive their lawful dues from their flocks. After the division of the Province of Quebec into the Provinces of Up- per and' Lower Canada, a seventh portion of this Province was reserved for a Protestant Clergy ; and shortly afterwards an Act of the Provincial Parliament decreed that tithes should not, in future^ be established in this Province. By the operation of this Act, then, the Catholic Clergy have been thrown alto- gether on their flocks for support, with the exception of a tri- fling annual allowance being given by the Government to your Lordship, for distribution amongst the Clergy. It has not oc- curred to many, that in proportion as the population has become more scattered, a greater necessity has arisen for churches and missions ; and that no augmentation of allowance having been made, the distribution money has become less to each clergy- man, from being divided amongst a larger nut^ber of recipients. I'he people seem to me to entertain very erroneous views, on the subject of a provision made by the Government for the clergy. Our brethren from the Emerald Isle, more especially, exhibit an extraordinary sensitiveness on this subject. Nor can it be wondered at, ray Lord, considering that the Catholics in that but too long misgoverned country have been compelled, by law, to sustain a church differing in doctrine and discipline from their own. And I cannot disguise from your Lordship, that 1 have ever thought that that gallant, noble, generous, susceptible people were fully justified in refusing the proffered nid of a government for the sustentation of their priesthood, as long as that government compelled them to maintain an estab- lishment puch as I have described. ^ Even with this serious objection, however, the Catholics of Ireland receive an annual grant from the British Government, for the support of their College at Maynooth. Assistance to the Clergy, by the Go- vernment, by no means involves an amalgamation with the State. The French Governmeht, after the abdication of Charles the Tenth, determined that the Roman Catholic religion should no longer be designated as the religion of the State ; all reli- gion, as far as the government was concerned, was placed on a strict footing of equality. But did the government think it necessary to withdraw all support and provision from the clergy of the country ? No : they knew, by fatal experience, that the country could not prosper, nor the people be either good or happy, without a pious and efficient clergy ; and accordingly a legal provision was made for them. It would occupy too much space, in the columns of a single letter, to give the various ex- tracts from the evidence given before the Committees of the Houses of Lords and Commons in 1825, by Ireland^s intrepid and persevering champion, O'Connell, as to the utility and ne- cessity of making a permanent provision for the Catholic Cler- gy ; but I would refer those who may be sceptical on the subject, to read attentively that evidence, as well as his still more able and interesting letter on Glebes. They carried conviction to my mind, and notwithstanding his opinions and views have since (hanged, however satisfactory or clever the answers to his own former opinions may seem to be to others, to me there is some- thing so much cleverer and more striking in his original po- sitions that I find they haunt my remembrance when I have quite forgotten his objections to them. The Protestant Go- vernments of Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Prussia, take particular care that the people of the respective churches in (heir dominions shall not be without faithful, zealous and efficient pastors ; and those who have witnessed the industry, morality, frugality, sobriety and happiness of the great bulk of X ■i ^ the people in those countries can find no other satisfactory cause for these virtues than the benign influence which genuine piety must always diffuse over the social condition of mankind. Before setting forth the total inaptitude of the voluntary sys- tem for supplying the spiritual wants of the people, I will again revert to France, in corroboration of the dreadful condition of a people without religion. Not many years, my Lord, before the French Revolution, the people of that country were cele- brated through the earth for their suavity and politeness ; that event suddenly transformed them into democratic furies ; all softer passions were swallowed up in one boundless appetite for blood. Murder was aided by mechanical skill, and from the testimony of the late eminent antiquarian, C. A. Stothard, Esq.. thirteen heads were severed in one short minute. So fixe(i and indulged was the passion for slaughter, that a solitary or dual execution would not collect a crowd ; it was only when numbers bled that spectators could be obtained. The unearth- ly mania raged from the capital to the extremities of the em- pire. Lewis was no more, and Robespierre reigned. Nor rank, nor age, nor sex could awaken pity. Atheism, like some fell demon, stalked through France, triumphant over all the virtues and charities of humanity ; and wherever he turned his steps the honorable and the helpless bled ; while Europe stood paralyzed and horror-stricken at the slaughterous scene ! The same combustible materials are now at work ; the same prin- ciples which led to the French revolution, are those which, masked as '^ voluntary principles y'^ would banish religion from the world. One of the ablest jurists of England says, " An honorable and competent maintenance for the ministers of re- ligion is undoubtedly jure divino; whatever the particular mode of that maintenance may be. For, beside ^ fhe positive precepts of the New Testament, natural reason will tell us, that an order of men who are separated from the world, and excluded from all lucrative professions, for the sake of the rest of mankind, have a right to be furnished with the necessaries, conveniences, and moderate enjoyments of life, at their ex- pense, for whose benefit they forego the usual means of pro- viding them. Accordingly all municipal laws have provided a liberal and decent maintenance for their national priests or clergy." Now, my Lord, independently of the poverty of the people in a conntry where years of incessant toil are required before the forest can be converted into a farm, and where the conso- 6 lations of religion and the quiet of the Sabbath are so indispen- sable to reconcile the exhausted pioneer to his hard lot — inde- pendently of this powerful obstacle to the voluntary system, there is a formidable one founded on human nature itself. At a public meeting in Newry, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Blake, the exem- plary and eloquent Catholic Bishop of , spoka on the subject of the Poor Laws, and said, " Voluntary contributions, although they enhance the merit of individuals, are too preca- rious and too liable to fall off to be relied upon with confidence ; :md hence in every year it is only by the greatest efforts and sacrifices that our workhouse is supported ; and I regret to say, that whilst many who are not the most able to contribute, give morr ^han they can afford : others who have abundant means, givr tttle or nothing." What his Lordship has here stated of the poor is fully as applicable as to the support of the clergy. The present eleemosynary system of maintaining our clergy is open to various and powerful objections. Its total insufficiency to accomplish the purpose is one ; and that, notwithstanding the exaction of dues, and the repeated, I had almost said dis- graceful, supplications made to the various congregations, whose pastors have neither glebe nor Government allowance. Besides leaving as it does numerous districts altogether desti- tute of religious instruction, and proving as it does, even under the most favorable circumstances, highly detrimental to the poorer and most industrious members of the community. If a portion of the incomes of the clergy were derived from glebes set aside expressly for their use, no burden would be imposed upon the people but such as they could conveniently and cheerfully bear. If the burden of supporting clergymen were altogether taken from the land, it would press very in- conveniently upon the earnings of the industrious classes. It was this evil which, according to Lingard, led to the setting apart of endowments originally for the church. If you contem- plate, my Lord, the great extent of country, and the large po- pulation that are totally unprovided with churches and pastors, the evil must strike you f.s one of uncommon magnitude. — In Guelph, Dundas, and Oakville, there are churches, the first two supplied by one clergyman, whose mission amounts almost to a martyrdom ; when if the real wants of the Catholics in the Gore District were supplied, there would be a resident pastor at Hamilton, Dundas, Brantford, Guelph, and Oakville. Disguise it as it may, there are now hundreds of children who receive no religious instruction, and solely from the want of I Jispen- — inde- lystein, If. At ! exem- on the lutions, I preca- idence ; »rts and ; to say, te, give means, tated of clergy, lergy is ficiency landing jaid dis- gations, owance. ir desti- n under to the ed from ould be eniently jrgymen very in- tses. It setting contom- arge po- pastors, ide. — In the first :8 almost holies in resident )akville. ren who want of resident clergymen. Is this, my Lord, a sound, wholesome, proper state of things } It would be no ordinary national benefit to have a number of well educated men dispersed over every part of the Province, whose especial business it would be to keep up and enforce the knowledge of those most exalted truths which relate to the duties of man and to his ultimate destiny, and who would besides have a sort of general com- mission to promote the good of those among whom they would be settled in every possible manner ; to relieve sickness and poverty, to comfort affliction, to counsel ignorance, to compose quarrels, to soften all violent and uncharitable feelings, and to reprove and discountenance vice. This is the theory of the business of a resident clergy, and the salutary effects resultin^ from such a state of things would soon be felt. In remote dis- tricts, the good pastor^s residence would prove a centre oi civilization, from which gleams of refinement of manners, of neatness, of taste, of science and general literature, would be diffused throughout communities and neighborhoods, where nothing but the pestilent streams of sedition at present ever penetrate. Well then, my Lord, the advantage, the utility, nay, the necessity of a resident clergy, I presume will be ad- mitted by all; and are the Irish Catholics alone to be deprived of these inestimable blessings : the English Church will be endowed — no one can dispute her claim ; the Scotch, with that indomitable perseverance, the characteristic of their race, for- getting all difference in politics, united together as one man upon this subject, and have obtained from the British Govern- ment a recognition of their claim ; and shall the brave sons of Erin, who still cherish the religion of their great apostle, the faith of whose hearts is still fresh as the verdure of their isle, who under every vicissitude clung to their religion, and who, after three centuries of persecution which had explored every form of envenomed and malignant law, exhausted every mode of mental and physical torture to eradicate the attachments tu their religion from their hearts, without success, be excluded from the blessing of a participation in a religious appropriation for the Province ? No, my Lord, it would be unworthy of the present enlightened government of Great Britain, who would not wish to treat the Irish with less justice in her colonies than she seems disposed to treat them with at home. My Lord, there are associations implanted in the human breast, which may be modified to good purposes, but which can never be reasoned into silence — that belong to certain prejudices, which, 8 though leading sometimes into practical mistakes, and often crossing the best laid plans of a particular economy, help on the whole to incline the scale to the virtuous side, and to keep up in the great mass of human beings a diffusive sympathy of moral feelings and predilections. Among these is that preju- dice which associates with the sacred service of religion, ha- bits of a higher order than those which are necessarily brought into exercise in exacting dues, begging for assistance, and little things of vulgar sound and illiberal concern. It is hard for him, who is compelled by threats of closing the church, state- ments of extreme poverty and want, to emerge to the serene summit of his high and holy duty ; and still harder for those who listen to these complains and wailings to cherish for him the same love, respect and affection as if he had not mixed with iiis denunciations against vice, murmurings against their miser- able and inadequate support of their religion. Well then, my Lord, the Irish will still retain their faith like the Jews, and carry it with them into every land where they settle. They fmd in those who differ from them that no two interpret tht- sacred volume alike, and that even those who explain their (ioctrines to others arc not agreed among themselves: looking therefore on every reformation in matters of faith as erroneous, and looking on reform in religion, as a supposition that God in his first effort could not give his religion the solidity and per- fection required, they resist every effort at proselytism ; the Government ought therefore to profit by the benevolent sug- gestion of a Protestant Bishop cf Derry, if we cannot make them good Protestants, let us exert ourselves to make theni good Catholics. And, indeed, the Irish are worth conciliating, for with all their vagaries, there is that mirthfulness, hilarity, good temper, and thoughtlessness, which render them enter- prising in danger, of unshaken fidelity, persevering under re- verses, prodigal of life, patient of fatigue, of hunger, of cold, and every hardship attendant on the settlement of a new coun- try, while still cherishing attachment to home. "So bold and frank his bearin?, boy, Should you meet liiin onward faring, boy, Iq Lapland's snow, In Chili's glow. You'd say, what news from Erin, boy ?" It is therefore in every respect most desirable, my Lor b's offer rrom the 1 in the people ? burdens )d useful erection hment of unable, revision ? are often that lofty 1 intimate heir hap- ement, — nder con- ral office, I the most 3marks, it defenders iter and a lie David support of stimulates y verified, ce sundry me warm eclly dis- the most et an elo- Speaking 2ry corner agents of lagistracy, id spiritual ) a certain ou behold nt; effects tenfold for my Lord, why we should receive assistance from the Government for the erection and endowment of our churches. I have stated before that by an Act of the iTovincttl Legislature, we have been deprived of the advantages whicl^e should and ought to possess, by the Treaty of Quebec. This being the case, our numbers large and generally poor, we possess peculiar and powerful claims on the Government. And when we know that in other Colonies and possessions of the British Crown, assist- ance has been given to our clergy, we should not relax our efforts until we obtained a provision, as well as the Episcopa- lian and Presbyterian churches. In 1832 the celebrated Abbe Dubois, who had escaped the guillotine in France, and dedi- cated his life to the conversion of the heathens, and who be- came in manners, dress, custom and habits, almost a Brehmin, " to win some to Christ," stated before a committee of the House of Commoni), that the allowance made by the Govern- ment to the Catholic Missionaries, was by no means commen- surate with their necessities, and that although he had been at the head of extensive congregations in India, yet without the succor and assistance of Government, they could not be made respectable to their flocks. He proposed a scale of allowance for the Bishops, Priests and Schoolmasters, and was successful in his recommendation. I have before reverted to Bishop Fleming, who has addres- sed Lord Glenelg for the purpose of obtaining land for the erection of churches, parsonage houses, and schools, in New- foundland. This prelate spoke of his application, at a public meeting in Great Britain, in the following strain : "Can I bring myself to think now that I shall be refused — can I for a moment suppose that a liberal Cabinet will suffer any brief authority to stand between his subjects and their be- nevolen "* vereign ? I did hope, and do hope still, that inde- pendent : u; claims and those of my people up3n His Majes- ty's Govet(nri'jn4, a wise Ministry will see the generous policy of granting such a favor, and securing by the boon the affec- tions of 70,000 Catholics of the most faithful subjects beneath His Majesty's sceptre ; for should I have to return disappoint- ed, surely it would be difficult, I fear, to influence their belief .1 *hey exist beneath impartial and benevolent rulers." I It this eminent prelate, principally, because I think his tes time 1 1 a "Oil' vill '„ave some weight with those few voluntaries riatholics who have become so from very different 1 1 16 influence than that of the galaxy of virtue which I have addu- ced. But more of this anon. A letter dated Sydney, August 2d, 1836, states— "Every thing here goes on well ; and under the jurisdiction of the Right Rev. Dr. Folding, the prospects of the mission are cheering in the extreme. The Roman Catholics are now in a perfect state of equality with the Church of England^ there being no established church in New South Wales. There are 26,000 Catholics in the Colony. Six priests r.re most laboriously en- gaged, and six more are daily expected. They each receive £150 per annum from the Government, which exercises no control and uses not the slightest interference with the Catho- lics in religious matters.'^ "Religion is Australia. — An act of Council has passed to the effect that whenever £300 are raised fur the erection of a church and parsonage, the Government may advance the same sum — and tliat if one huiulred adults sign a declaration uf their wish for a rlirs^yman, n salary of £100 may be siven — if two hundred, a salary of £150. nod if five hundred, a salary of £200. Already nine clergymen are wanted." The British Government have also extended their beneficent assistance to their Catholic subjects in other colonies. Through the indefatigable exertions of Mr. O'Connell, the Cingalese mis- sions in Ceylon have been aided — a Catholic Bishop, Dr. O'Con- nor, sent to Madras and maintained by the Government, Dr.Clan- cy sent as Bishop to British Guinea, at the charge of the same power — Bishop Morris helped in the Mauritius — and Bishop Macdonell received similar assistance in his fatiguing and ex- tensive mission in the British West Indies. Although, my Lord, 1 am by no means asserting that the government has been lavish in its favor, or prodigal in its grants, yet by constant ap- peals to it of the necessity of the aid, and of its utility, it has done us justice ; and I am quite sure that the wants of the Ca- tholics of Upper Canada, who are devoted and loyal subjects of Her Majesty, will not be unattended to if zealously and res- pectfully urged. Behold, my Lord, the revulsion to Pagan- ism in those parts of India which were formerly supplied with missionaries from Portugal — the two Bishoprics of Cochin and Cranganon having been vacant for the last forty years, from want of the same assistance from the British Government which was formerly supplied by the Portuguese. If your Lordship will look to the writings of that ornament of the An- glican Church, the late elegant and pious Bishop Heber, you will find how pathetically he deplores the small assistance ren- I f «i 17 -"Every the Right eei'ing in t perfect being no 26,000 ously en- \i receive rcises no le Catho- the effect parsonage, ne liuiulred ry of £100 huudred, a jeneficent Through alcse inis- >r. O'Con- , Dr.Clan- the same nd Bishop ig and ex- lough, my ithasheen instant ap- ty, it has of the Ca- subjects of V and res- to Pagan- )plied with of Cochin rty years, overnment . If your of the An- [eber, you stance ren- dered by the British Government to the cause of religion. He (.'raws a powerful contrast of the liberality with which the Por- tuguese built and endowed places of worship, with the parsi- mony and apathy evinced by the British ; and concludes by saying, "If the English lost dominion of India to-morrow, what very poor monuments they would leave to show that a Chris- tian nation had therein held rule." But, my Lord, we are re- ferred to the United States of America, as a convincing proof that the voluntary system can work advantageously for the cause of religion, and the spiritual welfare of the people. To this I reply ; firstly, there is much more wealth in the United States that mJ»y be reasonably expected to be devoted to the purposes of religion, than can be, in a country so new, thinly peopled, and partially settled as Upper Canada i secondly, ma- ny churches in that country are very amply endowed ; and the surplus is employed in assisting those that are needy : thirdly, it is quite notorious, that the most powerful exertions are, ev- ery now and then, required to be made, to arouse the people from the lethargy into which they fall ; and new excitement is produced by "revivals," — "camp meetings," — "public discus- sions," — "baptism in rivers," — bigotry and fanaticism aroused by tales rf "Maria Monk," &c. &c., in order to prevent that apathy on the subject of religion which would otherwise ensue. From a sermon published by the late Bishop Debon, Bishop of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, it is clear to perceive that the most laborious and indefatigable exertions are required to maintain the ministers of religion — indeed, he attributes much of the external appearance of religion to a general princi- ple of dissent, and the pride which is enlisted amongst the se- veral antagonists to maintain their respective superiority, Bishop Doane, of New Jersey, in his Episcopal address, says, "I venture to say that there is, in our political and civil insti- tutions, too little reference to Him who is the only source and security of what is good in them. I enter into no discussion of the causes of this deficiency, or of the apologies for it. The fault exists, and is to be regretted. What is still more to the purpose, it is, so far as may be, to be obviated. "Righteous- ness exalteth a nation, but sin is the reproach of any people," and will be their destruction. Already it begins to be felt that, from the want of a pervading religious principle, the institutions which have cost so much, and promised so well, fail of their expected result ; and wise and good men of all parties, and of 18 every name, unite in the conviction, that, unless, as a nation^ we seek the blessing of the Most High, the best hopes of hu- manity must suffer disappointment. A pvhlic Christian recog- nition of our dependence on him as a nation^ and of our duty, as a nation^ towards Him, will have its weight with others." I could go on, my Lord, multiplying extracts, but these, per- haps, for the present may suffice. I have endeavored to prove the wisdom and good policy of the Government aiding and as" sisting in the extension of religion — I have pointed out the na- ture of our claims; I have readily admitted the claims of others — I have shown that the best and brightest luminaries in our Church desire this assistance — I have shown that the British Government have generously aided our Missions and Clergy in other parts — it remains for me to urge the Catholics of this Province to imitate the conduct of the Scotch Presbyte- rians — assemble in every part — make a simultaneous move- ment — and not remain contented until they are equally protect- ed as their Protestant Brethren. It is certain that the Govern- ment, if properly applied to, will not refuse to its North American Catholic subjects, the same support it gives to those residing in the East and West Indies, and in New South Wales. But to conclude, my Lord, I doubt not but that I shall be as- sailed for this letter, on the ground that I have always been an uncompromising antagonist of the tithe system, and a State Church ! If so, I shall not be wanting in my vindication. That some of those unwearied enemies of the public peace, whom, perhaps, I shall have to describe more fully and parti- cularly ; who have misled many well meaning persons on the subject of the voluntary system ; and whom, as Bishop England eloquently describes as " men who, with liberty on their lips perpetrate the most outrageous despotism, and who, in mockery of equality, would destroy every semblance of order," may make me the object of their attack, is probable. I believe the public sentiment has been mistaken on the subject, and that many who are opposed to a State Church, are still desirous that the State should make a decent provision for the religious necessities of the people. 1 reverence public opinion too much to defy it needlessly. The fear of its censure is most salutary, but there should be bounds to its influence, and many occasions may arise wherein we ought to have moral courage enough to disregard it. Any one may defame me and my motives, but no one can make me infamous but myself, and while I have t^'.^'^H )ns to )Ut live 10 the approbation of my own heart, I may well despise the ca- lumnies of those who judge of others, only, by themselves. I have the honor to remain, my Lord, Your Lordship's faithful, Humble and obedient serv't, • THOMAS ROLPH. ♦«l!»*4^ ind ips jry lay Ibe hat )US )US kch