118

THE DAY |
MISSIONS LIBRARY

©i'YALE UNIVB^.. ..

A MEMOIR

GEORGE JEHOSHAPHAT MOUNTAIN, D.D., D.C.L.,
3Late Bisljop at ®uebw,
COMPILED (AT THE DESIRE OP THE SYNOD OF THAT DIOCESE)
BT HIS BON,
ARMINB W. MOUNTAIN, M.A.,
gnntmljcni of £t. |Jit«iittI'» fftaytl, ffimbtt.

^Xantxml :
JOHN LOYELL, ST. NICHOLAS STREET.
London : Sampson Low, Son & Maeston.
ISM..

ANT PROFITS ARISING FROM THE SALE OF THIS PUBLICATION WILL EB DEVOTED
TO OHUKOH PURPOSES WITHIN THE DIOCESE OP QUEBEC.

Qc&iKxttA

So %

0tory ot (gjut,

S-ttir t^e

#oob nf fia Ctorclj.

ERRATA.
Page 11, line 6 from bottom, for fluttering read flattering.
61, line 1, for very read every.
64, line 6, for or read for.
lxxxix. line 25, for 18th read 16th.
cox. lines 11 and 12, for thirty read fifty.
ccxxxvi. line 3 from bottom, for clergymen read clergyman.
cccxxxii. line 22, for besides read beside.
cccxlvii. line 19, for two thousand read one thousand.
ccccvi. line 6, for with read by.
ccccxviii. line 14, dele comma at end of line.

CONTENTS

PAGE
Chap. I. Parentage and birth — Emigration to Canada — Childhood —
Boyhood — College Course  9
Chap. II. Ordination — Journeyings with his father — Marriage — Set
tlement at Predericton — Removal thence to Quebec  23
Chap. III. Entrance on parochial work at Quebec — Appointment as
Official — Journeyings in that capacity, and with his father on
visitations  41
Chap. IV. Visitations as Archdeacon — McGill College — First visit to
Gaspe  58
Chap. Y. Visit to England — Death of his father  80
Chap. VI. Bishop Stewart — Labours in the parish of Quebec, for the
diocese, and for different institutions  94
Chap. VII. Second visit to Gasps' — Journey to York — Visitation of
Eastern townships and district of Quebec   105
Chap. VIII. Archidiaconal duties and journals, 1830  131
Chap. IX. Journeys as Archdeacon continued, 1832  148
Chap. X. Visitation of cholera at Quebec — Correspondence  158
Chap. XI. Voyage to England in 1835 — Consecration as Bishop of
Montreal — Death of his mother  173
Chap. XII. Return to Canada — Death of Bishop Stewart — Statistics
of the diocese — Parochial labours — Visitation tour  „. . . 182
Chap. XIII. First visit, as Bishop, to Gasp6 — Primary visitation of
clergy — Visit to Upper Canada — Division of diocese  201
Chap. XIV. Second triennial circuit — Anxiety for the establishment
of a see at Montreal — Correspondence with the clergy at Red River
— Severe illness — Formation of Church Society — Steps taken
towards the foundation of Bishop's College — Second visitation of
clergy  212
Chap. XV. Third triennial circuit  226
Chap. XVI. Visit to the Red River — Surplice question — Views on
some other points — Manner of dealing with opposition — Corner
stone of Bishop's College laid — Visitation of clergy — Fires at Que
bec — Opening of Bishop's College — Pastoral letter  243

VI CONTENTS. PAOB
Chap. XVII. Fourth circuit of the diocese— Ship fever— Visitation
of clergy  255
Chap. XVIII. Re-appearance of cholera at Quebec — Preparations for
synodical action — Meeting with the Bishop of Toronto— Erection
of a see at Montreal, and arrival of the new Bishop— Triennial cir
cuit continued — Visit to the Magdalene Islands — Statistics  268
Chap. XIX. Fifth visitation of clergy— Meeting of clergy and lay
delegates — Conference of Bishops at Quebec  286
Chap. XX. S. P. G. Jubilee— Sixth triennial circuit— Visit to Eng
land to meet the Bishop of Sydney  300
Chap. XXI. Return home— Visitation of Gaspe— Consecration of
Fredericton cathedral — Opposition to measures for procuring
synodical action — Pastoral letter — Diocesan Assembly — Visita
tion of clergy  320
Chap. XXII. Re-appearance of cholera at Quebec in 1854— Visit to
New York — Completion of triennial circuit — St. Michael's chapel
— Death of Colonel Mountain — Lieut. J. G. Mountain   328
Chap. XXIII. Seventh triennial circuit— Illness— Visitation of clergy
— Visits of the Bishop of Rupert's Land, and of American Bishops
— Commencement of eighth triennial circuit — Obstacles to the
advance of the Church — New missions — Correspondence with the
S. P. G  335
Chap. XXIV. Proceedings within the diocese for initiating synod
ical action — Difficulties encountered  i  350
Chap. XXV. First diocesan synod — Visit to Gasp6 — Conclusion of
triennial circuit — Visits of the Bishops of Nova Scotia, Newfound
land, Montreal, Rupert's Land, Victoria and Michigan — Journey to
Burlington — Prince of Wales  369
Chap. XXVI. Second diocesan synod — Address on history of dio
cese — Last triennial circuit — Visit to Labrador — Meeting with
the Bishop of Newfoundland — Illness — Domestic bereavement. ... 381
Chap. XXVII. Missionary sent to Labrador — First provincial synod
— Appointment of Metropolitan — Sermon before the synod —
Triennial circuit continued — Last visitation — Meeting of diocesan
synod — Jubilee — BishopWilliams of Connecticut — Finlay Asylum.. 393
Chap. XXVIII. Summer of 1862 — Letters to his family — Latest
acts of his life — Last illness and death  417
Chap. XXIX. Funeral — Testimonies to his character  424
Chap. XXX. Conclusion  434
Appendix  441-477

PREFACE,

The resolution* of the synod of the diocese of Quebec,
in obedience to which I have undertaken the work which
is contained in the following pages, seemed to point not
only to a personal memoir, but also to a quasi-historical
sketch. This double character has rendered its execution
peculiarly difficult, as it must necessarily make it fail to
interest any one class of readers throughout. Apart from this
consideration, there are reasons which have made me of all
men the most unfitted for the task. But I have done my
best, though too fully conscious of manifold imperfections; and
I may truly say that it has not been without prayer that my
work may, in some humble measure, advance the glory of
God. It is in this hope that I have made public many words
and thoughts which may be regarded, in some quarters, as
too sacred to be so exposed. If any one person shall be
moved, by reading these pages, to strive to follow the ex-
* " Resolved, That it is the earnest desire of the members of this synod,
that a memoir of our late beloved Bishop, the chief ruler of the Church in
Canada for so many eventful years of her history, should be published ;
" That it is, also, the wish of the members of the Church generally, to
possess some of the eloquent and admirable sermons of that lamented
Prelate ;
" That, therefore, a committee of three be named by the Chair to convey
to the Rev. A. W. Mountain, the unanimous request of this synod, that he
will prepare such a memoir, and also publish two or more volumes of the
sermons of the late Bishop."
(A single volume of sermons was accordingly published, early in 1865.
London : Bell and Daldy.)

Vlll PREFACE.
ample of faith and patience which they set forth, I shall not
have written in vain.
I have omitted much that relates to the more recent his
tory of the diocese (inserting in fact scarcely anything
beyond what is of a personal nature), because it is preserved
in the records of the different institutions of the Church
which sprang into existence during my father's episcopate.
Partly for this reason also, as well as because the work
grew in my hands to greater proportions than I had desired,
the details of the later years of his administration are less
full'. Besides, as the condition of the diocese assumed
a more permanent character, the journals and letters from
which I have derived my information exhibit less variety,
and the interest attaching to the description of the state
of things in a new country diminishes as it grows older.
I regret, however, that I have not been able to find room
for some interesting notes on the early history of the Can
adian Church which I was permitted to make from the
records of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.
I have thrown into the form of an appendix some prayers
and counsels composed for particular persons or occasions, as
well as some brief extracts from letters, and some poetical
compositions. I earnestly hope that I have said nothing that will cause
pain to any one. I am sure that the fear of doing so has
often withheld me from giving what some persons might con
sider a just description of events in the history of the Church.
And if I have incidentally been led, by the circumstances of
my narrative, to indicate persons who had merited my father's
approval, I trust (as he always did himself) that I shall not
be understood as implying any disparagement of others to
whose labours or character I had no such occasion to refer.
This was a point in which, in all the published accounts
of his doings, he was particularly sensitive. I trust I have
not unconsciously done injustice to any one.

MEMOIR.

CHAPTER I.

Parentage — Birth — Emigration to Canada— Childhood — Boyhood — College
Course.
The family of Mountain is of French extraction, having
emigrated to England on the revocation of the edict of
Nantes, and settled in Norfolk, where they became pro
prietors of a small landed -estate, called Thwaite Hall. It
remained in their hands till about the middle of the last
century. The last occupant, dying young, left two sons, the
younger of whom afterwards became the first Bishop of Que
bec. The subject of this memoir, the second son of the Bishop,
was born on the 27th July, 1789, at the parsonage house of
St. Andrews in Norwich, of which parish his father was at
that time incumbent. He was baptized, privately, on the 3rd
August ; for, though a little more than an hour after his birth
he was described as " apparently a sturdy fellow," he was a
delicate child. While he was still an infant, his father removed
to Buckden, in Huntingdonshire, of which place he had be
come vicar, being also examining chaplain to the Bishop of
Lincoln, whose residence was at Buckden. This prelate had
been tutor to Mr. Pitt, and when, in 1793, the Government
determined on the erection of a see in Canada, his lordship
recommended his chaplain for the appointment. Dr. Mountain
B

10 MEMOIR OF
had himself been known to Mr. Pitt at Cambridge, where he
had been a fellow of Caius College, and the Bishop's recom
mendation was willingly adopted. Neither of the persons
more directly concerned in this measure appears to have had
reason to regret it, for we find it mentioned in Tomline's life
of Pitt, as a testimony to the wisdom of that statesman's
measures, that the first Bishop of Quebec had presided over
the Canadian Church " with great honour to himself and
advantage to the concerns of his extensive diocese ;" while
Dr. Tomhne's own biographer, in his turn, brings forward
this appointment as a proof of the Bishop's good judgment,
displayed in his recommendation of Dr. Mountain. Dr.
Mountain having Been consecrated on the 7th July, 1793,,
embarked almost immediately for Quebec, accompanied by
his wife, (Elizabeth Mildred Wale Kentish, co-heiress, with
two sisters, of Little Bardfield Hall in Essex,)' and four
children, of whom George was the second. A residence in
Canada in the eighteenth century involved so complete a
separation from English friends, that all' the members of the
Bishop's family, and one of his sisters-in-law, the ' future
Bishop's godmother, resolved to share his exile. His elder
brother, Dr. Jehoshaphat Mountain, rector of Peldon in
Essex, with his wife, son and two daughters, as well as his
own two sisters, accordingly accompanied him, and after a
voyage of thirteen weeks, the thirteen Mountains landed at
Quebec on All Saints' Day. The Bishop proceeded imme
diately to Woodfield, nearly three miles from Quebec, which
had been secured as his private residence. Here the boyish
days of his sons were spent, and the character of the sur
rounding scenery tended to form and encourage the power
which they inherited, in a remarkable degree, from their
father, of appreciating the beauties of nature. There is little
recorded of these boyish days, though enough to shew that,
besides the relish for natural scenery, turned, as it always
was, to a means of lifting the heart from nature to nature's

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 11

God, a correct classical taste was early engendered, and a •
natural turn for poetry indulged. In a journal kept by the
Bishop in 1796, there is frequent mention of walks " with
the children before breakfast," and on the 28th March it
is noted that " this day George began his Latin grammar."
A youthful effort at composition is in my possession, contain
ing an account of a birthday spent at Powell Place (now
called Spencerwood), then, as now, the residence of the
Governor of the province. The grounds of Powell Place im
mediately adjoined those of Woodfield, bemg separated only
by a small brook called Belle Borne, across which it is related
in a work recently published on the environs of Quebec that
the sons of Sir R. Milnes themselves built a bridge, which they
named Pont Bonvoisin, for the purpose of establishing a ready
communication between the two -houses, and in this work
we may presume that their young companions from Wood-
field lent their aid. The events of the birthday are thrown
into the form of a drama, the personages of which are Sir
Robert and Lady Milnes, with their children, and George
Mountain and his brothers. A strong and affectionate friend
ship began at this early age, and continued through life,
between the members of the two families. One of Sir
Robert's sons, who was just two years younger than his
friend George, was killed in the American war of 1813 :
and his father having requested the Bishop of Quebec to
write an appropriate epitaph, he transferred the task to his
son, then rector of Fredericton, who subjoined to it four
stanzas, of which the concluding two are these : —
0 wherefore, but to leave a deeper gloom,
Do these brief flashes pass before our eyes ?
Why do fair Hope, and fluttering Promise bloom,
If Hope is early nipt, and Promise dies ?
Forbear ; — these ashes cold, the blessed breath
Of Heaven can kindle to eternal light ;
That Name can ope, which Milnes* invoked in death,
Germs of new life, to blow for ever bright.
* An allusion to fact.

12 MEMOIR OF
A " puerile account " of an excursion made in September, ,
1804, drawn up at the time by one of his brothers, " to see
the lake in the mountains called by the inhabitants the Lake
of Beauport," is so curious at this distance of time that I
am tempted to give an extract from it : —
" The party, consisting of the Bishop, his three sons and their tutor, set
out on horseback early in the morning, and breakfasted at Mr. Duchesnay's,
where we were received with great kindness and hospitality. Mr. Duchesnay
himself then conducted us as far as the house of our guide, a. civil, active
fellow, named Jean Marie Belanger. We set out from his house on horse
back, followed by a cart containing our provisions, and preceded by our
guide and his son, a boy of sixteen yet in appearance hardly ten, his growth,
as he said, having been interrupted' by labour. After proceeding about
half a league in the wood, we were obliged to leave the cart behind, as the
road would not admit of its proceeding farther. Our guide now informed us
that there were three lakes, the two former small, and the other larger, which
was the one we were to see ; but on our expressing a desire to see them all,
if possible, it was agreed that we should see the two farthest in going, and
the nearest, or " Lac des Roches," on our return. About a league from the
place where we left the cart, we were obliged to leave also the horses, and
proceed on foot ; and very soon after we saw the first lake, which is a pretty
little lake in a wood, called " Lac des Chicots," containing a small island.
This lake abounds in fish and ducks. We now ascended the first mountain,
"the guide having nothing to direct him but his general notion of the place,
no path, no traces of art. The trees grow to a great height, perhaps some
exceeding 100 feet, but of a girth proportionably insignificant. We were in
hopes of seeing some bears, as both they and beavers are occasionally found
here ; but as we conversed as we went, our guide observed that the sound
of our voices would occasion them to retire. The soil of the mountains is
?ery soft, composed chiefly of dead leaves and fallen trees. We soon came
to the second mountain, which is much larger, and part of it offers a curious
appearance, being 'composed solely of dead trees heaped 'over one another,
and thickly covered with a great variety of beautiful mosses interwoven
with elegant creepers. The trees that grow here are often so loosely rooted
as to give way to the hand. After a walk of at least two hours, we arrived
at the borders of this charming lake : its noble and majestic beauty baffles
the most ample powers of description ; the hills, the woods, and their
various tints and shades, offering a variety and contrast hardly to be con
ceived. Completely repaid for the labour of our walk, we prepared to return,
and found the mountains, by having a little changed our route, much
steeper than before ; and when we arrived at the foot of the second, we
were surprised with a proof that, in a wood, to be lost ten yards is to be lost

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 13
as certainly as a thousand. We had descended the mountain rather too much
to the west, and our guide, we saw, did not at all' know where we were,
though the path, to which good Providence directed us, was certainly not
twenty yards distant. When we arrived at the place where our horses were
stationed, we found that we had been gone considerably more than four
hours ; but we considered ourselves amply repaid by the exquisite beauty
of the lake we had seen. Our guide informs us that there are lakes between
every two mountains in this vast range, and that he has been at one which
he calls the " Lac des Vermins." As it was late, we did not see the third lake,
called "Lac des Roches" we saw, however, as we returned, a bird called
here the spruce partridge, but by naturalists the ruffed grouse, and a very
beautiful creature it is. Fully satisfied with our day's expedition, we arrived
home some time after dark."
A happier home than that of Woodfield (during the
Bishop's occupation of which three younger children were
born) has seldom been seen. The parents were regarded
with unbounded and tender affection, mingled with veneration.
Feelings such as these the characters of both were emin
ently calculated to inspire, and they produced their effect in
unwonted brotherly love among their children, which con
tinued, in a most remarkable degree, while they remained on
earth, notwithstanding separations of great length both in
time and distance. Some proofs of this will appear in the
following pages. The Bishop continued to reside at Wood-
field (though the winters had been occasionally spent within
the walls of Quebec) till 1802, when he finally left it. George
was then in his thirteenth year, and he gave vent to his feel
ings in the following lines, which are here inserted as a spe
cimen of the poetic taste which he exhibited at that early age.
They are the first in a small manuscript book filled up in a
similar way from 1802 to 1804, which shews a very unusual
familiarity with Greek, Latin, French and English authors.
I have also some rough notes on the natural history and pecu
liar customs of Canada, written in 1804-5, with an index of
more than one hundred subjects, displaying equally unusual
powers of observation, and acquaintance with the points
treated of.

14 MEMOIR OF
0, must I leave thee, Woodfield ? — sweet retreat
From the world's busy strife, delightful seat
Of rural beauty, where with bounteous hand
Nature hath lent her charms to grace thy land.
As feels the African when torn away
From friends, from parents, from his country's sway,
From all that's dear, and to a distant shore
Sold barb'rously for price of baleful ore,
By those detested traders — so my heart
Melts into sore regret from thee to part.
Thee must I leave, compelled by fate severe,
Where my sweet hours I spent without a fear
Of being forced from thee — enchanting spot, —
Unwilling forced to burst the tender knot.
But ah ! those hopes, those raptures now are flown,
And why did I indulge them ? Now are gone
All the delights that then did warm my heart,
And now by cruel fate I'm forced to part.
How can I part ? How leave thee, charming place ?
How leave the beauties which adorn and grace
Thy bonnd'ries ? thy rich fields, abundant food
To cattle lending, and thy verdant wood ;
Thy firs, thy venerable oaks, thy shades,
Thy purling rivulets, thy deep cascades,
Forming a pleasing contrast to the eye ?
Thy views, in which no other spot can vie
With thee, extended o'er the country round,
O'er forests wild and cultivated ground,
O'er hills and valleys, o'er the rugged steep
Of the great king* of rivers, Lawrence deep 7
Such are thy beauties, such my humble muse
Attempts to sing ; yet thou wilt not refuse
This tribute to thy memory ; thou wilt deign
To accept a faithful though a feeble strain.
And now by cruel fate severed from thee,
Wherever 'tis my destiny to flee,
Still I'll remember thee, 0 Woodfield dear I
And still on thee will drop a tender tear 1
The education of the sons of the Bishop was conducted at
home, for some years, by the Rev. Matthew Feilde, M.A., of
* Fluviorum rex Eridanus. Virg. Georg., I, 482.
KpEiuj/ A^eAuiof. Horn. II. $. 194.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 15
the University of Cambridge, who lived in the house as tutor.
Between Mr. Feilde and his pupils a strong feeling of attach
ment grew up, and he never ceased to take an interest and
pride in them, or to look back with thankfulness to the
happy days he had spent with them in Canada. In a letter
addressed to the two elder, on their entering college, he says,
" it is unnecessary for me to lay down rules for the profitable
employment of your time ; you need no admonition of this
nature from me."
When he was just sixteen, George Mountain left Canada
with his elder brother, to pursue his studies under the care of
the Rev. T. Monro, at Little Easton, in Essex, with whom
they remained till their removal to Trinity College, Cam
bridge. He had received, together with his elder brother, the
blessing of confirmation from his father's hands, at Quebec,
on the 18th September, 1803. The letters which continually
followed him from Canada from his relatives are full of
expressions, not of affection only, but of strong and unvarying
approbation, and others from companions of his own age,
several of whom afterwards rose to eminence at the Canadian
bar, exhibit the same proofs of his power of attracting regard
and esteem. His regret at leaving Canada was very great,
and found expression in some lines in which he says that in
England, " — 'Mid the grandeur of men
And the wonders of nature and art,
For the wildness of nature again,
A sigh shall be felt in the heart."
But a taste for which there was no exercise in Canada, soon
grew almost into enthusiasm.* No one who ever travelled
* In one of his journals, written in 1830, he mentions taking a note of the
name of a place near Montreal, where the remains of a feudal-looking
mansion were to be seen, " in order to see it and shew it to my children, if
It should be fairly in my way ; for although I would not now bestow time and
thought upon such objects, I feel that I am not divested of some lurking

16 MEMOIR OF
with him can fail to have been struck with the wonderful
keenness of his perception of the beauties of nature, enabling
him to see something to admire in combinations or contrasts
which an ordinary observer would have passed without notice •?
and all his letters and journals are full of descriptions into
which many other minds could not fully enter in the same
scenes. Yet to the last he used to say that even the
recollection of architectural remains of antiquity gave him a
pleasure which he described with a zest and a freshness
that carried one back to them as if they were before one's
eyes. None of his own early letters have been preserved,
his contemporaries to whom they were addressed having
all passed away ; but their letters to him speak of the
pleasure they derived from his description of the new scenes
on which he now entered. One of his Canadian friends,
writing from Quebec in February 1806, speaks of the pleasure
" of enjoying such sentiments as you describe to have filled
your mind on beholding the' celebrated and venerable cathe
dral of Canterbury, and to have enraptured it on hearing the
solemn strains during divine service there." Among his
fellow pupils at Easton were some who afterwards became
distinguished in different professions ; and among them all a
feeling of kindliness prevailed which manifested itself in after
years, whenever, by any circumstance, any of them were
thrown together. A letter written from Easton soon after
his removal to Cambridge ends with the words, "all the
boys send their love to you." One of those boys, who was also
with him at Cambridge, the only one (besides his brother)
of school and college companions, who now, it is believed,
survives, writes of him thus : " My affection for him was
such, that nothing which was cause of gratification in our
¦  —  9  ¦  ¦  ,
remains of a fondness for them, which, in my early youth, amounted to a
romantic enthusiasm. My children may, perhaps, contemplate them with
a, similar kind of interest, accompanied by an attention to the moral and
religious lessons which are to be read in the changes of this lower world.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. IT
early associations seems to have left my memory ; and often
as I sit opposite his picture in my drawing room, are scenes
of our dear early days brought vividly before my mind.
Alas ! the last time we met, when he was last in England,
he felt our approaching separation so strongly, that as we
were moving about London in a cab, he stopped it, and said,
' Wait here, I must get out.' He said no more, but I lost
sight of him, and waited for a long time. But he never
came back, and I received a note from him next morning to
tell me, ' My dear  1 could not say good-bye ; my heart was
too full ; I knew we should never meet again in the flesh ;'¦
and so we parted. Our first friendship was formed at Easton,
where we were placed for tuition under our kind friend, Mr.
Monro. There were eight of us. Happy days were those.
He was a first-rate classic. From thence he went up to
Trinity, and I to St. Johns, about 1808. He often passed
his vacations at my father's house, and was a great favourite
with everybody. Some years ago he went with me, at the
request of the vicar of  , to preach a charity sermon,
and when we arrived in the vestry, we found a note addressed
to his lordship, requesting he would on no account read the
Communion-service at the altar. He observed it was a
very extraordinary request, and asked me to account for it.
I told him what I believed was true, that the vicar had a
very weak voice, and could not make himself heard in the
body of the church, and did not like any other person to do
differently from himself. On which he doubled up the note,
and said he should carry it home to Quebec, and have it
framed and glazed, and placed in his study as a direction by
a vicar how a Bishop ought to comport himself in church.
However, we did read the service, of course, in the chancel
and at the altar.
" His mind had always a religious tone and bias, and I
never knew him allow the least approach to irreverence of
any kind in his presence, even at his earliest youth. He

18 MEMOIR OF
was my earliest, dearest friend, and there never was any
person out of my own immediate family, for whom I enter-
tamed so great a regard and affection. All my children
and Mrs.  were greatly attached to him."
I have given this extract, though part of it anticipates the
¦course of my narrative, to shew how lasting was the mutual
influence of his early attachments, as well as because it is
characteristic of him in some other points.
He became a scholar of Trinity College, but as his tastes
were strongly bent towards classical rather than to mathe
matical studies, he took his degree, in 1810, without honours.
The number of his own books at that time, as exhibited in a
-catalogue which has been preserved, would now be considered
surprisingly small, and proves how willingly he must have
had recourse to other means of improvement which were
within his reach. One of the tutors of his college, writing to
his brother, so long afterwards as 1821, says, " I need not
tell you how pleasing to me all my tutorial reminiscences are,
when I think of you and your brother. I have often regretted
that his acquirements and amiable talents should have so
..little chance of being known in this country ; the examination
which he passed for the scholarship in Trinity College was
-certainly that of no ordinary scholar ; his copy of Latin verses
and the accuracy of his English translation from the Greek
I remember to have been much commended by the seniors."
But the tutor who knew most of him, and for whom he
entertained a reverent affection to the day of his death, was
the late Rev. J. K. Miller, a man of unaffected piety and
wonderful humility of mind, as well as an accomplished
scholar. In a letter written nearly forty years after he had
left Cambridge, Mr. Miller says, in reference to a charge to
the clergy of the diocese of Quebec, then recently published,
" I have been, indeed, especially pleased with it, and have
not only read it over more than once, but made an object of
reading it to a coterie of special friends, who, I was persuaded,

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 19
would hear it with the same gratification as that which it
gave me ; that is, the same in kind, but in degree it could
not be so, from their want of personal acquaintance with the
author. And from hence arose a peculiar accession to my
pleasure ; because I traced in the charge, throughout, those
tokens of identity of mind and feeling, with which I became
acquainted early, and which are such interesting and power
ful corroborations of truth, — truth in which we are all
transcendently interested, and which we are bound to seek
and to prove. Every page, every paragraph, almost every
sentence, reminded me that I was listening (a curious meta
phor as applied to reading, but intelligible,) to the same
earnest-hearted, thoughtful, intelligent, discriminating friend
whom I was early connected with as a pupil. Our hearts
were then lighter than the discipline of life and probation of
the world and a sense of the highest things have allowed
them to continue, uniformly at least. Yet I hope that even
then there was ' a sense of something far more deeply inter
fused ' than the atmosphere which immediately surrounded us,
and that we have still been living for the same end, and had
the same love of truth in view, and embraced it as it has more
opened itself out to our ken, and ' proving all things ' have
endeavoured to ' hold fast that which is good,' and still to
' walk by the same rule, to mind the same thing.' I persuade
myself that I trace in this last, as well as in all previous
compositions (to me an unsatisfactory word) of yours,
successive evidences of this persevering course of mind.
And while it is gratifying to do so, as a personal reminis
cence, it is also didactic and edifying, as maturing sober
convictions of what is true and indestructible. The individ
uality and identity and originality of mind which I trace in
your writings is \>j no means inefficient as a power of spiritual
suasion of the highest order. It is an evidence that you
have gone to the root of the matter yourself, that you have
not traded on other men's labours, or ' sworn to their words,'

20 MEMOIR OF
while you have had a just respect for the conclusions at
which the wise and good of older times have arrived, and
in which they have found rest, consolation, and satisfaction.
In fact, you have contributed a sensible share to the proving
afresh of not new things, but things which have been from the
beginning, yet partly over-laid and over-ridden, but which
are never to be forgotten and. can never be lost. I could
willingly go into divers particulars of your lordship's charge,
with which I have been cordially delighted, but I fear I
shall be led into disproportionate lengths of remark, and
indeed never find an end. With regard to * * * * f I
only demur to the courteous consideration which you have
shewn towards them ; yet, probably, you are right there, too,
if I could see all. I am su^e, however, I do not see enough
in this case to entitle them, as of right, to so respectful a
mention as you have made of them." Writing on the same
subject to the Bishop's brother, Mr. Miller said, " It is so
genuinely his own ; the expression of his thoughtful, discern
ing, energetic, and yet delicate mind ; so authentic, so
conscientious, kind, candid, variously good, more than I can
well particularly describe, that it has been quite refreshing
to me to trace these evidences in it."
He was surrounded at Cambridge by friends whose affec
tion continued unabated during their lives, and whose kindness
his children, for his sake, have in many instances experienced.
Like his companions at Easton, many of them became after
wards more or less conspicuous in their different callings.
Among them was the late Dr. Chambers, whose refreshment
in his busiest days was to read iEschylus in his carriage as
he moved from house to house in his extensive practice.
Their classical tastes were similar to his own, and many
proofs of the accuracy and elegance of their scholarship
might be produced. He had a wonderful memory for classical
t A party which had caused some trouble in the diocese.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 21
literature, and especially for poetry in any language, and in
his old age could quote at great length from authors whom
he had not read since his youth. In the year 1855 he was
travelling, on one of his shorter visitations, with a distinguished
fellow of Magd. Coll., Oxford, who had taken duty near
Quebec in a long vacation, and who was about half his age,
and to beguile a somewhat tedious drive, they tried twho
could remember the greater number of classical quotations.*
He said afterwards, " I really believe B. began to think me
quite a learned man, till we got upon some more modern
subjects, and then he found me out." It may not be out of
place here to record the impression made on his companion
by his intercourse with him. Writing in 1863, he says,
" The pleasant summer I spent under his hospitable roof
gave me an opportunity of knowing what a great loss you
must all feel it to be. I do not think I have ever come into
similar contact with any one for whom I have felt a stronger
regard and reverence. I felt always that I was with a man
of gentle and warm heart, of singleness and simplicity of
character, of delicately refined feelings, of high christian
principle." f
* In the account of one of his journeys as Archdeacon, when he was
accompanied by a brother clergyman, still labouring in the diocese, he
says, " I would you had heard how my companion, as we toiled along,
beguiled the way through the midnight woods, by repeating from his
favourite poets, to whose works the conversation chanced to lead, I believe
a hundred lines at a time, and favoured by the darkness, which removed
some of the checks upon his confidence, gave their full effect to many
animated or touching lines."
f I cannot forbear from recording here the impression made upon the
mind of another English clergyman, who, while an undergraduate, had paid
a long vacation visit to Canada in 1845 : " The best of the able account
given in the Quebec Mercury (January 1863,) is, that it is every word true,
and if anything under the truth. I shall never forget the impression which
I received of the beauty of his character during the five happy weeks
which it was my privilege to spend under his roof. He has ever since been
my beau-ideal of a Christian Bishop."

22 MEMOIR OF
After he had taken his degree at Cambridge, he was a
candidate for a fellowship at Downing College, which he did
not succeed in obtaining ; but the manner in which he
acquitted himself at the examination was such that more than
ten years afterwards, when application had been made to the
then Professor of Greek, (Dr. Monk, afterwards Bishop of
Gloucester,) to recommend a person to fill the office of
Principal of a College in Nova Scotia, he wrote to his brother
to enquire whether he thought such a situation would be
acceptable, adding, " if you encourage the idea, I shall be
delighted to offer my testimony in favour of his classical
qualifications, which I well recollect at the examination for
a fellowship at Downing College, when I thought that he
displayed talent and good scholarship in no ordinary degree,
and he would, I am convinced, be a most desirable head of
the establishment." I ought not to pass over the assistance
which he derived in the pursuit of his studies from his elder
brother, to whom this letter was addressed ; he was a ripe
and accurate scholar, and though only eighteen months his
senior, was able to give him much valuable advice . He still
survives, the only one remaining of the children of the first
Bishop of Quebec, is a prebendary of Lincoln Cathedral,
(almost the senior prebendary of England,) Rural Dean,
Commissary of the Archdeacon of Bedford, and rector of
Blunham, Beds, where, in his 79th year, he performs three
services, and preaches three times every Sunday of his life.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 23

CHAPTER II.
Ordination— Journeyings with his father— Marriage — Settlement at Frede-
ricton — Removal thence to Quebec.
After leaving Cambridge, the younger of the two brothers-
returned, in 1811, to Canada, where he had the great
advantage of pursuing his studies in preparation for Holy
Orders, to which his mind had been long directed, under the
guidance of his father, whom he aided at the same time, in
the work of his diocese, as his secretary.* He continued
to act in this capacity after his admission to Deacons' Orders,,
which were conferred in the cathedral of Quebec, by the-
same hands by which he had been baptized and confirmed, on
the 2nd August, 1812. He rendered assistance, during
his diaconate, in the duties of the parish of Quebec, of which
his cousin, the Rev. Salter Mountain, M.A., of Caius Coll.,
Cambridge, and chaplain to the Bishop, was minister. Mr.
Mountain was one of those who had accompanied the Bishop
to Canada in 1793, being then already in Orders.
In 1813, the Rev. G. J. Mountain attended his father on
his triennial visitation of the diocese. He took rough notes
which he designed afterwards to expand into a fuller journal,
but even at that early stage of his ministry, his hands were
always more than full, so that it does not carry us to any great
* This preparation was not deemed inconsistent with his obeying the call
made for volunteers in the American war, and though he was never engaged
in any active operations, he served as one of the garrison of Quebec, on the
ramparts of which he was long remembered to have mounted guard.

24

MEMOIR OF

distance. It is sufficiently interesting, however, as affording
a picture of the means of conveyance half a century ago.
Their destination was Upper Canada, and in order to reach
it, the Bishop, with two sons and a daughter and two servants,
embarked at Quebec in a bateau (after waiting an hour at
the water's edge till it could be got alongside the stairs.)
This vessel was provided by Government, and " over the
middle part of it, a neat wooden awning was built, and
lockers, which also formed seats, were arranged along three
sides of the square apartment under the awning ; the fourth,
towards the front of the boat, being open. The Bishop,
however, sat in the middle, in a great old arm-chair. The
crew consisted of a pilot and four rowers, two before and two
behind the awning. For these men, who were engaged to
convey them to Montreal, fifty pounds of pork and thirty
loaves were provided by agreement, in addition to which, the
pilot was to receive £4, and the men nine dollars each."
It was proposed to proceed to Pointe aux Trembles to sleep,
but having met a gentleman from St. Nicholas, (Mr. Caldwell,)
pulling himself in his own wherry, who invited them, on
account of the threatening appearance of the weather, to
pass the night at his house, the Bishop and his whole party
availed themselves of his hospitality. It was arranged that
the bateau should go on at daylight, to take advantage of the
tide, to St. Antoine, whither the travellers were to proceed
by land to join it. The next day, however, the Bishop's
daughter became so unwell, that he determined to return to
Quebec on her account, and after sundry delays and difficul
ties in recalling the bateau, the party reached Quebec, three
days after they had left it, having accomplished just fifteen
miles of their upward journey. " Thus ended this expedition,
which had proved nothing throughout but a series of dis
couragements and distresses. A delay of two days, difficulty
of arrangement, and contention with grumbling, unreasonable
people, in the first instance ; inability to reach our destination

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 25
the first night ; a leaking bateau ; a most unaccommodating
tide ; a continuance of rain unexampled ; the illness of my
sister ; the failure of the bateau's return from St. Antoine,
and the consequent necessity of my father's sitting up (for
his bed was on board) all night ; and the very considerable
expense to no purpose, make up the history of this memor
able excursion. A  drew up a string of miseries under
eleven different heads, and his account was perfectly just."
About a week afterwards, the Bishop made a second and
more successful attempt. He left Quebec with his own
horses on the morning of the 22d July, and reached Kingston
on the 8th September. He had four times before visited
Upper Canada, and once had been driven back to Kingston
by a storm, when in sight of Niagara. On this occasion,
the delay was caused by the necessity of waiting at Montreal
for his baggage, which had been entrusted to a schooner.
For in the little steamer in which his sons took passage from
Quebec, and which had but recently begun to make occasional
voyages to Montreal, the passengers were limited to a very
small allowance of baggage, and all that the Bishop required
for a large party to travel in canoes or bateaux for an
indefinite time exceeded the prescribed quantity. The
arrangements of the steamer are all minutely described in the
journal. Montreal was reached after a voyage of forty-eight
hours, and there the Bishop joined his sons on the 27th. After
waiting a month for his baggage, he despatched a servant
and some men in a bateau, in search of the schooner. They
met it twenty miles below Montreal, and the baggage, having
been transferred to the bateau, reached Montreal ¦ on the
30th August. The minister of Montreal, at this time, was
the Bishop's elder brother, and the Church of England was
obliged to hire a Scottish kirk to hold service in.* On one
* A church had been begun in 1807, in which year Dr. Mountain, writing
to the Bishop, complains of the backwardness of the people to pay their
subscriptions, adding, " We have paid 500J or 6001, as a committee, out
C

26 MEMOIR OF
Sunday it is noted in the journal, that " the Scotch congre
gation having a sacrament, which occupies a long time, there
was no service for our Church." Dr. Mountain was the only
clergyman in Montreal, or for many miles around. He
carried his ministrations to other places, at a distance, where
there was any demand for them. He is described as a man
of a " cordial, cheerful, benevolent, active disposition, shining
forth under his grey hairs — of a simple, guileless, ingenuous
temper, and the most indefatigable attention to the duties of
his profession (which fall heavily upon him), united with the
capacity, of which it has shut out the habitual exercise, for
elegant and tasteful recreations." Mr. Jackson, the rector of
Sorel, happening to be in Montreal during their stay, dined
with Dr. Mountain one day, when it was observed that
nearly half the clergy of Lower Canada were at the table.
There were four in all, including the Bishop, so that besides
the four who bore the name of Mountain and Mr. Jackson,
there were only three in Lower Canada ; the Hon. and Rev.
C. Stewart, the apostle of the Eastern townships, the Rev. C.
C. Cotton, one of the earliest labourers in the same field, and
the Rev. R. Short, of Three Rivers, grandfather of one of
the S. P. G. missionaries now holding charge in the diocese
of Quebec.
During his stay at Montreal, the Bishop held a confirma
tion on St. Bartholomew's Day, when forty-two " only " were

of our own pockets, besides our subscriptions, and the workmen and
others are still very importunate for more money. I hope, according to
what you mention in your letter, that we may reckon on 500Z from the
Society, 2001 from the Lord Mayor and Corporation, and 150Z from the
London Merchants, — in all 8501 sterling. Could we draw for this money
we might possibly go on with the building, having confidence in your good
ness in endeavouring to use every means of procuring us a sufficiency
to finish it." A large grant was made by the Imperial Government, but a
great delay took place in the payment of it, from correspondence occasioned
by a mistake made in the Colonial office, Where it was'supjiosed that Mon
treal was in Upper Canada.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 27
confirmed. After a detention of five weeks, the party was
at last enabled to set off for Lachine, en route for Kingston,
on the 30th August. At Lachine they were detained a whole
day by an adverse wind, and on the 1st September, embarked
in their " old enemy, a bateau " which was provided by the
Commissariat at the Bishop's expense.* The voyage was
enlivened by the company of other bateaux carrying troops
to the seat of war in Upper Canada, which served as a pro
tection where their course lay within reach of the American
shore. They proceeded, however, without any symptom of
molestation, and it was only the possibility of this that made
precautions necessary. The only clergymen stationed be
tween Montreal and Kingston were Mr. Baldwyn, at Corn
wall, (afterwards at St. Johns, L. C.,) and Mr. Weageant, of
Williamsburgh, who had been a Lutheran minister, but, having
joined the Church of England with his congregation, had been
ordained by the Bishop. He officiated alternately in German
and in English. The Bishop did not stay to perform any
episcopal acts at either of these places, but reserved them,
apparently, for the downward journey. Kingston was reached
on the 8th September, where the Bishop became the guest
of Mr. Stuart, the minister of that place. The journal does
not go beyond this point, but there are some rough notes of
the Bishop's which serve to. carry it on to the 17th. He left
Kingston on the 14th, in a canoe, with ten Indians and an
interpreter, provided by the Governor, Sir G. Prevost, for
the Bay of Quinte\ The voyage was not prosperous, — the
Indians were "lazy, and at last drunk," — and afterwards
became so terrified by reports of Americans being in the
neighbourhood, that they refused to go on.
George Mountain was admitted to Priests' Orders by his
father, in the cathedral of Quebec, on the 16th January,
* I have a memorandum of the expenses of a canoe, paid by the Bishop,
from Montreal to Detroit, in 1816, (exclusive of provisions,) which amounted
to within a few shillings of £150.

28 MEMOIR OF
1814, and on the 18th, licensed as evening lecturer of the
cathedral. The value of this appointment was £150 a year.
Not long afterwards it was rumoured that a clergyman was
wanted either at Fredericton or at St. John, in the adjoining
province of New Brunswick ; and the Bishop of Quebec,
being desirous of providing for his son, wrote to the Bishop of
Nova Scotia to recommend him for whichever post might be
vacant, if in so doing he " should not interfere with the fair
claims of any other person," adding, " in one word, unless
you are at a loss for a proper person to fill one or other of
these situations, my son would be as unwilling to obtrude him
self upon you, as I should be to offer him to your considera
tion. God forbid that we should attempt to stand in the way
of any of your own clergy who wish for and may be suited to
the situation in question. I must, in justice, say of my son,
that he is a young man of learning and ability, of sound prin
ciples and exemplary conduct, and already much considered
as a preacher here." The Bishop of Nova Scotia replied,
that what he had heard from different sources made him
" desirous and even anxious that Mr. Mountain should settle
in his diocese." Preparations were made at once for his
removal to Fredericton, for he had a step in contemplation
which rendered the augmentation of his income, which his
appointment to that charge would bring with it, a matter of
some importance. On the 2nd August, 1814, he was
married, by his father, in the cathedral of Quebec, to Mary
Hume, third daughter of Deputy Commissary-General Thom
son. They lived together in the tenderest and truest affection
for forty-seven years. Immediately after their marriage they
embarked in a transport which was conveying troops to Prince
Edward's Island ; from thence they crossed to Pictou, and
proceeded by land to Halifax. There are some very rough,
and scarcely intelligible, notes of this journey, but it
appears sufficiently that they left Pictou on the 29th August,
going on horseback for the first twenty-five miles, and reached

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 29

Halifax in three days. One letter has been preserved, in
which the approach to Truro is thus described : " Like all
the places in these new countries, it refuses to exhibit any
thing picturesquely rural ; and the eye looks in vain for the
village scenery of the mother country, — no hedges, no sunk,
shady lanes ; no Gothic church* embosomed in yew ; no snug,
old-fashioned farm, with casement windows ; no village green,
with here and there a pond ; no venerable hall, nor respecta
ble family-mansion, surrounded by its comfortable appendages,
screened by a tall rookery, or caught through an old avenue ;
nothing that interests the fancy; nothing that excites a
pleasing association." The journey from Charlottetown to
Halifax cost £17. At Halifax they remained a week, at the
end of which they set out for Annapolis, where they were to
embark for St. John, N. B. This voyage was easily accom
plished. At St. John they were detained another week,
making necessary preparations for settling at Fredericton.
When they were within ten miles of their future home, the
wind proving contrary, they left the little vessel in which they
had ascended the river, (having been three days on board,)
and " went ashore, opposite a church, having made a small
bundle ; no gig or horses at the house. Two black girls put
us over ferry, and we walk a mile. There two saddle horses ;
arrive at five," on the 27th September. This was the manner
of his approach to his first pastoral charge. He had not
been idle on the way, for every Sunday it is noted that he
preached, generally twice. Besides the rectory of Frederic
ton, he held the posts of chaplain to the troops, and to the
Council. A letter from his predecessor, the Rev. George
Pidgeon, Commissary of New Brunswick, who had removed

* In this respect, at least, things had improved, some thirty years later,
for in 1843, the people of the inn at Truro used to point out the wooden
church, and tell that its spire had been built in imitation of that of Salis
bury Cathedral, apparently without any consciousness of reserving the rule,
Si parvis liceat, SfC

30 MEMOIR OF
to St. John, dated 20th October, 1814, shews that he was
not long in throwing himself into his work, and into a depart
ment of work not always considered the most agreeable.
Mr. Pidgeon acknowledges the receipt of a fist of subscribers
to the S. P. C. K., to 'be forwarded to Halifax. His reports
to the S. P. G. from Fredericton evince his earnest care for
the welfare of his flock and of the destitute settlements -in
the neighbourhood. He dwells particularly on the means of
education. And while he gives, on the whole, an encouraging
picture, it appears that he did not shrink, even during his
short sojourn, from endeavouring to correct any laxity of prac
tice into which the people had, to some extent, unavoidably
fallen. An instance of this is found in his urging upon them
the duty of bringing their children to the church for baptism,
instead of having the ceremony performed in private houses.
In the letter just referred to, Mr. Pidgeon says, " I rejoice
to find you are so much pleased with your habitation ; the
situation, in summer, is indeed delightful, but I fear you
have brought an old house over your head : the kitchen was,
when we left it, in a deplorable state, and many other places
exhibited strong symptoms of decay." In this old house,
however, he spent three years very happily and comfort
ably ; though, if the price of all the necessaries of life was
in proportion to that of two bottles of lime-juice which Mr.
Pidgeon forwarded by " sloop," valued at eight shillings, —
for lime-juice was a luxury not to be procured in Fredericton
— the emoluments of the rectory could not have been much too
large. Another illustration of the condition of things in this
point is found in Mr. Pidgeon's letter, for he speaks of some
" common tables" which had been' ordered at St. John, but
about which there had been some mistake. They were " two
pounds a piece ; but, if they,have turned legs, round corners and
castors, they will be three dollars and a half more per table!"
Another letter, of a very different kind, deserves to be
here transcribed, as shewing the influence which helped,

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 31
by Divine grace, to make him what he was. It is from his
father, and is dated Quebec, 31st October, 1814. " I think
by this time I may congratulate you upon being settled in
your own house. I am glad to hear that it is so comfortable,
and that its situation so much pleases you. The whole of
jour journal has been most interesting to us ; and your letter
to me from Fredericton such as could not but give us the
greatest satisfaction. You now, my dear son, enter upon the
important business of life, and you will not be surprised that
I take this occasion to offer some suggestions as to the con
duct to be adopted, to secure its best enjoyments. I need
not recommend to you regularity in the discharge of all your
clerical duties, nor an earnest desire to promote the religious
knowledge and the piety of your people. I am satisfied that
you have these objects seriously at heart. I will, therefore,
only caution you to take care that, from the outset, your
manners and conversation may be such as are best calculated
to secure to you the respect, as well as confidence and kind
regard, of all those of whom you are the pastor ; and that you
will, upon all proper occasions, take care to let them see that
your first object is their spiritual improvement, and that you
are. by no means indifferent to their temporal welfare, the
concerns, more especially, of the unfortunate, the sick and
the pobr. Make yourself, as far as you can, acquainted with
the situation and circumstances of every person in your par
ish ; and endeavour to have such personal acquaintance, even
with the lowest, as may afford opportunities of instruction,
comfort, and advice. Accustom your mind to the considera
tion that you are ' an ambassador for Christ,' and endeavour,
in all things, to conduct your embassy in the spirit of your
Master. Be very watchful over yourself, that no degree of
languor or indifference creep by degrees into your manner of
performing divine service. Impress upon your mind the
fixed recollection, that when you open your lips in the church,
it is to address yourself to the Almighty Lord of heaven and

32 MEMOIR OF
earth, in behalf of yourself and of all who are assembled
with you. This recollection, faithfully preserved, will make
it impossible for you to pray without deep seriousness, awful
reverence, and devout affections. In the pulpit, always keep
it in mind, that the eternal condition of all, or of many at
least, who hear you may depend upon and date from the
doctrine and the exhortations that you deliver, your animad
versions upon sin, and instructions in righteousness ; and keep
the same things in mind in the composition of your sermons,
never addressing yourself to this part of your duty without
prayer to God for His blessing npon your labours. In private
instruction, (whenever an opportunity offers of conveying it,)
do not be deterred by a fear of the imputation of methodism,
from being warm and earnest in your endeavours. Do not
be discouraged by perrerseness or conceit, nor disgusted by
vulgarity and ignorance ; keeping always in mind the infinite
importance of the object, and the reward of those who turn
many to righteousness.
" I will conclude by begging you, in the most earnest man
ner, to be strictly regular in your application to the studies
proper to your profession. Observe, I say regular. I do not
wish you to be a hard student, I ask you to be a regular one.
Set apart a convenient portion of the day, and let nothing
(but what may be still more necessary and important) divert
you from the observance of it. Remember the parable of the
talents, and cultivate yours with conscientious perseverance.
Believe me, there is no need of heinous crimes, or of noto
rious misconduct, to fix in the mind the anguish of remorse.
He who, as life advances, is conscious of having neglected
or abused the talents which God was pleased to bestow upon
him, who is conscious that he has done infinitely less good
in the world than he might have done if he had sedulously
cultivated, and properly and steadily applied, those talents,
will need no other consciousness to embitter the maturer
years of fife, no pther offences to make him fully acquainted.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 33

with all the anguish of unavailing regret, and all the appre
hensions of a late repentance. God grant that you may duly
and in time consider this. I know the excellence of your
principles, and the goodness of your heart. Be resolute, my
dear George, with the grace and help of God."
In another letter, dated 12th February, 1816, his father
says, " All your doings comfort me greatly."
In this year, the Rev. Salter Mountain became desirous
of exchanging his post at Quebec, the duties of which, dis
charged as they had been for twenty years with an unremit
ting attention, had outgrown his strength, for one demanding
less labour and anxiety. It was accordingly arranged that
he should remove to Cornwall, in Upper Canada, which was
then vacant, where he continued till the day of his death,
and where his memory still fives, as that of a guileless true-
hearted Christian.* His widow and some of his children
still live at Cornwall, where they have been long known as
large benefactors of the Church, and leaders in every good
work. When he had determined on leaving Quebec, it was
proposed to the rector of Fredericton that he should become
his successor. His father offered it to him, but left the
choice entirely to himself, saying, " I neither advise, nor
object to your coming." He was unwilling to influence him
in any way, although having no son in Canada, and no pros
pect of seeing any of them, and being upwards of threescore
years of age, he naturally desired to have him at Quebec,
particularly with the prospect of losing the assistance of
Mr. Salter Mountain in the capacity of chaplain. In the
letter in which the change was proposed, (October 7th, 1816,)
the Bishop says, " You will be glad to hear, that I got
* One of the most liberal and humble-minded churchwomen anywhere
to be found traces her systematic and self-denying habit of alms-giving to
his instructions, aided by those of his sister, at the time of confirmation,
some sixty years ago. She has been under the pastoral care of five members
of the family of Mountain, of two different branches, and three generations.

34 MEMOIR OF
through my long visitation, (three months and four days,) in
all respects more satisfactorily than I expected. Travelling
in the canoe enabled me to see a great deal more of the
country and of the people than I could otherwise have done.
That part of the upper province which was new to me,* far
-exceeded in beauty and fertility all that I had seen before,
and the chmate appeared to be dehghtful. A great part of
the new townships in Lower Canada surpassed in beauty,
and equalled in fertility, all that I had seen in Upper Canada.
I can scarcely imagine anything more picturesque or roman
tic. The country about Lake Memphramagog more especi
ally, I think can hardly be exceeded anywhere ; but the
chmate is not so soft, nor the colour and form of the woods so
admirable, as in Upper Canada. From St. Armand to the
river St. Francis, (a sort of zig-zag diagonal of all these
townships,) we travelled in waggons, over high mountains,
and through deep valleys and woods, in roads composed of
rocks and roots, only exchanged, occasionally, for short, but
deep, black, swampy soil. Nobody would believe, before I
tried it, that it could be so accomplished ; but, thanks be to
God, it was so accomplished, although we sometimes could
not advance more than twelve miles a day, and though we
ourselves frequently thought the obstacles insurmountable.
It has been accomplished, too, (through mercy,) not only
without injury to my health, (though, for a few days, I had
reason to fear that the old complaint in my side was alarm
ingly increased by it,) but with a great improvement of it.
I found myself able to walk seven or eight miles at a time,
through bad roads, and much more through good. My rest
was perfect ; the coarsest food was acceptable to me. My
strength and activity seemed almost daily to increase ; and
though I was often sensible of fatigue, it was not a fatigue
* He had coasted Lake Erie in a canoe furnished by the N. W. Company,
with twelve voyageurs, and visited the missions at its upper end, which, by
ihe route he took, are scarcely less than 1000 miles from Quebec.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 35
followed by languor or debility. I never took cold, though
wet through on the water, and sleeping on the shores of the
lakes, six times in a tent, and often in strange houses. I
preached at every place where I stopped and found it prac
ticable to hold divine service (four times, for instance, in five
days,) and made many arrangements for the establishing of
future churches. Have I not great reason to be thankful
that I have been enabled to do all this, and that, having done
it, I yet experience, undiminished, the strength and activity
which I have recovered ? At my time of life, this cannot
last long, but it becomes me gratefully to enjoy it while it
does. The reception which I met with on the journey (from
Governor Gore downwards) was in the highest degree grati
fying, as well as that which I have since met with from Sir
J. Sherbrooke. The latter behaved in the most obliging
manner, and said the kindest things of what he had heard
of you, when I mentioned to him my probable wish for an
arrangement that would bring you here. * * * I am
delighted, my dear G. , with your employments. How, indeed,
can I be otherwise ? Persevere, my beloved son, in the
' narrow way,' and may the blessing of God rest upon you
and yours, now and forever ! You have been very good in
writing, and your letters are always a cordial to me. Give
my blessing, with my tenderest love, to Mary and her little
ones. I need not say how truly I am your affectionate father
and friend, J. Quebec."
At the date of this letter, the Bishop was on the point of
proceeding to England,* in the hope of procuring some relief
* I cannot forbear from giving here a description, contained in a letter
from his eldest son, of the Bishop's meeting with his family in England in
1817, as shewing the extraordinary affection entertained for him by his
children. " Yesterday, as we were looking out of the window, a cry was
uttered, ' what's that V (a carriage apprdacbing) — a tremendous rush of feet

36 MEMOIR OF
from his episcopal labours, which he had now carried on for
twenty-three years. When his son removed, therefore, in
the following year, from Fredericton to Quebec, he did not
find any of his own immediate family there, nor did they
return from England for some time afterwards. He was most
affectionately welcomed, however, by other relatives and a
large number of friends, among whom he was to exercise
and overturning of furniture followed, and in a moment I found myself in
the garden, in my father's arms with E. and C, the latter of whom declares
that she expected to be killed, and actually was deprived of breath by the
violent compression of agitated embraces. This morning the effects of con
vulsive and hysterical joy are visible in all our faces, but we are too happy
not to be well. The dear object of our prayers and anxiety is thin, but
looks admirably, and is quite young, lively and active, and so beautiful ! in
his 66th year — wonderful in all things I We cannot, at least I cannot,
write, nor take my eyes from that face which they have so longed to see,
but we have time to rejoice in your promotion to Quebec, and to offer our
best congratulations on it. How comfortable for my aunt M."
I am tempted to add the testimony of his youngest son, written more than
twenty-five years after his death : " Our father lives in my recollection as
a being of a higher order, and of a different race from the men among whom
my life has been passed. He was not only essentially a gentleman, but I
have never, in all my wanderings, seen a prince who had his bearing. He
was stern when his indignation was justly roused, but who more kind and
gentle, more playful in his own circle, more consoling as a friend and adviser,
more beneficent in private charity ? Full of talent and scholarship, whatever
he did was handled with a master's touch : his pencil and his flute he laid aside
in maturer years, and his p_en was only employed in the performance of
his duty or for the amusement of his friends ; he eschewed authorship, but
whether he wrote a sonnet or a satire, an epitaph or a humorous ditty, an
official paper or a sermon, truth and vigour, keen perception, deep feeling
and exquisite taste were his attributes. His ' Hints ' given to R  and
me on leaving home are the most perfect manual for a young man entering
life, and his sermons were at once the most striking and the most convincing
that I have ever heard or read. And when at the close of the Communion-
service, he advanced from the altar, with the open book upon his hand, to
give glory to God on high, I have never witnessed any thing on earth so
godlike as his figure, his voice, his manner. How often do I think of him !
When I recall his letters and his verbal advice, I feel how wise he was, and
yet withal only too indulgent. When I was escaping from my teens, I was
a somewhat precocious youngster. I had at least the good looks of youth,

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 37
his pastoral charge. His farewell sermon*' was preached at
Fredericton, on St. Peter's Day, from 1 Thess. iv., 1, 2.
It is particularly designed to guard his flock against the
danger to which they would be soon exposed, in consequence
of an unavoidable vacancy which would occur after his depar
ture, from the practices of some irregular teachers of religion.
He carried with him, though he had been less than three
years among them, the love of all the members of his flock.
The President of the province, writing to the Bishop of Nova
Scotia respecting the appointment of a successor, speaks of
the " salutary effects of his prudent zeal, and indefatigable
diligence in the various branches of his pastoral office," as
having " already contributed, in no small degree, to confirm
the well-disposed, and to conciliate the disaffected ;" and the
Bishop, in reply, writes thus : " That the intended removal
•of your excellent pastor should excite great concern in the
parish of Fredericton is not to be wondered at. I am truly
sensible of the loss we shall all sustain by his departure from
the diocese." The letters of the Bishop and his commissary
high spirits, and manners formed from having been thrown early into good
society. Our father sent me for the first time to the continent ; he spoke
to me at parting, kindly but seriously : you have, he said, such and such
advantages, — enumerating them with » father's partiality, — but do not
deceive yourself : you are now well received every where, but unless you
¦exert yourself to obtain solid and useful, as well as elegant, information, you
will find, as you grow older, that you cannot maintain the same relative
position in society ; and unless you study the Word of God, and make it
your rule of life, when the pleasures of this world lose their relish, as they
will, you cannot be happy." The character of the,Bishop was drawn by
his second son, in a brief memoir, in 1825, and he received many testimonies
to its faithfulness. I have heard people say it was worth while to go any
distance to hear him pronounce the benediction. And since I wrote this
note, an aged and very poor man told me that " when he said ' the peace of
God,' it went all round the church ; it was like silver."
* He had previously published one (by desire) on Judges viii, 34-35,
preached as an appeal on behalf of the Waterloo sufferers, 14th January,
1816.

38 MEMOIR OF
(who was afterwards his successor in the see) both express
their own personal sense of loss and disappointment in the
strongest terms. Nine years later, when the churchmen of
New Brunswick had so increased in numbers and importance
as to make them feel their need of a resident Bishop, some
leading persons at Fredericton entered into communication
with their former pastor, in the hope of effecting an arrange
ment by which he might be restored to them in that capacity.
He was not unwilling to entertain the proposal, for he always
cherished a strong affection for his first flock, and he had
already been thought worthy of advancement to the highest
order of the ministry, by those whom he knew to be well
qualified to form a judgment ; but the encouragement which
had been held out respecting the provision to be made for
the maintenance of the office was subsequently withdrawn,
and the plan was necessarily abandoned for a time. A
leading member of the society of Fredericton says on this
occasion " I shall not quite relinquish the hope of seeing
you placed where not I alone, but all your friends here, are
persuaded you would be eminently useful." Again, some
eleven years afterwards, when the project of a Bishopric in
New Brunswick was revived, the Governor of that province
wrote to him, while he was administering the diocese of Quebec
under the title of Bishop of Montreal, to express the great
satisfaction which his translation to New Brunswick would
give to the Church there. He never met his old flock, (how
ever, until thirty years after he had left them, when he
passed through Fredericton, on his way from the district of
Gaspe" to another part of his own diocese, and the eagerness
with which he was welcomed by men and women of all classes,
rich and poor, white and negroes, shewed how lovingly his
memory had been cherished, and how fruitful his short minis
try had been. It was a great happiness to him to witness the
many advantages which they enjoyed through the exertions
of their own Bishop ; and when he. renewed his visit in 1853,

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 39

upon occasion of the consecration of the cathedral, he was
as thankful .as any who took part in that deeply interesting
service. His youngest brother, writing from Fredericton, where
he was quartered with his regiment, in 1825, says, " Your
memory is universally respected and cherished, and the
people sometimes disturb me by their unqualified preference
of you to all rectors past, present, and future, in presence
of Mr. B  , who is, however, very well liked, and deserves
to be so." *
Some very rough notes of part of the journey from
Fredericton to Quebec have been preserved. It was begun
by ascending the river St. John in two small canoes, and a
long portage was traversed by the rector and his wife on foot,
with two children, of whom the elder was very little more
than two years old, and the younger was carried in his arms.
The fifth night after leaving Fredericton was spent at the
house of a settler, where, the master and mistress being
absent, they were received by " a disagreeable, wise, talk
ative old grandfather, a most uncouth lad, and a barefoot
little girl with a handkerchief tied over her head and ears
under the chin, to keep away flies in milking. Their extreme
ill manners, without intentional incivility, tell us we may take
the things when we ask for them. The young lady pops her
self into the best bed. The lad sometime afterwards whispers
to the old man that ' those folks ' should have this ; but after
rousing the young lady, and some consultation, they decide
* This brother, in a letter written to Fredericton in 1816, says, " Next
to my father's, I shall always receive your advice most gratefully, and your
opinions most submissively, as I have more confidence in your goodness,
more reliance on your judgment, and more respect for your character, than
for that of any man, with the sole exception I mentioned." And about ten
years later, he wrote of his brother George, " I much question whether there
be a being in this world more beloved and respected by all belonging to
him."

40 MEMOIR OF
otherwise. They turn down some bedding for us from the
loft (where the youth sleeps) which the old man, with an
excess of partiality, commends for its cleanUness. We spread
some of our own rugs, &c, on it, and sleep in our clothes, the
old man having turned in by the side of the girl."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 41

CHAPTER III.
Entrance on parochial work at Quebec — Appointment as Official — Journey
ings in that capacity, and with his father on visitation.
The change from Fredericton to Quebec had been made with
the prospect of a diminution of income, but his father suc
ceeded, during his visit to England, in procuring from the
Imperial Government the appointment of two Officials, for
Upper and Lower Canada respectively, with salaries of
£150 each. His son was made Official of the Lower pro
vince. The Bishop also procured an allowance in lieu of
house-rent for the minister of Quebec. He failed in the main
object of his visit to England, for he had hoped to be enabled
to resign his charge into the hands of some younger man, and
was detained so long before obtaining a decision upon the
subject, that it was not till 1818 that he returned to Quebec.
In the meantime Mr. Mountain had entered thoroughly into
his work. He was impressed with the importance of extend
ing religious knowledge and education as the foundation of
that work: and at Quebec, as at Fredericton, one of his first
acts was to take measures for the establishment of a Diocesan
Committee of the S. P. C. K., as well as of National Schools
for boys and girls ; and .both of these objects, in which he was
well and cordially supported by the leading members of his
flock, received a peculiar degree of his attention and regard
as long as he lived. He lived to see the schools which he
founded still flourishing some forty-five years afterwards, not
withstanding the springing up, with the increase of the popu-
D

42 MEMOIR OF
lation, of numerous others of a similar class, and to know men
filling high positions in different learned professions who had
there received their early education. Dr. Inglis, Commissary
and afterwards Bishop of Nova Scotia, writes, in acknowledg
ment of a letter of the 18th March, 1818 : " It is matter
of joy to me that you have founded a Diocesan Committee
at Quebec, which, I doubt not, will be very respectable. We
do not look for marvellous and instantaneous fruits from our
humble labours, but may hope the blessing of God may render
them useful. From our little effort here (and surely you may
entertain the fullest hope of similar advantage) we have good
reason to believe that Christian knowledge has been promoted
and extended, and we can already perceive that our mode of
effecting this has served as a bond of interesting union among
members of the Church. It has also saved many of our mem
bers from turning their zeal and influence and assistance to
objects of a more equivocal character. * * * Rely upon it,
your school will succeed in Quebec." At this time he was the
only clergyman in Quebec or its neighbourhood, besides the
chaplain of the garrison who also held the office of evening
lecturer at the cathedral. But while thus actively engaged
in his parochial duties, he did not regard his post of Official
as a sinecure. Early in January, 1818, he set out, driving his
own horse, on a tour through the new settlements on the river
St. Francis, first visiting Drummondville, where he spent a
Sunday and held service, and from thence proceeding to
Shipton, then inhabited almost exclusively by Americans, of
whom he says that the men were, many of them, absolutely
destitute of religion, and the women disciples of wild fanati
cism, and brings forward some sad proofs of the truth of this
remark. At Shipton he officiated in a schoolroom, which was
the garret of a large wooden building, of which the lower
part was unfinished and quite open. " There was not a single
prayer-book to be found among the people ; I was obliged,
therefore, to read responses and all. There was no chiming

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 43
in of groans* during the sermon, with which they had saluted
Mr. Mills, agreeably to their previous habit. I found, how
ever, that they approved of my ' discourse,' and some of them
regretted the want of a settled and authorized pastor. The
Methodist teachers have laboured hard to set them against the
Church." The next Sunday was given to Chambly, which
was reached via Sorel, the settlements beyond Shipton on
the St. Francis being in charge of the Hon. and Rev. C.
Stewart. At Chambly, service was held in a " guardroom
which was fitted up (if fitting up it can be called) as a tem
porary place of worship. At one end was a raised sleeping-
place on which the men sleep, and in the middle of this a kind
of tub has been built for the clergyman. I was much pleased
with the behaviour of the congregation ; the responses were
very well made, and the singing was excellent. After ser
vice I begged the resident members of the congregation to
remain, and told them the object of my visit," namely, the
establishment of a clergyman among them, for which matters
were put in a satisfactory train.
In September, 1818, he made a journey up the river Chau-
diSre, some sixty miles from Quebec, to visit a German colony
which had been planted there by a merchant of Quebec, a
German himself, who had purchased seigneuries on that river.
This settlement was afterwards dispersed, chiefly in conse
quence of a disastrous fire.
In February, 1819, the visit to. the St. Francis was repeated ;
and this time he reached Hatley, where he was most cordially
welcomed by Dr. Stewart, who, however, dissuaded him from
his purpose of proceeding farther. He speaks of travelling
in a stage in a driving snow-storm, on " a day after my own
heart, and only regretting that I was not facing it in an open
cariole." At one place he says, " I am all the better for a
good night's rest in a room where I stopped up the broken
* Marks, not of disapprobation, but of the contrary.

44 MEMOIR OF
pane with my stockings, and put my beaver coat over the
bedclothes in lack of any fire. The walls of the sitting-room
are rough clay, furrowed however in diamonds, as an indi
cation that they mean to put something else upon them. I
assure you they have some ideas of elegance here, for not
being possessed of a snuffer-tray, they brought in the broken-
nosed snuffers upon a plate." His last letter written on this
journey concludes thus ; " I shoqld have more spirit in the
work, if there were anything to be done by a flying visit like
this, but except at Brummondville it is scarcely worth while.
There the people are anxious for the baptism of their children,
&c, but in other places they will come with great readiness
to hear you preach, as they will any body else, and will say
you are ' a fine speaker ' if you have a loud voice, and there
it ends." This somewhat desponding tone may, perhaps, have
been occasioned by an illness which was then coming on, and
which detained him at Hatley for many weeks. Dr. Stewart
acted the part of a brother, giving up his own room to him,
and doing all in his power to promote the comfort of Mrs.
Mountain, who went up from Quebec (an arduous journey, in
those days, for a lady) for the purpose of nursing him. By
God's blessing, on their care and kindness, he regained his
strength, and was enabled to return to Quebec.
In December, 1819, he received the degree of D.D., on
his father's recommendation, from the Archbishop of Canter
bury, and was appointed by Government a member of the
Royal Institution for the advancement of learning in Canada,
in which capacity he visited and inspected schools. The
operations of this body were afterwards confined to the control
of schools of a higher order, and he always took a leading part
in them while he continued to be a member of it.
In July of the following year he accompanied the Bishop
on what proved to be his last visitation of Upper Canada.
The facilities for travelling had much increased, though they
had still to depend on the bateau for carrying the baggage

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 45

from Montreal, and themselves for part of the distance
between Prescott and Kingston. Steamers were available
between Quebec and Montreal, and Kingston and York
(Toronto), as well as, farther on in the journey, between
Fort Erie and Amherstburgh. The rest of the journey was
performed in waggons. From Amherstburgh they went by
land to Sandwich, (the farthest point reached) where a con
firmation was held " in the new church," and Dr. Mountain
preached, as he seems to have done almost everywhere. A
confirmation (the first on this tour) had also been held at
Amherstburgh in a brick church lately built, " neat, but not
well-proportioned." From Sandwich they crossed to Detroit,
to take the steamer on their downward course, on board of
which a Sunday was spent, when divine service was held in
the morning, and Dr. Mountain preached to a congregation
consisting chiefly of Americans, who made a request for a
second service in the evening. From Fort Erie they pro
ceeded to Queenston, where the Bishop met the Rev. B. B.
Stevens and other gentlemen, with whom he "went to see
the new church, and promised an assistance of £40, if they
placed the altar and pulpit properly." The next day a con
firmation was held at Fort George, where a church was in
progress to replace one that had been burnt by the Americans
during the war. Confirmation was administered to about
seventy persons in the Indian Council House, and the Bishop
preached " with his usual energy and effect." At Grimsby
thirty persons were confirmed on the following day in a
school-room, " a remarkably pretty church" being not quite
finished, and in the evening they proceeded to Mr. Leeming's
in the village of Hamilton, in Barton, " and drove thence
about three miles to Barton Church,"* where fifteen were
* This church is described in Dr. Mountain's letter as " the property of the
public, and accessible to teachers of all persuasions ; an unpainted wooden
building of two stories with square windows.; a steeple, however, at one
end, and a chancel with arched windows at the other, have just been added

46 MEMOIR OF
confirmed, the congregation being very small. Mr. Leeming,
(it is noted in the journal) " goes occasionally to the Mohawk
settlement upon the Grand River (about fifteen miles), and
preaches to them, and the Indian schoolmaster reads his
sermon to the natives. They have a church : they purchased
a bell : there are about twenty-one communicants : the school
master reads prayers to them regularly in their own tongue,
and exhorts, or expounds some text of Scripture."
The Bishop held a visitation of the clergy of Upper
Canada (fifteen being present) at York, on St. James' Day.
"Dr. Strachan read prayers 5 -Official Stuart preached. A
proper arrangement was made for delivering the charge,*
and the behaviour of the clergy and congregation was
conspicuously grave and attentive." The Bishop and clergy
all dined afterwards at Government House with Sir P. and
Lady Sarah Maitland. About eighty persons had been
confirmed on the previous Sunday, and on the next day the
Bishop presided at a meeting of the Clergy Reserve Corpo
ration,! " which went off well. By-laws were passed similar
to those in Lower Canada." There are some remarks in the
letters of Dr. Mountain, written in the course of this journey,
which it is curious now to read. He had entered into con
versation with some American fellow-passengers in a steamer,
to it." It may possibly be, sometimes, in comparison with buildings of this
description, that the architecture of some others is commended in the Bishop's
notes, from which the account of this journey, so far, is principally taken.
* Dr. M. says, " Certainly I never heard anything more impressive, and I
hope none of us heard it in vain."
f This body consisted of the Bishop and clergy of the province, though
the Bishop had, at its original constitution, recommended that laymen should
be associated with them, on account of his own residence at Quebec, and
the distances at which the clergy were removed from one another. The
functions of both corporations ceased after the settlement of the Reserves
question in 1840, when other bodies had become entitled to share the pro
ceeds with the Church of England, and the management of the property
was assumed by the Colonial Government.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 47
one of whom, a " colonel, spoke without any disguise as to
their views upon the Canadas, and without any doubt as to
their becoming an appendage to the Union. I forgave these
people a great deal for the sentiments which they expressed
upon the slave-question, which causes such a schism between
the Northern and Southern States. They all, except one young
man, who argued feebly and seemed conscious of a bad cause,
reprobated in the warmest terms the existing system of their
country in this point, and treated it as a disgrace to a nation
challenging to itself to be the very home and hearth of liberty.
But nothing short of a separation can give effect to the views
of the Northern States, since the Slave-States have already a
preponderance in the councils of the nation." " There is a
remarkable and not very gratifying contrast between the
American state of preparation for a future rupture, and our
own. Along this whole frontier they are building or repair
ing forts, and opening roads from the interior, by which they
could pour in invading myriads with ease ; while on our side
the few defences which exist are going rapidly to decay, and
exhibit every symptom of neglect. It is impossible not to
contemplate the alienation of the province from the British
Empire at no Very remote period, and the contemplation casts
a damp upon all the interest which one feels for the advance
ment of the colony, and even of the Church within it. I
trust, however, that we shall have laid a good foundation for
the establishment of an episcopal clergy, as we did before in
the States." Near " the little village of Cleveland " they fell
in with an English traveller who had been to Michilimack-
inac and told them that the endeavours of an American
clergyman to convert the Indians at that place had proved
abortive. " They said that a person very like him came to
persuade them to the same belief about seventy years ago,
and that the Great Spirit sent the small-pox among them,
which they interpreted as a chastisement for having listened
to him. It is a remarkable coincidence that this clergyman

48 MEMOIR OF
had hardly left them before the small-pox appeared again
among them." Referring to this incident in a letter written
some years after this, he writes, " Another instance of their
rejecting the Gospel was also singular enough, accompanied
by strictures in which there were but too much reason and
truth. They appointed Redjacket, one of their chiefs, to,
reply to a recommendation of the Christian religion. ' But,
said he, ' my people have charged me to speak their senti
ments, and I must be plain. Your forefathers came to this
country few in number, and after a while obtained from ours
a little space of ground to carry on trade with them. They
invited others over, and by little and little grew too strong
for us. They then claimed to be our lords, and drove us into
the back parts of the woods. You have hurt us in many ways,
and made us dwindle to nothing, and taught us to drink fire
water, and do other bad things, and now you tell us that we
must be of your way to make us good and to improve our
condition. We cannot believe you. But if you wish to con
vince us, there are some very bad white people at Buffalo, and
they have often cheated us : go first and try your experiment
upon them ; if you can make them good, we will believe that
your religion will be for our benefit also.' "
One or two extracts of another kind from the letters written
at this time may serve to exhibit the manner in which, through
hfe, he reconciled himself to a lot very different from that which
he would have chosen for himself, as well as the nature of his
occupations, and the tenderness of his domestic affections. He
often used to say that the height of his ambition, and his ideal
of happiness, had .been the charge of an English country
parish. Writing from Grimsby, after the confirmation, he
says, " Certainly it is in a complete country church and
congregation that a clergyman must enjoy the most unmixed
satisfaction in administering and guiding the offices of reli
gious worship. Yet this is a gratification rather of taste than
of principle, since the farther removed is the congregation

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 49
from the simplicity and purity of the Gospel, the greater is
the need of spiritual improvement, and the greater the field
of usefulness and exertion. Even our more amiable feelings,
therefore, and more chastened views of life are not always
safely to be indulged : and thus on all sides we are dis
couraged from bounding our ideas of happiness below, and
attaching ourselves to this world as to our ultimate destina
tion." From York he writes, " We shall be at Montreal on
the 20th, and leave it probably on the 23rd, August, to
come straight home. Home is a monosyllable qui renferme
beaucoup. My father is waiting for my finishing this letter,
that he may close up the packet before he goes to bed : and
I have to write, before I go to bed, to every clergyman in
Lower Canada. We go off to-morrow morning early ; good
night, therefore, and God bless you. Give my kindest love to
all friends, and tell C  that we drank her health yester
day.* Sir P. M. did the same, although he deviated from
his usual practice in drinking wine."
Writing on the night of the 1st August, at Kingston, he
says, " you may judge of my anxiety not to 'stint' you, when I
tell you, that having brought some ink into my bedroom, and
finding myself without a pen (all the household having retired
to rest), I bethought myself all at once of a toothpick, and
having fashioned it at the point, stuck a pencil into the top
for a handle. And I flatter myself that you have found it a
very good-spelling, easy-describing quill. I shall tax its
powers no farther at this sitting than to wish you good night,
it being now about that ambiguous hour which causes the
Hibernian to ask ' whether it be to-night or to-morrow
morning.' — 2nd August. As it is now, out of all contro
versy, ' to-morrow morning,' and the anniversary of our
union, I must begin by wishing you joy of your good fortune
in the event which took place six years ago, and to which, as
* His sister's birthday, referred to in " Songs of the Wilderness," p. 81.

50 MEMOIR OF
it has greatly promoted your happiness, lam generous enough
to be perfectly reconciled myself. I could indeed, my beloved
Mary, say a great deal, and in a much more serious tone, upon
this occasion, but I am content to leave you to interpret my
feelings by your own. May God continue to bless our union,
and spare us, if it be good for us, the strokes which we have
already suffered." . Reference is made in these last words to
the loss of two infant children, his first two sons, in two suc
cessive years, 1818 and 1819. It was God's will to try them
again, for in May, 1821, they lost another infant, a daughter.
The following extract shews how some of his tastes and feel
ings had- -been ¦displayed -in boyhood :— " Your surprise' at my
particular fondness for the Bride of Lammermoor, when I
' do not like tragedies? is founded upon a little mistake. I
never had any objection to the feelings excited by tragedy,
but (though I was thoughtless and careless enough) I had
a certain degree of constitutional infirmity, which made me
afraid of exposing myself, and I used to think of those lines, —
' How sometimes Nature will betray its folly-
Its tenderness — and make itself a pastime
To harder bosoms.'
I remember when I was a boy, that in reading the story of
the Judge, in the Theatre d'Education, I cried so bitterly,
that I was obliged to stop, and walk up and down the room.
It sounds excessively ridiculous for a man to say these things
of himself, but I do it with the less reserve, because I am not
speaking of my present self. My nature is harder now. I
have seen so much real misery in the course of my profes
sion, I have witnessed so many scenes of deep and complicated
distress, full of everything that is disgusting to a refined
sensibility and repulsive to a fastidious taste, that I have
learned to disjoin these qualities, in some measure, from the
exercise of compassion, to think less than I used to do of the
more delicate afflictions of my equals and superiors, and to
rate that as the best order of humanity, not in which you

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 51
indulge your feelings, but in which you have much occasion
to do them violence, of which the repetition wears them harder
than they were wont to be ; else would they be perpetually
sore. But what is lost in mere feeling in such a case, is
supplied by principle, and the love of our neighbour is more
fruitful when the freshness and the fragrance of its bloom
have passed away. Still, I would not have you think me dead
to the softer — but quite., enough of myself, and, of general
reflections drawn from my own case ; and, besides, I suppose
your opinion of me is not to be formed from this letter, but
from the experience of those years which we have spent
together." There are many parts of these letters which contain des
criptions of the country and other details which it is inter
esting, at this date, to read. But I must be sparing of these,
and content myself mainly with extracting from them an
account of the remainder of the journey, with reference to
its special object. Having to visit different places between
York and Kingston, the Bishop could not avail himself of the
steamer, which appears to have gone direct from one port to
the other. The journey was performed, therefore, partly by
land, partly in a bateau, and partly on foot. The first con
firmation, after leaving York, was held at Hamilton, the
head-quarters of the mission of the Rev. W. Macaulay, and
as it was on a Sunday, it was settled that the Rev. Mr.
Thomson should bring his candidates to that place, (five
miles distant,) from Smith's Creek, "now called Port Hope,
where there is a rising village." The Bishop and his chap
lain " slept at Mr. Macaulay's house, who, for a bachelor, is
really in very snug quarters, and has a very good library
for a young clergyman. Hamilton is the county town, and
it was in a wooden building which is both court-house and jail
that the service was performed. My father preached ex
tempore on the gospel of the day ; and certainly, if I could
do it as well, I should never address a country congregation

52 MEMOIR OF
in any other way. About thirty were confirmed. Mr. M.'s
church is building about a mile from his present residence
and place of worship, in a village called Cobourg. There is
a wooden church in forwardness at the Carrying Place, at the
head of the Bay of Quinte", and some of the leading inhabi
tants expressed to my father their desire to have a clergyman
sent among them. One of these is an old man, who talks
always in a rattling style, and just as if all the world wanted
to be put to rights, and he was the person to do it. The
clergy at home, according to his account, were strangely de
ficient in overlooking Canada as a channel by which to draw
off some of their exuberant wealth, in the way of assistance
in building churches. He would not give any of them more
than a dollar a day ; it was quite enough for preaching. * *
* * At Belleville there is a brick church upon an eminence,
building, or, at least, half built ; it is at a stand ; and one
principal cause of this presents itself to your eye when you
go in ; for under the beams of the yet unlaid floor, there is
the grave of a Mr. Taylor, who was the great promoter of the
undertaking, and had taken the contract himself." Thirteen
persons were confirmed at Bath, in the township of Ernest-
town, on the 1st August. " The church is an unpainted
wooden edifice, and is one of the oldest in the province ; for
Ernest-town was the residence of Mr. Langhorne, and the
centre of his exertions, which were not small nor lightly
appreciated. He built two log churches in adjacent town
ships, at which he occasionally officiated. Kingston is much
increased since I saw it in 1813. It is the largest town in
Upper Canada, and the place of greatest trade. The confirma
tion was held here on the 3rd August, and my father preached
his sermon on the bhnd man restored to sight, which doubt
less you remember, and which I think is one of his very best.
The church is a long, low, blue, wooden building, with square
windows, and a 'little cupola, or steeple, for the bell, like the
thing on a brewery, placed at the wrong end of the building.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 53

They are taking measures, however, to build a new one. On
the following Sunday a confirmation was held in the court
house at Brockville, a high brick building, which seems to
stand as a representation of mortified ambition, for it is upon
an eminence, and, for such a place as Brockville, built in an
aspiring style, but has never been finished; and half the
windows are stopped up with old boards. There is no church,
which is a great shame, considering the advancement of the
place. The Presbyterians have got the start of us, having
built a very decent stone kirk. The court-room was very
full, and there was a pretty large confirmation, as the people
from Augusta, where . Mr. Leeds serves the church, also
came over. My father preached. After an early dinner,
We went a stage on the Perth road, for the days being all
fixed for confirmations below, we had no time to lose, and we
found that we could not get through to Perth in one day.
All the roads which I have described before were turnpike
and bowling-green to this. Roots, rocks, sticks, stumpsf
holes and bogs, — these were the component materials of the
road. The journey of Monday was divided into three equal
stages of about seven miles, and each of them, exclusive of
baiting, took us three hours. The holes, however, and the
sloughs are of course much worse in the wet season, and
travellers have sometimes been obliged to leave waggon and
horses sticking fast till they could procure a yoke of oxen to
pull them out. An Irishman in the service of Major Powell
of Perth, being asked by his master how he had got along
upon the road (with a waggon), replied, that he had got
along pretty well, for he had found bottom in every place
but one. The settlement of Perth, so laboriously reached,
affords one of the most encouraging examples of the kind
that I have seen. It appears hardly credible that, less
than four years ago, it was a portion of the wilderness, unex
plored except by the wandering Indian hunter. Streets laid
out, and the building lots occupied, in some instances, by

54 MEMOIR OF
very good and neat houses ; two places of worship erected ;
gardens and farms under cultivation, and yielding abundant
returns ; a very tolerable society, enjoying the intercourse of
civilized' life; and everything wearing the aspect of cheer
fulness and competence ; — such is the scene which the skill
and industry of man have carved for him so quickly out of
the depths of the trackless forest. The churches are Roman
Catholic and Presbyterian. Mr. Harris officiates in the
school-house, but will have a church in progress soon. • 'Mr.
H., owing to accidents on the American Lake Ontario steam
boat,* had not reached Perth, but this we were quite pre
pared for, as we had been unable to hear of his arrival at
Brockville, and my father thought it best, at all hazards, to
go on and see the place, and shew the people his determina
tion to visit them." There was, therefore, no confirmation.
At a house where they slept on their return from Perth to
Brockville, "in the course of the evening, the hostess ap-
•prized us of the arrival of ' a lady,' who having heard of
my baptizing Mrs. T.'s children on the way up, had brought
her's to the house for the same purpose. The ' lady ' was
an Irish blacksmith's wife. In an hour or so more, ' another
lady ' came with the same request, bringing two children,
the youngest of whom was a most lovely little creature. I
felt a great satisfaction in entering these little innocents into
the family of their Lord, which very likely never would have
been done for them otherwise." Proceeding down the St.
Lawrence, the Bishop " went ashore at Fort Wellington,
(now Prescott) , to speak to some of the persons engaged in the
erection of a church, of which the frame was up. When the
churches are completed which are now building in this pro
vince, I suppose that the number will be treble what it was
when I last went through it in 1813. The new churches
also along the American frontier appear to be principally
* Apparently on his return from the visitation at York.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 55

episcopal. There is one built of stone at the little town of
Waddington, which we passed. There are now in the States
four hundred episcopal clergymen." The Bishop stopped also
" in the township of Matilda, at the house of a Colonel Fraser,
to encourage him to put the church in repair, and get things
in forwardness for the reception of a clergyman. This is a
church built by the Lutherans, which, in conformity with
the example given by their neighbours in Williamsburg, they
have made over to us. We reached, by a late dinner hour,
the parsonage house of Williamsburgh, that is so red, close
by the church that was so blue. The blushing honours of the
former are unimpaired ; the honours of the latter remain only
in name ; it is still called by the boat-people the blue church,
though no stranger could now discover that it had ever been
painted." About fifty persons were confirmed in it on the
11th August, and Dr. Mountain preached. A curious cus
tom prevailed there. When there were collections in the
church, " the money is received in a little bag, at the end
of a long stick, and within the bag is a bell, which is in
tended, as we were gravely told, to wake any person who may
happen to be nodding when the collector makes his circuit."
The next place visited was Cornwall, where "the church
appears to have increased since Mr. Salter Mountain's
arrival, for there were only seventeen confirmed on the
previous occasion, and to-day there were sixty-five. I can
not forbear from telling you a story about a bell. My father
had found it troublesome to call for his own servants or those
of the house, and he asked the girl, ' Pray is there any bell
here ?' ' Yes, sir.' ' Well, and where is it, pray?' ' Sir,'
said the girl, with all the simplicity in the world, ' it is in
the church.' A house-bell was a thing which she had no
conception of." This was the last confirmation held in Upper
Canada. The parishes or missions of fourteen clergymen
had been visited, and as the number mentioned as attending
the visitation included the minister of Quebec, this was, pro-

56 MEMOIR OF
bably, the whole number in the province. In 1862, there
were three Bishops, and two hundred and forty-three clergy
within the same limits.
Mr. S. Mountain accompanied the Bishop from Cornwall
to Quebec, as well as to St. Andrews on the Ottawa, where his
lordship confirmed, and his son preached, on the 18th. " The
confirmation was held in the school-house, which is roughly
fitted up as a place of worship. There was a very respect
able attendance, but a small number only were confirmed."
The visitation of the clergy of Lower Canada was held at
Montreal on the 22nd August, when fourteen were present,
and the Official of the Lower Province was called upon to
preach, as the Official of the Upper had been at York, and
was requested by the clergy to publish his sermon. The
Bishop had preached and confirmed about one hundred and
fifty on the preceding Sunday. The church is described as
being " very large and handsome, but not in so good taste
as the church at Quebec. The ornaments are like those of
some large public room. In some points, however, they
excel us, Mr. Shuter having made them a present of a
clock, which cost three hundred and fifty guineas. They also
intend to have a peal of bells very soon, and to build a
vestry-room, the want of which is a strange deficiency in
so handsome a church. This church will have cost about
£20,000 when it is completed. The organ cost £1,700.
Montreal is very much improved and increased since 1813,
and many very handsome private houses are now building."
Quebec was reached after an absence of nearly two months;
During this time, the Rev. Dr. Mills, chaplain to the
forces, had taken charge of the parish, and the letters of
the rector are full of proofs of his thoughtfulness for its wants
and interests, especially those of the poor. Systematic relief
was afforded to such as were in need by means of the volun
tary offerings of the congregation, which were expended under
the direction of the minister. One of his letters speaks of the

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 57
expected arrival of an assistant in his parochial duties, who
was to leave England in May. For early in this year, the
Bishop, in writing to the S. P. G., had stated that the con
gregation at Quebec was " greatly enlarged, and the duty
of the rector so much increased as to be greater than any
one man could hope to sustain for any long period. Within
three months, the funerals alone had exceeded one hundred;
and other duties, particularly visiting the sick and poor,
received from the rector a more than ordinary degree of
attention. His employments were so multiplied, as not only
to leave no space for reasonable relaxation, but not even for
reading, nor such leisure for composition as it must be
painful to every serious clergyman to be debarred from." In
the year 1819, an Emigrant Society, (of which the plan
had been sketched out by the Duke of Richmond,* then Gov
ernor of Canada,) for the relief of destitute emigrants, was
established at Quebec, and the rector had, for about fifteen
years, the greater part of the labour, and that by no means
slight, which it entailed. An emigrant hospital was fitted up
at the same time, in some barrack-rooms lent for the purpose,
where, besides visiting the sick, Dr. Mountain regularly held
stated services, with sermons. In fact, until his consecra
tion to the episcopate, a very large portion of his time was
necessarily given to the poor immigrants, who used, in sum
mer, to throng his doors, before the establishment of a public
department for their relief.
In 1821, the parish of Quebec was erected by letters patent,
and Dr. Mountain appointed rector. Mr. S. Mountain had
used the title of " rector of the English Church at Quebec."
He afterwards styled himself " officiating clergyman," and
this title was adopted by his successor till 1821.
* The first sermon which Dr. Mountain published at Quebec, at the request
of all the leading parishioners, was upon occasion of the death of the Duke
in 1819.

E

58 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER IV.
Visitations as Archdeacon — McGill College — First visit to Gaspe\
In 1821, two Archdeaconries were established in the diocese,
one including the whole of the Upper, and the other the whole
of the Lower province, the respective Officials of which were
promoted to the dignity of Archdeacon. Archdeacon Moun
tain's first journey in this capacity was made in the autumn of
1822, when he visited the Eastern townships again. He had
intended to spend the first Sunday of his absence at Eaton, but
was obliged to remain at Sherbrooke for lack of the means
of conveyance. He " could hear of nothing like a horse in
the village," in which a church was in course of erection.
The Sunday was spent at Lennox ville, " better known by the
name of the Upper Forks," (Sherbrooke going by the name
of " the Lower Forks,") which was reached " by a horse-path
through the woods " from Belvedere, where he had been hospit
ably received. Mr. Le Fevre, at this time, had charge of Len-
noxville and Sherbrooke, and found " it necessary to have
double service- at each place on alternate Sundays, instead of
one service at each every Sunday, because the roads are so
bad through which a part of the congregation have to come,
that they expect two services after such an exertion." The
Archdeacon preached twice in the school-house, the church,
(" a two-story wooden edifice, with sash-windows below, and
arched ones above,") being unfinished. From Lennoxville
he went on to Eaton, Hatley, Shefford, Dunham, Frelighs-
burgh, Philipsburgh, Clarenceville, Isle auxNoix, Sorel, St.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 59
Andrews on the Ottawa, and Rawdon, visiting the churches
and schools, and preaching at most places. The journey
from Three Rivers to Frelighsburg was performed on horse
back. Towards the close of the year 1822, the Bishop was desir
ous of sending a person to England, to represent the injustice
done to the Church in some attacks which had been made
upon her, and to endeavour to counteract their injurious effects,
particularly with reference to the benefits to be derived from
the Clergy Reserves. These lands had been appropriated
by an Act of the Imperial Parliament to the maintenance
of a " Protestant Clergy," and a share in those benefits
began now to be claimed by other parties. The Archdeacon
was at first designated to this mission, but he was very
unwilling to leave his flock, and it was finally arranged that
the Honourable and Rev. Dr. Stewart should be requested
to undertake it. Dr. Stewart was at this time Visiting
Missionary of the diocese, an office corresponding, to some
extent, with the more modern one of Travelling Missionary,
it being part of his duty to visit and report upon new fields
of labour. With this, however, was combined inspection of
the missions of the S. P. G., and the experience which he
thus gained, and his intimate local knowledge of the wants of
both provinces, as well as the love and reverence which his
guilelessness and single-hearted devotion to the work of
Christ everywhere won for him,* were no mean qualifications
* A remarkable proof of this is found in a letter addressed, at the time of
his first arrival in Canada; by the sister of his predecessor in the see, to him
who was destined to be his successor. " We have had a most wonderful
young man here, who has charmed us all, and, indeed, even those who were
prejudiced against him. — I mean Mr. Stewart — who, you doubtless know,
came out here as a missionary, and so unusual an undertaking in a man of
family and independence could not by the world in general be attributed to
any but an enthusiast and a methodist. The papers mentioned his coming
to convert the Indians, and I saw many a contemptuous smile when his
name was mentioned. Yet see the effect of such conduct as his. With no

60 MEMOIR OF
for the higher office to which he was afterwards called. The
Archdeacon was sent from Quebec in March 1823, to com
municate to him the desire of the Bishop that he should
proceed at once to England, and to furnish him with the
necessary instructions. He was uncertain where to find him,
but fortunately, after leaving Quebec, obtained information
which proved to be correct, that he was at the scene of his
earlier labours, in Hatley. The Archdeacon " left Sher
brooke on Saturday morning at five o'clock, and proceeded
to Hatley to breakfast, after which, (he writes on the follow
ing Monday,) I spent the day with Dr. S. at his lodging,
and arranged everything with him relating to the business of
his mission to England. He undertook it cheerfully, and
went off to Boston either yesterday afternoon or to-day.
Few persons could have been found who would have required
such short notice. Had it not been Sunday, he would have
even gone off yesterday morning. Yesterday I left
Hatley at five o'clock, went back to Sherbrooke, (eighteen
miles,) to breakfast with Mr. Le Fevre, assisted him in the
service and in the sacrament, and preached for him ; pro
ceeded immediately afterwards (twenty-four miles) to Ship-
ton, stopped at the school-house door where the congregation
were assembling ; went in and robed myself, and performed
service, (according to an arrangement made on my upward
journey,) and preached to a very attentive congregation,
who, to the credit of Mr. Wood's* diligence, make the res
ponses far better than many others who have regular service
advantages of person or address, with real disadvantages of voice and
manner in the pulpit, before he left Quebec he gained general respect, and
certainly did make converts of those who were disposed at first to call the
real goodness of his design in question. He met with every discourage
ment here, except from a very few persons, yet he continued steadfast in his
perseverance." * Then rector of Drummondville, from whence he paid occasional visits
to neighbouring townships.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 61

very Sunday. Visited the family of the man who had
driven me, and baptized six of his children ; received a visit
at the inn from the schoolmaster at Melbourne, who came
to state to me the prospects of establishing the Church in the
two townships ; got some tea and toast and a beefsteak ; and
after reading a chapter to the family and praying with them,
retired to my bedroom, where, a little after twelve, I got to
bed, having to start again at five in the morning, and having
had just about four hours' sleep the night before. So that
you see I have not run away from you and my parish to be
idle on the road. The man who was to drive me this morn
ing called me at twenty minutes past four, instead of five, at
which time I accordingly rose. About eight we baited at
the hut of an old soldier whose family were at a plentiful
breakfast, but the apparatus was not very inviting, and I did
not signify any desire to partake. My driver offered me a
sort of home-made cake, or biscuit, of which he had several
with him, and this, with a glass of spring water, formed my
breakfast. I contemplated, indeed, breakfasting with Mr.
Wood at Drummondville, where I arrived at half-past ten,
but he took it for granted, I fancy, that this ceremony had
been performed, and as I did not want to lose time, I thought
it just as well to forbear from giving him any hint. My bis
cuit and glass of water, therefore, held me out tillseven o'clock
this evening, at which time I sat down to a very good trav
ellers' dinner." Speaking, in a letter written on his way to
Hatley, of the possible difficulty of ascertaining where he
' should find Dr. Stewart, he says, " If I appeared dull and
low the evening before I left Quebec, these uncertainties,
coupled with the more important uncertainties yet remaining,
which regarded Dr. S's concurrence in the business and its
ultimate success, must have contributed to shed some gloom
over my mind. I had been wound up to do my part, and
had got through the share which I was to discharge at Que
bec, and then, as it often happens, I ran down and stopped,

62 MEMOIR OF
and began to think that it was all in vain. I am unalterably
convinced, however, of the duty lying upon us to keep watch
and ward in defence of our Zion, and to sally out, if the
proceedings of the other party render it necessary. But it
would seem to human weakness a happier lot for a clergy
man to have, as Chillingworth says, 'no enemies but the
devil and sin ' in the discharge of his duty, and mine seems
so different a case, that I shall be ' fit for treasons, strata
gems, and spoils,' if I continue to be exercised in the sort of
struggles to which our Church is here exposed  At
Labaie, I hired a habitant to take me to Drummondville, who
flattered my French so far as to express his surprise at finding
that I was not either a Frenchman* or a Canadian."
I have given these extracts, because they exhibit two
points for which he was always conspicuous. His power of
enduring the want of foodf was very great, but he never
would have made it a subject of remark except in letters
addressed to his immediate relations. And in giving the
account of his Sunday's labour, he was fully understood, by
the person to whom he wrote, as doing so in no boastful
strain, for it, was well known that he always thankfully
acknowledged his health and strength as special blessings
received to fit him for his work, and that he possessed a
keen relish for varieties and even adventures in travelling
(a gift, mercifully, no doubt, bestowed in order to qualify
him for what he had to encounter in his "journeyings
often,") which others might even have esteemed hardships.
Some proof of this will appear a little farther on. He was in
* This used to happen frequently. A similar anecdote, with reference
to German, is mentioned in the memoir of his brother, Col. Mountain.
f He was remarkably abstemious at all times. I remember the present
Dean of Montreal, who had known all of the name who had laboured in
Canada, saying to me, " The Mountains are remarkable for two things,
charity to the poor, and abstinence from wine ;" and these are very much
akin to the two points to which I am here referring.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 63
the habit of writing home (whenever he had leisure,) as
full an account as possible of his journeys, knowing how
eagerly it was welcomed there, and the interest which the
novelties, or sometimes the dangers, of the way excited in
himself he strove to impart to others, to whom he wrote
without reserve. In writing journals for the Church Socie
ties, he used to do violence to his own feelings when he
interspersed with his narrative any mention of personal
adventure or privation, for the sake of what seemed to be
characteristic of the state of the country, and likely, there
fore, to interest his readers, and so tend to advance the
great object that he had always in view. He seldom did this
without a kind of apology.
The, second of these extracts expresses what he felt more
and more strongly the longer he lived. No man ever more
ardently longed for peace, or felt more deeply, in his own
spirit, the misery of strife.* Again and again has he ex
pressed sentiments of a similar kind. Yet he was always
ready to put a force upon himself, and do effectual battle for
the Church at the call of duty. His experience, however,
never made him " fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils."
He not only could not endure strife, — for it was pain and grief
to his tender nature, and too directly opposed to the meek
ness for which he was conspicuous, — but he was too guileless
to use their own weapons against those who descended to
such acts. Even the necessary forms of business were dis
tasteful to him. He often said, with reference to the part
which he was obliged to take in introducing synodical action
into, his diocese, and carrying it on, that it was not conge
nial to him, that he could not bear anything like " diplomacy"
or " parliamentary work," that he was not fit for it, and
* A drawer full of papers relating to painful occurrences in the diocese,
was marked " The drawer of thorns," and the words were added, " Bat of
what, 0 Lord of glory, was Thy earthly crown composed ?" Another memo
randum was, " Let it be remembered that thorns are to be burnt."

64 MEMOIR OF
longed to be employed only in preaching the Gospel to the
poor, and carrying the ministrations of his office to destitute
settlements. Some of the attacks which he felt himself called upon
to meet involved no small amount of theological study,
or which, in the midst of his duties as Archdeacon, and his
unremitting parochial labours, he contrived to find time. In
1822, he published "a letter to Mr. S. C. Blyth, occasioned
by the recent publication of the narrative of his conversion
to the Romish Faith, by a Catholic Christian." It is an
octavo volume of nearly three hundred closely printed pages.
He was also a frequent contributor to a magazine called the
Christian Sentinel, of which he was, indeed, one of the chief
supporters. In September, 1821, on the arrival of the charter of McGill
College, Montreal, the Bishop submitted a plan for its estab
lishment as a University to the then Governor in Chief,
which he had drawn up for the Duke of Richmond, bv whom
it had been approved. It met with the same approbation from
Lord Dalhousie, who also, as well as the Lieut. Governor
of Upper Canada and others, expressed his hearty approval of
the Bishop's recommendation of the Archdeacon of Quebec
as Principal. The will, however, having been contested, the
establishment of the college was delayed. In order to comply
with its conditions it became necessary, towards the close of
1823, to make aproformd appointment of professors, whose
names the Bishop was requested to submit. " While the
Bishop felt it his duty to project the frame of the University
in a manner consistent with the English National Establish
ment (both from the consideration of the erection of the
Canadas into a diocese forming an integral part of the Pro
vince of Canterbury, and also for the sake of that uniformity
of system which it must be so obviously advantageous to
introduce,) he endeavoured, at the same time, to throw open
the advantages of instruction to all denominations of Chris-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 65
tians, without interference with their religious principles, and
proposed to make such of the Professorships as the above
mentioned considerations would permit tenable by graduates
of the Scotch. Universities." The Archdeacon was accord
ingly nominated honorary Professor of Divinity and Princi
pal of the College, and held these offices till 1835. He
never, however, acted in his capacity of professor, for up to
that date the Medical Faculty only had been organized, and
there were no resident students. As a Governor of the College
he had, however, for many years, a great deal of labour and
correspondence. From the letters which passed on the occa
sion of his appointment, I cannot forbear from selecting one
from Sir Francis Burton, the Lieutenant Governor of Lower
Canada, with the Bishop's reply:
" My dear Lord,
"On my return from the Council I found your Lordship's letter of this date,
with its enclosures. How could you think it necessary to send the testimo
nials of a character so highly beloved, respected and esteemed as the Arch
deacon Mountain ? I have read them, because I love to see worth like his
soduly appreciated, and that feeling alone induces me to forgive your Lord
ship's supposing me capable of requiring any inducement to exert myself,
where your Lordship and the Archdeacon are personally interested. In the
instance of McGiU College, I owe so much to this province, that I must have
at heart the interests of it, and particularly those of the rising generation ;
and for that reason, although I did not feel myself so much alive to its es
tablishment as, perhaps, I ought to have done, yet as there is now a prospect
of the young men of this province being placed under the care, guidance,
and instruction of such a person as the one your Lordship recommends, I
shall do everything you desire to further so desirable an object."
"Dear Sir,
" I beg leave to thank you, in my son's name and my own, for the very
kind answer which you have given to my application. If, upon this occa
sion, I had been guided only by my own opinion of the fitness of my son for
the situation in question, or of your Excellency's benevolent and .friendly
disposition towards us, I should not, perhaps, have thought it necessary
to give you the trouble of reading testimonials ; but it was not to Sir
Francis Burton in his private capacity that I was to address myself, but to a

66 MEMOIR OF
Lieutenant Governor of this province, and a Governor of the college to be
established ; and it, therefore, appeared to me proper to lay before him what
ever, in the exercise of his kindness, might serve to justify him to himself,
the Royal Institution and the country."
I find a letter addressed to the Bishop, in this same year,
by Bishop Hobart of New York, thanking him for kindness
received at Quebec, in which he expresses his concern at an
accident which had happened to his " inestimable son, the
Archdeacon." He had been thrown out of a carriage, and
broken his leg. This accident confined him for a long time
to the house, and he never entirely recovered from its effects.
The mention of the labours of his pen has drawn me away
from any attempt to exhibit some of the peculiar features of
his character. In the account of one of his journeys, in 1822,
he writes, " I am going to say a foolish kind of thing for a per
son who has for some time ceased to be a boy, and one which
may, perhaps, be thought inconsistent with the solemn sober
ness of the profession to which I am devoted, but it has often
appeared to me, that a tinge, not only of poetry, but of ro
mance, is an addition to our happiness, if it be moderated
and subdued by purer and higher feelings and principles.
Many an untoward adventure, many a bleak and dreary way,
many a circumstance which, to an ordinary traveller, carries
unmixed discomfort and difficulty, borrows a charm from the
sources of which I speak, which totally alters its nature and
aspect. A driving storm, a solitary ride at night over a bad
road, and through a dark, forlorn-looking wood ; an accident,
an aberration from the road, a retardation which bids you
seek refuge at the hearth of some sturdy tenant of the woods
and shift as you can for the night's accommodation, may
not only be talked of afterwards with pleasure, but yield
pleasure at the time ; and I almost think that I should find
an unpleasant insipidity in that perfection of travelling which
secures you against the possibility of adventures, and leaves
nothing to be provided for by thought, or encountered by

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 67
determination. Travelling on horseback is far more in
unison with this set of ideas than any other mode of con
veyance, and I am almost ashamed to confess, even to you,
that I had rather wrap my cloak about me, in traversing
these wild woods and mountains, than button my great coat.
But there is no romance in dirt ; and this, as you well know
from your experience of some nights we passed on the road
from Fredericton to Quebec, is not unfrequently one of the
characteristics of the ruder sort of travelling in these coun
tries. My repugnance to a bed of equivocal cleanliness is
what I can never surmount, and what sadly spoils all the
shadowy delights of imagination. The character, also, of
the American population, although they are a hardy and
enterprising race, expert and perfectly at home in all that
belongs to the field and the forest, is far from harmonizing,
in other points, with the romantic and the picturesque. Their
democratic familiarity of manner, their anti-rural costumes,
their trafficking and speculating habits, their keen and wary
way of dealing, the tout-ensemble of their outward, as well
as of their moral, intellectual and religious man, is the most
opposite possible to that of a peasantry, interesting in the
point of view which I am considering. The same sort of
remark may be applied to the character of the buildings and
the villages in the Yankeefied parts of these provinces. But
with respect to the people themselves, is it possible to con
ceive a state of things more at variance with rural ideas than
one in which forging bank-notes is among the prevailing vices
of the youth of the country ?" (Here his father has written,
in red ink, " To all this, though an old man and a Bishop, I
heartily subscribe.")
" It was no great adventure which gave occasion for this
page of writing. I had only a couple of miles to ride and
not above one through the wood, but as I dipped down under
the ample covert of the trees, and heard, in the stillness of
the night, the rivulets rushing through them which have been

68 MEMOIR OF
swelled by the recent rains, the train of thought which I have
here exposed to your observation was passing through my
mind. But I must not let you think that I am occupied by
no thoughts of a better kind, in performing a journey which
has for .its object the interests of our religious establishments,
and I will tell you therefore (although the religious thoughts
which more directly concern ourselves are sensitive, as it
were, and seem to be hurt by any contact, to receive some
taint and diminution of their purity if they are unveiled) I
will tell you that I have often called to mind, when I have
been subjected to inconvenience or fatigue or disgust upon a
journey, and when the people of the house, perhaps, have
beset me with their apologies, as if they thought that the city-
bred gentleman could scarce accommodate himself to the
ways of the woods, that I am che immediate servant of a
Master Who, though the foxes have holes and the birds of the
air have nests, had not where to lay His head." (Here the
Bishop has remarked " And this, I need not say, I like still
better.") Such thoughts found expression, on one occasion, in the
following lines :
ON RETIRING TO A HOMELY BED IN A HUMBLE DWELLING.
My Heavenly Master had not where
To lay His Blessed head ;
Too thankful, then, may I repair,
To this — to any bed.
Shield us this night, Almighty God,
And when we sink at last
To sleep beneath the kindred sod,
On Thee our charge be cast.
0 grant that when that dark repose
By millions shall be burst,
Our lot be found in Christ with those
Ordained to rise the first.
These lines form a fitting introduction to the account of
his first visit to the district of Gaspe", in 1824, for he had no

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 69

natural liking for water-travelling, except in an open boat or
canoe, and it was only the remembrance of Him Whom he
served that could reconcile him to what he was often called
upon to endure on board small fishing craft. I remember the
word " impossible," escaping half-uttered from the lips of a
clergyman who had proposed to accompany him on one of his
later visitations, when he saw the accommodation of a schooner,
which was quite luxurious in comparison with what he often
submitted to. The following are extracts from his journal of
1824 :
" Within the space allotted to me are two berths, which
occupy its whole length, being something less than six feet,
one on either side. They are partly boarded up so as to
screen the head and feet, but the open intermediate space
is so short that it was with extreme difficulty that I climbed
in, the berth being very little deeper than a coffin, and its
perpendicular dimensions yet farther contracted at this point
by a transverse beam of the cabin. But having once got in,
although I found nothing within to gorge myself withal, I
was nearly in the predicament of the mouse (or weasel or
whatever it was) in the fable, who having found access by a
very small hole to some depository of grain, was unable after
he had unthinkingly indulged in plenty to squeeze himself
out again. Having, however, extricated myself at last, I
directed that my bed should be made in the opposite berth, in
which, though Procrustes would have curtailed me by some
inches to match me with its length, I am upon the whole as
comfortable as I can expect to be upon the water. The
other berth I have assigned to William (a servant-lad), not
choosing to let him sleep forward, in a hole with the sailors
whose habits and characters I do not know. This you may
tell his mother, if you please, and you may add that I make
him read a chapter in the New Testament to me every fore
noon, and in the Old every evening, upon which I afterwards
question him or explain it as I see necessary. I see that he

70 MEMOIR OF
reads his Bible at other times besides. As to myself, I have
with me, besides the Bible and Prayer-Book, the Pense"es de
Pascal, Cicero de Oratore, and another little Latin book
which I pitched upon on account of its diminutive size. I
wish not to let my Latin get rusty, and having little portable
editions of these, I thought I might also obtain some hints
for correcting my faults in public speaking, and improving
myself in composition. It is by preaching the Word, after
all, that I must expect to do most good in the world, (though
this itself can do but little if the life of the preacher do not
correspond,) and to preach as well as we can, therefore,
should be an object of great importance with the clergy, in
the attainment of which the auxiliary resources of learned
discipline are not to be despised." * * * After describ
ing some of the scenery of the St. Lawrence, as he drew
near the end of the voyage, he says : " If I had not other
work to do which makes it the better for me, the less I
am entangled ' with the affairs of this hfe,' I should like to
plant a great massive old-fashioned chateau, with a sheltered
antique garden, laid out in alleys and rich with the bloom of
roses and domestic flowers, in some choice spot among these
wild heights and ravines, and to form some rude yet comfort
able hamlets in some of the buried recesses round about,
where I would plant my censitaires* — all picked and chosen
folk, who should come to my own chapel when the sound of
the bell should swing through the wilds, and frequent my
open hall when the Christmas fires were blazing upon the
ample hearth. And then we would have a few select friends
on a staying visit, and a good library, and horses (for we
must make some roads) , and boats : and now and then we
could warm and comfort a tempest-driven crew who might
seek shelter in some cranny of our coast. All this would
* The name given to the occupiers of land in the seigneuries of Lower
Canada.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 71
be really very delightful ; yet it is better, unspeakably better,
to fight against the vices and miseries, to stand, as it were,
between the living and the dead and stay the plague of
sin or suffering, amid the most repulsive population of the
most uninteresting and vilest commercial town, and to carry
the consolations and remedies of religion into hospitals and
prisons, and the foul and crowded lodgings of the city poor.
And yet, if I could consign more of the mere routine of
parish work to others, and enjoy something like retirement
and leisure, I feel as if I could turn it to some account in a
way from which I have been precluded since I learned to
value time." He had left both his wife and his father very
unwell ; but he says, "I keep a good heart, and enjoy both
those balms of hurt minds than which the unhappy Voltaire
seems to have thought there were no better vouchsafed to
man, ' l'un est le doux sommeil et l'autre l'espe"rance.'"
Gaspe" Bay was reached in five days. At St. George's Cove
there were " two places of worship ; one a little Protestant
chapel, in outward appearance like the houses, the other a
still more diminutive edifice, of which the purpose is indica
ted by a rude wooden cross planted in the grave-yard which
belongs to it, — a sufficient and in itself a proper and becoming
distinction — for why should we abhor the emblem of our faith
because it is perverted by superstition ?" The people of this
settlement, being from Guernsey or Jersey, could, in many
instances, not understand English, and " finding that I spoke
French, and said grace in that language, and that I was fur
nished with a French copy of the liturgy in preparation for
the christenings which I was to perform, they conveyed a
request through their preacher that I should hold service and
preach to them in French. To preach extempore in French,
or to preach at all in French was what I had never done, and
as I had two houses to visit, each at some little distance, I
saw that there would be but little time to digest and arrange
my thoughts beforehand. But I had a stronger objection in

72 MEMOIR OF
my doubts of the propriety of preaching in their chapel. Yet
when I considered, on the other hand, that, although they
were Methodists, they would not, probably, have become so,
had an authorized pastor resided among them ; that they did
not, according to their own notions, regard themselves as
separatists from the Church, to whose ministrations they
always resort for the sacraments, marriages, and funerals, and
whose ordinances respecting sponsors, churching, &c, they
punctiliously observe ; that they attended upon the preaching
of the clergyman whenever they had opportunity, either by
his coming (which he can but rarely do) among them, or by
their finding any convenience for going to hear him at the
distance of a dozen miles ; that the clergyman himself, when
he visited them, made use of this chapel, and that I should
convey a reflection on that good man by declining to do so ;
that the building was designed to receive the Church-minister
when he should come, as well as to hold their own meetings in
when they could do no better ; that I should, probably, pre
judice the estimation of the Church among them, in a sensible
degree, and set them more adrift from her communion if I
refused, as, on the other hand, my compliance might help to
pave the way for some future introduction of her stated
ministrations ;* when I recollected also that at Montreal our
congregation hired the use of the Presbyterian place of wor
ship when the Church was building, and that my father had
himself held a confirmation, in Upper Canada, in a church
which, at that time, was held in co-partnership between the
Presbyterians and our people, but has since been vested
exclusively in the Church, I came to a decision, which,
indeed, I had no time to revolve in my mind, but in which I
hope I was right, to suffer them to spread the notice of a
service in French. After visiting the two houses and per-
* This building was subsequently made over to the Church of England,
and a church built in the neighbourhood also.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 73
forming the baptisms, I occupied the remaining time in such
preparation as it would permit : and taking an appropriate
text from St. Paul (Rom. x. 10) , I wrote a sort of introduc
tion to a familiar exposition of the creed which was to follow
extempore, and the outline of which I framed in my own mind.
This introduction I have preserved, rough as it is, because
having mentioned the day (which was St. Bartholomew's) I
took occasion to advert to the ordinances and constitution of
our apostolic Church, in a way (according to my endeavour)
to avoid hurting their feelings, and at the same time to coun
teract any impression that my proceeding was a sanction of
Methodism and lay-preaching. I have entered thus fully
•into my reasons and mode of proceeding, because I wish
to preserve memoranda of the case for the opinion of my
father. The little chapel was well filled, and I succeeded,
not so much to my own satisfaction as to do me any harm in
the shape of particular self-gratification in this new experi
ment, yet sufficiently well to prevent my being confused or
guilty of hesitation." Two or three days were spent at Gaspe"
Basin, which were occupied with business relating to the
progress of the Church. On one of them the Archdeacon
preached in the church, where he heard " what we cannot
boast of in the cathedral of Quebec, the bell inviting the
worshippers to the temple. The temple itself, however, was
a mere unpainted barn, yet it is a surprising building when it
is remembered that the materials grew in the woods on one
Sunday, and formed a Church, framed, roofed, and boarded,
in which service was held on the next." On the night of
the 27th August, the Archdeacon set off with the missionary
of Gaspe" Bay (then one of the only two clergymen in the
district) in an open boat, to visit the settlements along the
coast. They both took their turns of steering and rowing.
Stopping at Malbaie, spending Sunday at Perce" and L'Anse
a Beau-fils, they reached Paspe"biac, where the Archdeacon
remained several days, holding services and preaching (as
F

74 MEMOIR OF
he did everywhere) inspecting schools, and putting matters
in train for the erection or completion of churches, and the
establishment of new schools, and visiting sick and aged
persons. The missionary of Gaspe" Bay, in the meantime,
took advantage of the opportunity of his visit to the Bay of
Chaleurs, to carry his own ministrations across into the
province of New Brunswick, where the people were quite
destitute of religious ordinances and had requested him to
pay them a visit. The Archdeacon assumed the responsibility
of this intrusion into another diocese, with the authorities of
which he communicated afterwards on the subject. A church
was nearly finished at Paspe'biac, and the frame of one was
iip at Carlisle. The Archdeacon was " rather surprised to
hear the missionary, after giving out the psalms for the day,
add the following hint to the people, ' very pleasant to hear
the responses after the clerk,' and after giving out the singing
psalms, he said, ' St. Paul says that we must sing with the
spirit and sing with the understanding.' There were some
other peculiarities in his manner of performing the service,
but they had been partly introduced for the assistance of a
congregation unaccustomed to frequent the worship of God,
till the Bishop sent a clergyman among them." After a visit
to Hopetown, the Archdeacon, in company with the mis
sionary of Gaspe" Bay, who had returned from his visit to
the New Brunswick shore, proceeded in a boat up the 'Bay
of Chaleurs, and held services at New Richmond and
Ristigouche. From thence he took a bark canoe, with two
Indians, and ascended the Ristigouche and Matapediac rivers
for about seventy-five miles, walking about twenty-five more to
the shores of the St. Lawrence, through the woods. He passed
one house on the way inhabited by an English family, where
he baptized some children ; but, with this exception, there
was no occasion for the performance of official duties on this
part of the journey. The Indians were Roman Catholics, and
" they asked many questions about the Indian tribes in the

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 75
higher parts of the country, some of whom they had heard
were ' de bons gens comme nous? and others reprobates ' qui
ne croient pas au bon Dieu.' I asked them whether they
would not desire the advantages of education, the most obvious
of which I pointed out, and they heartily acquiesced ; but
though I encouraged them, as far as occasion could be taken,
in every moral and religious feeling of a correct nature, I did
not think it my business to endeavour to wean them from
any of the errors of the church of Rome. The only effect of
such an endeavour would have been to alienate them still
farther from a religion whose professors interfered with the
soundness of their own. I made it my object to give the
conversation such a turn as might tend in some degree to
conciliate their good will to Protestantism, and thus at least
I might be instrumental in improving their charity. I know
there are some zealous Protestants who would think me wrong.
And I should think them so. * * * We fell in with a small
party of lumberers, and as I had a very short allowance of
bread and biscuit, I asked them for some flour, and they give
me about eight pounds, for which I gave them money, but they
returned it, unobserved by me, to the Indians, who faithfully
informed me afterwards of their having received it. These
people were just going home, having spent the summer upon
their task. I asked them how they distinguished the Sunday
in the woods, and found that it was simply and solely by absti
nence from work. I gave them a couple of tracts, which I
had with me. I had the Bible in one pocket and Cicero in
the other." They pushed on in their walk through the woods
so as, if possible, to reach Metis, where there were a few
Protestants, by Saturday night. The Archdeacon describes
his appearance as being very little like that of a " dignitary."
Lame, from a strain which he had met with on the march, " and
tattered, a long staff made out of an old canoe-paddle in my
hand, the scratches of my skin seen through the holes of my
trowsers and stockings, without a neckcloth, my clothes soiled

76 MEMOIR OF
by the march, my shoes tied with twine, and my trowsers con
fined at the ancle, to prevent their catching in the branches,
with pins and strips of cedar-bark. To this equipment was
afterwards added, at the instance of my friend Fran§ois (one
of the Indians) , who had the promise of inheriting my trowsers,
(as Jean Baptiste had already done my discarded waistcoat),
and who by no means contemned the expected prize, a coloured
handkerchief round one knee to prevent the enlargement of a
very serious solution of continuity, to which pins had repeat
edly been applied with little effect."' The journal continues,
" We met with so many delays in hunting for the path, and
made so many deviations, that night closed upon us in the
wood, and we accordingly made our camp within about four
miles of the waters of the St. Lawrence, where, finding
that our crackers would hardly eke o.ut a slender supper for
William and myself, I divided them with so rigid an equality
as to split the odd one which remained into halves. The
Indians had no bread, and supped upon fish alone. In our
way through the wood to the beach the next morning, we met
with some partridges, two of which the Indians brought down
with sticks, and they proved afterwards a most valuable addi
tion to our sea-stock. At eight o'clock we stood on the beach
of the St. Lawrence, which is here forty miles across, and
had a couple of miles more to walk before we could reach a
house. From this house we were pulled about a league, in a
boat gaping with leaks, to the Point of Little Me"tis, by a
Scotch settler and his son, a lad of eighteen whom I had put
to the national school at Quebec. Nothing could have fallen
out more happily, though it had not been in the least within
my original calculations, than my arrival in this place on Sun
day morning, and I spent a most satisfactory day. I had, in
fact, been mortified by the failure of my intention to devote
this day to the Protestants of a settlement fifty miles below
Quebec, but it happened that the schoolmaster of that very
place had come down to look at some land at Me"tis, and I

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 77
learnt from him that I should not have collected a congrega
tion of half-a-dozen persons, and that, at the moment, there
was not a single child to be baptized there. I took means to
spread the notice of my arrival and to convene the congrega
tion for the afternoon. They had never had but one pastoral
visit, which was when the seigneur, a Scotchman, brought
down the Presbyterian minister from Quebec, four or five
years ago. At the appointed hour, about forty persons
assembled, and ten children were presented for baptism.
Some of the persons who had been married upon the spot by
means of a written contract, a copy of which they had lodged
in the hands of the seigneur, spoke to me apart, and express
ing some uneasiness of mind at the insufficiency of the form,
solicited me, if possible, to give effect to what they had done
by a regular solemnization. It grieved me to refuse, but I
did not conceive that the law would permit my marrying
without either licence or publication of banns. As, however,
they had acted in good faith, and their marriage was likely
to be comprehended in some of those Acts of the Provincial
Parliament which are passed, once in a while, to give validity
to irregular transactions of the kind, I was enabled to comfort
them, both as it regarded conscience, and the recognition of
the legitimacy of their offspring. The public prayers, the
psalm-singing, the preaching of the Word had all the zest
to these people of a rare and unexpected occurrence, and
I never was more thankfully received. One of them said to
me, in tendering the acknowledgments of the congregation,
' We can only thank you and love you.' They profited by
a recommendation conveyed in my sermon, that they would
make arrangements among themselves for meeting together
on Sundays for public worship. It would not, perhaps, be
presumptuous to say that' my own plans were happily over
ruled, and my steps directed so as to spend the Lord's day
in a place so rarely trod by the feet of them that bring glad
tidings of peace." On the following day the Archdeacon,

78 MEMOIR OF
after sundry difficulties and delays, embarked in an open boat
for Rimouski, where, being unable to obtain any land-convey
ance, he took another boat to Trois Pistoles, in which he spent
two nights (the distance being about forty miles) and "never
suffered so much from cold." From thence the journey to
Point Levi was comparatively easy : but it is curious now to
read of difficulties within sight of home. " Being deter
mined to proceed direct to Marchmont (where his father then
lived, and his own family were staying), I stopped, myself at
the little Indian encampment on the beach at Point Levi to
bargain for a canoe, and directed William to go across in the
steamboat* to Quebec. The only disposable canoe belonged
to a squaw, and they told me it was too small to venture in
with the degree of wind and swell which prevailed. I then
applied to some Canadians for a boat, but as they had the
conscience to ask me ten shillings, — the price, as William
observed, of a steerage passage in the steamboat to Montreal,
— I cut short all negociation with such extortioners at once.
While I was going in quest of another boat, the squaw came
up and offered her canoe, declaring now that it would do
extremely well. As the day was wearing fast away, I closed
with her offer and embarked. She steered the canoe herself,
and a male Indian paddled in the bow, but they were sadly
unlike my Ristigouche friends. The man, I found, was quite
drunk, and the woman, a bragging, brazen wretch, who cursed
him furiously, and talked to him like a slave, dealing her
offensive slang among the crews of the vessels which were
within hearing, and talking in the same breath of our being
in the hands of Providence, and of our looking to the mercy
of God if anything should happen. At length when we had
reached a place just below the middle of the race-course, she
declared she would go no farther, and put me ashore upon
* There was only one at this time plying between Quebec and Point
Levi, and that not at regular intervals.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 79
the beach. I did not insist upon her proceeding, for I have
seldom felt a more painful disgust than she caused me, and I
was glad to be rid of such evil company. I ought not, per
haps, in strict prudence, to have come with them, but I was
deceived by my recent experience into confidence in Indians :
and after all, as far as safety is concerned, you never hear of
any accident in their canoes. This woman, by the way, pro
nounced me to be a " Francais de France," which was the
third time on this journey that I was so mistaken. After
waiting a little while on the beach, I found a Canadian lad
whom I engaged to carry my portmanteau to Marchmont.
He showed me a precipitous path up to the plains, and I
thence led the way across to the house. ***** If -we are
now upon the eve of a longer separation, on this 23rd of
March (1825), to which time my scant enjoyment of leisure
has protracted the conclusion of my journal, let us pray
that it may please Him to grant us to meet in health and
happiness."

80 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER V.
Visit to England — Death of his Father.
The separation, to which reference is made in the concluding
words of the last chapter, was caused by his compliance with his
father's desire that he should go to England, partly as the
agent of the Clergy Reserve corporations, who commissioned
him to take fresh steps towards obtaining from the Imperial
Government the preservation of their interests, with particu
lar reference to a proposed measure for the sale of a portion
of the lands to the Canada Company ; and partly to urge,
in the same quarter, the necessity for affording some rehef
to the Bishop, whose infirmities now began to make him
unequal to the labours of the episcopal office, by the division
of the diocese. The Bishop hoped, indeed, that an arrange
ment might be made for his own retirement, and desired to
see the two provinces of Upper and Lower Canada each
constituted a diocese, with Dr. Stewart presiding over the
former, and the Archdeacon of Quebec over the latter.
But if this might not be, he was content to retain the charge
of Lower Canada, if Dr. Stewart, to whom he was prepared
to surrender £1000 a year from his own income, might be
consecrated to the charge of the Upper province, and afford
occasional help, if it should be necessary, in administering
confirmation in Lower Canada. Some communications with
reference to this subject had already passed between His
Majesty's Government and Dr. Stewart, when he had been in

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 81
England in the preceding year, and the Bishop was secure of
His Majesty's approval of his nomination. Dr. Stewart enjoyed
his Lordship's full confidence ; and a proof of that which he
himself placed in the Archdeacon may be found in a letter
in which he " readily " says that he " shall be satisfied with
any arrangement you may make for me respecting my being
a Bishop in Canada, my salary," &c, &c; though with
reference to this last point he states his opinion in another
letter, with characteristic disinterestedness, that " if the
two future Bishoprics are not equal, that of Quebec ought
to be the largest. I am disposed to prefer Upper Ca
nada." The Archdeacon left Quebec on the 30th March for New
York, which, with pretty hard travelling, was not reached
till the 9th April. At New York he was detained till the 1st
May, .waiting for a commission* to act on behalf of the Clergy
Reserve corporation of Upper Canada. He had undertaken
this task with very great unwillingness, and only because

* The following is the commission : —
" Reverend Sir, — The Corporation for superintending and managing the
Clergy Reserves in this province determined at their last meeting to peti
tion the Imperial Parliament, praying that the Clergy Reserves may be
withdrawn from the purchase contemplated by the Canada Land Company,
and that no sales be made of such Reserves, except by the Corporation with
the concurrence of the Government, and to be heard by counsel against the
passing of any bill authorizing such purchase that may be under the consi
deration of the Imperial Parliament.
" As the Corporation have full confidence in your zeal and abilities, and
your knowledge of the state and prospects of the Established Church in
this province, you are hereby appointed their agent to urge the prayer of
their petition, and to take such other measures, with the advice of counsel,
as may be found expedient. " John Strachan, D.D.,
" Rector of York, Upper Canada, and Chairman of the Corporation
for superintending, conducting, and managing the Clergy
Reserves in the said Province."

82 MEMOIR OF
his father believed it to be necessary for the interests of the
Church. He shrank very much from the responsibility which
was imposed upon him, and was very apprehensive that he
might fail in his object through want of proper management.
His distrustfulness of himself seems to have caused more
perplexity and uneasiness than there was any real occasion
for ; and possibly the separation from his father and his wife,
both of whom were far from strong at this time, may have
tended sometimes to depress his spirits. His letters to them
(which contain descriptions of New York which it is now
interesting to read,) are full of tenderness and diffidence. To
the latter he says — " Your letters are an inexpressible comfort
and delight to me, and whatever anxieties or perplexities I
may have to encounter abroad, or whatever chicane to deal
with, — nay, whatever domestic afflictions it may please God
to hold in store for me — my home will always be a resting-point
to which my soul will turn itself as to nothing else which
there is, or can be, here on earth. I bless God for all His
undeserved mercies to me, and am determined not to. let my
mind sink in any vexations which may occur ; but for none
which partakes of an earthly cast do I more bless His Name
than for that which enables me to call myself yours, my own
excellent and best beloved M  ." Well was this confi
dence deserved and repaid ; for he had, indeed, an help meet
for him. His letters are full, not only of directions as to
parish matters, relief of the poor, &c, but also as to those
in which his place might, to some extent, be supplied to his
father ; and this while she had a more than ordinary share of
maternal care, and had not been able, notwithstanding the
meekest resignation, to overcome the physical effects of the
repeated sorrows to which reference has already been made.
His father, in a letter on which is written " the last which he
addressed to me, and the last but one which he was able to
dictate," expresses his regret that he had not been able to go
into Quebec as often as he had proposed to do, but adds, " with

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D.

83

Mary's activity, and Mr. Archbold's* assiduity, I trust every
thing is going on well." In a note to his father, written the
day after leaving Quebec, the Archdeacon says : " I omitted,
in a hurried note to M  , to convey my feelings of duty,
of love, of thankfulness to Marchmont. I therefore seize a
moment to do it now, although how shall I ever sufficiently
acknowledge or requite all the kindnesses I have expe
rienced from parents such as no other children are blessed
with?"f The Archdeacon reached England on the 21st May, but
the delay which he had met with at New York proved fatal to
the success of his mission with regard to the Clergy Re
serves, for the bill against which the corporation petitioned
had already passed the Imperial Parliament. Its object was
to empower certain commissioners to fix a uniform price at
which Crown Lands should be sold to the Canada Company,
the introduction of whose capital into the country was con
sidered to be so great an advantage, that they were able to
obtain very favourable terms, and the petitioners desired to
exempt the Clergy Reserves from the operation of the bill,
* A missionary of the S. P. G., who assisted in the duties of the parish
of Quebec, and of whom the Archdeacon wrote in 1832 : "I was happy in
the opportunity of intercourse with this valued friend (then rector of Corn
wall) and unaffectedly devoted servant of God and His Church, who is an
example to us all. So zealous and devout, but so humble, so genuine, so
single-hearted, so entirely given to the work to which he is called, it does
one good to be in contact with him, and we may well desire to learn from
him." t The Bishop would probably have replied, that never parents had such
children. In a letter written by his Lordship's sister to the future Arch
deacon, in 1809, while he was at Cambridge, I find the following passage :
" The accounts we hear of you and your dear brothers from every one afford
the most heartfelt satisfaction, which is increased by the idea of the solace
it must prove to your parents under every trial ; when they call to mind the
goodness of their children, it must counterbalance every evil. May this
comfort ever be theirs, and may you all be rewarded for the conduct which
holds out so much gratification to us and them."

84 MEMOIR OF
and to give the corporation some voice in their disposal.
The highest authorities in the colony declared themselves in
favour of the reasonableness of this claim, and the secretary
of State for the colonies (Lord Bathurst) was warmly at
tached to the Church, but the bill passed notwithstanding,
by which " the Company were to enjoy the full benefit of the
valuation of three shillings and sixpence an acre, and that
payable by instalments, without interest, in fifteen years."
But a letter from the under secretary of State to the Arch
deacon, declared " it to be the intention of Government to
place the Church upon the same footing as before, restoring
the one-third of the Reserves if the Company will accept
other lands as an equivalent, or substituting these other lands
for the support of the Clergy, if they will not." The Arch
deacon derived much valuable assistance in the conduct
of this business from Mr. Robinson, Attorney-General of
Upper Canada, who had been his fellow-passenger across the
Atlantic, and was a sincere friend of the Church, and thorough
master of the subject. In his other object he was greatly
aided by the counsel of his friend and connection, the Hon
ourable A. W. Cochran, secretary to the Earl of Dalhousie,
Governor-in-chief of Canada, who had accompanied His Ex
cellency to England at that time. No two laymen have ren
dered more faithful and efficient services to the Canadian
Church. In later years the one was the confidential friend
and counsellor of the Bishop of the Lower Canadian diocese,
the other the confidential friend and counsellor of the Bishop
of Toronto. The college, societies, and other institutions of
the Church, in each diocese, owe much to their legal know
ledge and general experience, as well as to their hearty devo
tion to their interests.
The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel seconded
the efforts of the Archdeacon, by making representations to
the Colonial Office, with the view of securing to the Church
the advantages just mentioned. The Bishop of Quebec had

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 85
furnished him with written instructions,* and full information,
as well as careful calculations made by the rector of York.
He discharged his part with unintermitting diligence, but the
whole business was exceedingly distasteful to him. Writing
to his father from England, he says, " I cannot express to
you how much I should desire to have done for ever with
public men and public offices, and to hold some charge in God's
Church which might leave me independent of the favour or
frowns of political power, and unconnected with any engines
of government." It was probably this feeling that withheld
Him from carrying out his father's wishes with regard to the
other object of his mission as fully as he might have done ;
for he proposed to the Government only the division of the
diocese, with the transfer of Upper Canada to the hands of
Dr. Stewart, the Bishop retaining Lower Canada, or the
assumption by Dr. S. of the charge of the whole province,
the Bishop in that case being allowed to retire. The result
of his negociations is contained in the following letter
addressed to the Bishop, which was submitted to, and
approved as "perfectly correct" by, the under-secretary
of State :
" I am happy to be enabled, by the kindness of Earl Bathurst, to inform
you that some conclusive arrangements respecting your affairs have re
ceived the approbation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, upon his Lordship's
recommendation, and are in train to be executed, which I trust you will
consider as entirely satisfactory.
" I am authorized to state, that these arrangementswill be as follows :
" H. M. Government being unwilling, except in cases of strong necessity,
to permit the resignation of a Bishop, and being also desirous, on the other
hand, of embracing the present opportunity to divide the laborious and ex
tensive diocese which constitutes your charge, have decided upon this latter
expedient as the mode of providing for your relief. You will, therefore,
continue Bishop of Quebec, but under a fresh parent, and with diminished
labours; the limits of your diocese being reduced to those of the province
* The last words of these are, "Be not at all disheartened ; you have
nothing to fear. Keep up your spirits. May God bless and protect you,
and prosper your undertakings. Amen."

86 MEMOIR OF
of Lower Canada, and the Upper province being taken out of your juris
diction and erected into a separate diocese, to the charge of which Dr.
Stewart will be consecrated.
" In order, however, to meet the wants of the case, in whatever shape they
may present themselves, Dr. Stewart will receive his appointment upon a
distinct understanding that he is to assist you, as far as may be necessary.
during your life, and that the charge of the wh,,le of both, dioceses shall,
for that period, devolve upon him, if your health should render you incapa
ble of your duties, or require your return to England."
Having so far fulfilled the objects of his voyage to England,
the Archdeacon turned his thoughts again to his parish and
his home. They had never, indeed, been long absent from
them, and though he had originally promised himself the
pleasure of seeing some of his early friends, he devoted him
self so unsparingly to business as to leave time for scarcely
more than forced and flying visits to his nearest relations
and one friend* who claimed the privilege of calling herself
his " second mother." He accomplished, besides, a brief
visit to a brother of Dr. Stewart, to whom he had given a
promise that he would do so. An account of the effort this
cost may serve as a specimen of the manner in which his
time was filled up. " I have had a life of constant, unceas
ing hurry since I first came to town, (immediately after
his landing at Liverpool,) and if it were not for the satisfac
tion of what little I am to see of my brothers and friends,
could heartily wish myself out of England every hour. Yes
terday (Saturday) I left town at four o'clock, to go down to
Mr. James Stewart's, at Clapham Common, at whose house I
dined and slept. He has been very kind to me, and has
* Mr3. Harrold, of Horkesley Park, Essex, an early friend of his mother's,
whose husband, inheriting her property and her friendship, became after
wards the great benefactor of Bishop's College, Lennoxville. His munifi
cence to the great Church Societies was unbounded, and generally anony
mous. Mrs. Harrold's brother and sister gave as " a clergyman and his
sister" the funds for the erection' of one of the Bethnal Green Churches.
Her delightful letters to her " dear son" would form a most interesting
addition to this memoir.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 87
entered into all my business. With his family I went to church
at Clapham. From the church door I got into a stage
coach ; from the stage-coach office in town, without going to
my lodging, I went to afternoon service at Westminster
Abbey ; thence I came home, and having dined off a little
rye loaf which I bought two days ago and put in my pocket,
and a glass of lukewarm London water, I addressed myself
to writing, having previously to my luxurious repast read
your letter and my mother's. And this is not the only day,
I assure you, that I have gone without my regular dinner, or
any use of those beverages which are given to make ' glad
the heart of man.' The writing which I have to execute to
night, if I can-get through it, is as follows: a letter to the
Archbishop; ditto to the secretary S. P. G. ; ditto to Lord
Bathurst, respecting the disposal of the petition ; two private
letters ; then, on your side of the water, I must write to my
father, to Major Hillier, to Dr. Strachan, and Dr. Stewart.
If I should not have time for the last, will you make a copy
of the letter to Lord B. about the Bishops, and send it to
him, and tell him that his brothers have been very civil to
me ; his brother James, who seems to be an excellent man,
particularly kind." I cannot forbear from giving one or two
more extracts from letters written at this time. " I have
received your letter, containing a lock of our dear little boy's
hair for G. , the sight of which made me more foolish than I
choose to tell you of. But how can I be thankful enough to
have such delightful accounts of you and your occupations,
abroad and at home ? The parish and the family seem to go
on so well in my absence, that I think I had better stay away,
and would do so on purpose, if I could put so much force upon
certain strong and yearning inclinations which every day's
absence serves to increase. What you and your coadjutors
have done about the Red House* delights me. Tell the dear
* A building secured as a home for houseless poor.

88 MEMOIR OF
little girls that it makes me very happy to hear of their behav-
ing'so well about reading prayers, etc., which I trust may be
taken as a proof of their behaving well in all things. I write,
as usual, in a hurry ; it is the old story over again ; trudging
all day, or waiting upon official people, and writing half the
night.- The watchman has been singing out ' past one,' for
some time, and as this is not my closing operation, I wish you
and my children good night, and may the Almighty have you
ever in His holy keeping." * * * * " I am to be in
London again on the 18th (July) to meet one of the princi
pal merchants concerned in the Canada Company, and work
may be then cut out for me which will protract my stay. I
left town on the afternoon of the 7th, and came that evening
to Bourchier's. The next day, after breakfast, we came
through Easton, where we visited our old school-boy haunts,
and several of my old friends* among the cottagers, to Thax-
ted, where my aunt's gig met me and took me on to Bardfield,
where I spent Saturday and Sunday ; and on the latter day
preached, as it were, among the shades of my maternal fore
fathers, and over their very bones, in Little Bardfield church.
Nothing can exceed the kindness of all my friends, nor can
I describe to you the longing that I feel to have you here
among them ; but, as to our taking up our abode here, I see
no prospect of it whatever, and every year that I remain
away removes farther the probability of my obtaining prefer
ment at home. We must make ourselves happy, therefore,
where Providence has cast our lot, and be thankful for all
our blessings, remembering that here we have ' no continu
ing city,' and if we must not look to England as our land of
promise on earth, there is a resting place for us all, to which
the way is never long."
* One of his brothers, writing to him a description of his own visit to
these scenes some years later, says, " Old Mrs. F. cried when she spoke of
you."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 89
Although the Archdeacon did not put forward his father's
views with regard to himself, he was furnished with testimo
nials from different persons to whom they had been communi
cated, from one of which, from the Earl of Dalhousie, I make
the following extract :
" It gives me great pleasure to seize this earliest opportunity of placing in
your own hands, to be used as you please, my most earnest hope that your
claims and pretensions to preferment over that diocese will be received
by H. M. Ministers, and considered as they justly merit. To give my own
personal recommendation on that point would be a poor expression in your
favour, and I have no hesitation in going so far as to say, in the name of the
whole protestant population of the Lower Province, that whenever you
shall see fit to lay your claims before the proper quarter, you may rest as
sured of the cordial wishes of all who have already had the advantage of
knowing and of appreciating your indefatigable labours in the performance
of your duties among them. I shall be ready, at all times, to bear testimony
in your favour, in preference to any other person, from the conscientious
conviction that your knowledge of the people there, your experience, and
your well-known abilities would have greater weight in promoting the
great interests of the Church and of the people than any other person what
ever." Before the date of the letter which he addressed to his
father, announcing the arrangements which he had been
able to effect for him, that father had been taken to his rest.
He died on the 18th June, 1825, having given scarcely any
previous grounds for alarm. It was a heavy blow to his
sons, none of whom were permitted to be with him, but espe
cially to the Archdeacon, as he was the only one who could
reasonably have expected to receive his parting blessing, and
it may naturally have added to his grief, to reflect that so far
as his father was personally concerned, his mission to England
had proved of no advantage. The intelligence of his loss
reached him on the 22nd-July, as he was making his final
arrangements for leaving England, but he was detained
another week by business preparatory to the return of his
mother to her native land. I must draw the history of this
year to a close, or it would be a satisfaction to place on
G

90 MEMOIR OF
record some of the testimonies which the death of the first
Bishop of Quebec drew forth from different quarters, public
and private. I confine myself to an extract from the letter
written by the Archdeacon on hearing of that event. It
bears strong marks of agitation, which rendered writing diffi
cult, though the place from which it is dated (Colonial Office)
shews that he had braced himself up so as not to suffer any
interruption of his work. " I have received your letters, and
I have seen Mr. B. (from Quebec.) The will of God be
done ! I trust He will support us all and teach us to submit,
and that He will grant me the comfort of speedily rejoining
you. You are, indeed, a comfort to me ; the thought of you,
and the account which you give of your own strength in this
trial, and the support that you will be able to administer to
those more immediately connected with him whom we mourn,
are mercies for which I fervently bless my God ; and how
many mercies have I received at His hand ! But I cannot
trust myself farther upon this subject now. * * * As
for you, my beloved children, I know that your young hearts
will grieve for the loss of your kind, your good grandpapa.
You love your own father, and can judge of his feelings ; but
your blessed grandfather is gone where, I trust, we shall all
meet him, and though our hearts are broken now, it will be
a comfort to us even in this world to think of his virtues and
his kindness to us all. You are old enough always, always,
always to remember how good he was to you. Do not think
that I shall give way. Writing to Quebec agitates me, but
with God's help I shall brace up again." His eldest brother,
writing at this time to his mother, says, " George's conduct
has been delicate, feeling, firm and judicious. His success
cannot but be a source of comfort to you, and of lasting
satisfaction to his own heart. My father's mantle has not
wholly fallen to the ground ; part of it has rested upon
George. God bless him." Another brother, writing a little
earlier to himself, had said, " I think I may congratulate

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 91
you upon the success of your negociations, which I hope will
make you some amends for all the harass and hurrying about
that you have had, and it ought to reconcile us, in some
measure, to seeing so little, almost nothing, of you, but we
must be allowed to feel vexed and disappointed on this ac
count. This must not be reckoned a visit to England. You
must come again and bring your family with you. God bless
them and you. Your very truly affectionate brother,
" G. R. M."
From London the Archdeacon went down to Tunbridge
Wells, to take a hasty farewell of his wife's family, between
whom and himself there, subsisted the strongest affection.
He left them on the morning of the 30th July, (in days when
there were no railways,) and dined the same day with his
brothers at Hemel Hempsted in Hertfordshire. After a
stay there of about an hour and a, half, he was driven by one
of them to meet the Liverpool mail, and reached that place
between nine and ten the next evening. The following
morning he sailed for New York, where he arrived early in
September. Before leaving the ship, his fellow-passengers
presented him with a letter, conveying their thanks for his
" religious attention to themselves and the ship's company
during the voyage," and the assurance of "their individual
esteem and sincere wishes for his happiness and welfare."
As he lay in his berth, soon after leaving Liverpool, the
thoughts which were uppermost in his mind found expression
in the following lines :
Speed, speed, good ship ! for home and friends
One heart is here that sorely yearns ;
And they to whom the traveller wends,
How oft to thee their fancy turns 1
0 speed him well — tho' not that home
Will wear a look his heart to cheer ;
Ah 1 wherefore was he bid to roam,
So dark a change then lurking near ?

92 MEMOIR OF
Yet speed him well, — a widow grey,
His mother now, will want her son ;
Alas! that in that mournful day
Of all her four she clasped not one !
0. speed him fast, — his gentle wife,
Partner of all his joy and pain,

Ye children that he loves so well,
Sweet sister, too, — fair drooping flower I
Kind brother whom the tiding3 fell
Have brought before this weary hour ;
With you, with others near in love,
He longs to mix in mutual grief;
To draw, from streams which spring above,
In mutual use, a blest relief.
He longs to find the healing charms.
Of home, albeit in sorrowing mien ;
And fold within a father's arms
Th' unconscious child heha3 not seen.
0 sacred links I and fastened deep
Beyond the world's infectious reach,
How well, whom many mourners weep,
How well didst thou their value teach !
Yet 'not within the narrow walls
Of home his only wishes lie ;
He owns the power of other calls
Fulfilled beneath a father's eye.
Aye, so fulfilled — but that is done —
No earthly father now shall mark
The course of this inferior son,
Who yet emits a kindred spark.
0 Father of the saints above
And men below, it is to Thee,
To Thee we must commend our love,
Altho' no human eye should see.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 93
0 Thou, upon th' eternal throne
Of heaven, Who rul'st the changeful waves,
Whose wonders in the deep are shewn,*
The avenging arm, and that which saves,
Thou in Whose hidden treasures lie
The ready winds,f and in Whose hand
Is all which once, in earth or sky
Sprung and stood fast at Thy command,§
Deign Thou the wanderer's way to guide
Who thus his lone affliction sings ;
And o'er his kin, whom seas divide,
Stretch forth, 0 God, Thy guardian wings.
0 truly guide them all to find
The haven where they hope to rest, IT
— Left but a few brief days behind,
They join the dead for ever blest.
* Ps. cvii. 24. t P3- cxxxv. 7. § Ps. xxxiii. 9. 1T Ps. cvii. 30.

94 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER VI.
Bishop Stewart — Labours in the parish of Quebec, for the diocese and
for different institutions.
Dr. Mountain had been nearly six months absent from
Quebec, though scarcely more than two had been spent in
England. His labours were not lightened by his being re
lieved of those which properly belonged to the office of chap
lain, for during the vacancy of the see additional responsi
bility was, of course, laid on the Archdeacon, and this, with
his parochial duties, left him little leisure. The new Bishop
was not consecrated till January, 1826, and was unable to
enter on the administration of the diocese for about a year
after the death of his predecessor. He had gone to England in
1825 for consecration, and the Government declining to carry
into effect the plan for the division of the diocese on the ground
that it had been rendered necessary only by the failing health
of the late Bishop, the charge of the whole of Canada devolved
upon him. But it was more than any one man could bear,
and soon wore out the strength of Dr. Stewart, which had,
perhaps, been already impaired by twenty years of apostolic
labour. It would have been a great comfort to him if he could
have persuaded His Majesty's Ministers to agree to the erec
tion of a new diocese, and could have seen his friend the
Archdeacon of Quebec placed over it ; and in this feeling,
the clergy of Lower Canada may be presumed to have shared,
for in the conclusion of an address of condolence in his bereave
ment which they presented to him upon his return from Eng-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 95
land, they say, " That return is cause of rejoicing to your
family, your friends, your flock, and the Church of God
Whose ministers we are ; and, gratified as we are at the pros
pect of the elevation to the vacant see of that distinguished
missionary of noble birth, whose exertions in the cause of
religion, and whose sacrifices to promote it, none can know
how to appreciate better than ourselves, we must yet be per
mitted to express the satisfaction we shall feel at any arrange
ment, whether near or remote, which may have for its object
your own advancement to a situation of higher honour and
more extensive usefulness in that Church of which you have
shewn yourself, on all occasions, the able and vigilant cham
pion, and which already owes so much to your services and
your zeal." Bishop Stewart, indeed, seems never to have
lost sight of this object, for he made repeated efforts for its
accomplishment before it was at length attained. He was
well able to judge of the qualifications of his Archdeacon, for
never was Archdeacon more truly the " right hand " of his
Bishop. The Bishop leaned upon him for advice and assist
ance in all that he undertook, and the most perfect affection
and confidence subsisted between them. He became his lord
ship's examining chaplain, (an office which he had filled under
his own father,) and his pen was more than once employed
in writing pastoral addresses which were sent forth "from
the Bishop of Quebec." The first ordination by the new
Bishop was held in July, 1826,* when the Archdeacon
preached the sermon, which was published. It was nearly
the same as that which he had preached at the visitation at
Montreal in 1820, and which he had not then published, as
it formed one of a series intended for his own flock, the whole
of which he had 'designed to give them in print, but the neces
sary leisure for doing so having been denied him, this one was
now published separately. He constantly laid down exact
* Two hundred and five persons were, in this year, confirmed at Quebec.

96 MEMOIR OF
rules for the distribution of his time, but he was so com
pletely the servant of others, that it was scarcely ever pos
sible to observe them. Besides discharging the duties of
Archdeacon and chaplain, he undertook, in January 1827,
and continued for several years, to superintend the studies
of some candidates for Orders resident in Quebec, for which
no other provision could be made, and they used to come to
him for a certain number of hours every week.* All this
while he was working a large and scattered parish, with
charitable associations which depended on his activity for
their welfare, and without the regular machinery which would
have afforded him relief. The National Schools, Sunday-
Schools, Hospitals, Jail, Jail Association, S. P. C. K. Com
mittee, Clergy Reserve Corporation, Royal Institution, Emi
grant Society, and several other public institutions, — all
claimed a large share of constant labour and anxiety. There
is a likeness of him, taken in 1826, on which he has written
with reference to the premature grey hairs and other marks
of age which it exhibits,
Confiteor facere hsec annos ; sed et altera causa est,
Anxietas animi continuusque labor.
And besides all these, there was a ceaseless recourse to him,
by all sorts and conditions of men, for every conceivable kind
of assistance, spiritual and temporal. He sometimes longed
for relief from some of " the drudgery of parish routine,"
which might have been equally well performed by inferior
hands, leaving his own more free for higher things. He
generally, indeed, had an assistant in the week-day work,
but this clergyman used to devote the Sundays to destitute
settlements in the neighbourhood of Quebec. There was nov
at this time more than one resident clergyman in the district

* He also drew up, by desire of the Bishop, a sketch of the heads of lec
tures, &c, for the guidance of others, which has been preserved.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 97
of Quebec, beyond the limits of the parish itself, and the
Archdeacon was constantly called upon to visit sick persons
at a distance. His labours were also shared, particularly in
the duties of some of the institutions above mentioned, by
the Rev. Dr. Mills, chaplain to the forces, and evening lec
turer at the cathedral, and the Rev. E. W. Sewell, incum
bent of a proprietary chapel in Quebec, (which had been
built in 1825, by the father of that gentleman, then Chief
Justice of Lower Canada,) who had also relieved him of the
pastoral charge of such members of his flock as became pew-
holders in the chapel. His Sunday duty consisted of the
greater part of two services in the cathedral, a service at
the jail, superintendence of cwo Sunday schools, baptisms,
churchings, and funerals nearly every Sunday, and an even
ing service in the suburbs. I find some rough memoranda
of his employment on particular days, which are specimens of
his general work. " Sunday, June 22nd, 1823, read altar-
service, and preached in the cathedral in the forenoon ;
christening ; visited the boys' and the girls' Sunday school at
Hope Gate. Prayers and preached at the jail, and visited
a prisoner in his cell. Prayers P. M. in the cathedral,
two women churched, two christenings ; went to the bury-
ing-ground at half-past seven, and performed a funeral.
Evening service, and preached at the burying-ground. One
woman churched, a private baptism at the sexton's house."
On the 14th August, in the same year, (a week-day,) there
is a list of visits paid, which, from their distances, and the
variety of business arising from them, must have cost an
astonishing effort to accomplish. And on All Saints' day,
1825, he has noted down, " Family prayers and chapter.
After breakfast, walked out to emigrant hospital, (about a
mile from his house) and administered Sacrament to a sick
woman ; returned by a quarter past ten ; made some memo
randa and preparations for other business ; went to" church,
where delivered a lecture upon the day (as he did on all festi-

98 MEMOIR OF
vals) ; returned home ; a young woman received instruction
for Sacrament first time ; drafted three letters in the diocese
letter-book, wrote fair, and sent them ; a note to S. respect
ing his allowance from society ; Mr. Archbold called to con
sult me respecting a baptism without sponsors ; called at
office of Civil Secretary to make arrangements respecting
transport of Government Bibles, etc. ; visited widow W.,
prayed with her ; went to Neptune Inn, Lower Town, to see
Mr. M., from Bay of Chaleurs ; woman of the house begged
me to see her mother, dangerously hurt, — conversed and
prayed with her ; called on M. A. ;* returned home to dine ;
played with the children ;f wrote some portion of blue-book ;
family prayers and chapter; read some portion of " Conver-
* His cousin, Miss Mountain, who died in Quebec in 1845. She is the
person referred to in the note, at page 33, and her practice well illustrated
her precept. The following extract, from one of her letters, written to Fre
dericton, will shew the affection that existed between them. " None, I may
venture to say, feel your absence more than my aunt and myself. We
have not much to do with the business or pleasures of the world, and the
loss of the society of one endeared to us by the ties of near relationship, by
the fulfilment of the promise of early excellence, and still more by his
daily and uniform affectionate attention, forms a blank to us which your
letters only reconcile us to, as they tell us you are happy, and we strive to
silence all selfish regrets." On one of her notes relating to an act of kind
ness done to himself, he has written, "Blessed be she of the Lord, who
hath not left off her kindness to the living and to the dead."
f The pains which he took to promote even the innocent amusements
of his children; his mindfulness, when in the midst of his most pressing
occupations, of their little wants and wishes ; the manner in which he
entered into their feelings ; his constant desire for their improvement, and
his efforts to aid them in it, were eminently characteristic of him. And
this same tenderness of disposition shewed itself, in its degree, in his inter
course with all children with whom he came in contact. When his chil
dren grew up, and left their home, he scarcely ever missed an occasion of
writing to them, even if he had only time to say that he was " glad of
every little opportunity of renewing a father's blessing ;" and he still
entered into all their pleasures, as well as strengthened them by his judi
cious and affectionate counsels. An absent child was sure to be specially
mentioned in the family prayers.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 99
sion of Struenzee." Another memorandum, which is scarcely
intelligible, shews the forenoon of 23rd January, 1826, filled
up in a similar way : " In the afternoon, drove Dr. to Stone-
ham, visited sick man and baptized a child, the state of the
weather and roads being such, that returned at three A.M.
on 24th." I will give only one other, which seems to have
been made as a matter of curiosity ; the date is, probably,
early in 1826 : " Things done before eleven o'clock, on
Monday morning, a Saints' day: 1. Orders and directions
written for the messenger of emigrant society ; 2. A man
wanting a note to procure admission for a sick woman into
hospital ; 3. A boy wanting relief for his mother ; 4. A man
wanting a recommendatory note to be employed as a tide-
waiter ; 5. A man wanting the time fixed for the interment
of a child ; 6. A woman wanting a note to procure a place
at service for her son, and requiring my interposition with
Colonel B. for permission for a soldier to marry her daughter ;
7.-8. A visit from two ladies, (mother and daughter,) the
former wanting arrangements made for placing her son with
some, clergyman, to complete his education in preparation
for the Church ; the latter bringing her certificate for her
pension, as an officer's widow, to be signed, and to have the
blanks filled up ; 9. Another man about the funeral of a
child, requiring a note to Mr. Sewell, and an order to the
sexton ; 10. A visit from a tailor, wanting the pattern of my
coat and cassock to make ditto for the Archdeacon of York ;
11. A visit from Captain T. respecting business of emigrant
society; 12. Some alteration , and adaptation of part of my
lecture for the day."
Wants like these were attended to at once, for he never
refused to see any one, to enter fully and patiently into
their business, and to do what was wanted, whenever possible,
at whatever cost of time and trouble to himself. Self, indeed,
never entered into his thoughts. The number of persons
who, in summer, when immigration was at its height, used

100 MEMOIR OF
literally to besiege his house, was so great, that it was often
very difficult to make one's way across the entrance from one
room to another, or to get through the crowd who stood in
the street waiting for room within, and it was sometimes
necessary to use chloride of lime in the house after the
crowd of visitors had dispersed. To the duties already
mentioned he added, for several years, a week-day evening
service, for which was afterward substituted one at eight
o'clock on Sunday morning, chiefly for sailors, in a room at
a cove about three miles from his house, and thus prepared
the way for the erection of St. Paul's, or the Mariners' Chapel,
which was consecrated, and had a district assigned to it, in
1833. In the same way, he had an evening service on a
week day in a ship-yarcl on the river St. Charles, which
formed the nucleus of the congregation of St. Peter's Chapel,
which acquired a separate existence in 1834. He had also
a monthly service on Sunday, in French, at the burying-
ground, for the benefit of Jersey and Guernsey people. The
Sunday evening services at that place were, however, his
chief delight. He began in the end of 1822 with a large
room in the sexton's house. This very soon became too small
for the congregation, and the whole house was then thrown
into one. In 1827-8 the windows were arched, a cupola was
built, in which a bell* was placed, and the interior was fitted
with open benches, and decently furnished, so that it had
a sufficiently ecclesiastical appearance. His sermons here
always consisted of plain and familiar expositions of Scripture,
delivered without a book, and there was scarcely ever stand
ing room in the chapel. About 1830, an addition was made,
by a kind of transept, which added greatly to the accommo
dation. The service and singing were most hearty, and he so
loved to preach the Gospel to the poor, that often on Sunday
* A peal of bells was procured for the cathedral in 1831, the only
one, for many years, in Canada, or, I believe, with one exception, in
.America.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 101
nights, when he came home nearly worn out in body, he
would say his " soul had been refreshed." I shall never forget
his sorrow when he saw the place he loved so well destroyed
by fire, on the night of the memorable 28th June, 1845.
His Sunday Schools were also his special care, and he took an
active part in the " Sunday School Association" for promot
ing uniformity of system throughout the diocese, over the
Quebec branch of which he presided with the most constant
care. He had a large number of teachers, and a board
hung on the door, with their names written on small blocks
of wood, which they drew out, so as to make them project,
as each entered the school, in order that, on his own entrance,
he might see at a glance who were punctual in their arrival.
He was extremely punctual himself, without which, indeed,
he could never have accomplished what he did. He was
always earnest in promoting habits of devotion among his
flock, particularly in their families, and in urging the duty of
attending to the spiritual interests of servants and depend
ants, of which he was eminently careful to set an example in
his own house. The pains which he took, and the minute
ness of his efforts, were truly wonderful. A sermon which
he preached in February, 1822, in relation to these points, and
partly as an appeal for the National Schools, was published,
and contains evidence of his anxiety for the spiritual growth
of his flock, and its promotion by the use of the ordinances of
the Church, which he was firm in the conviction that Christ
had appointed as the means to that end. One or two extracts
from this sermon may be given to illustrate the principles on
which his ministrations were based. " 0, far be it from our
views, and alien may it always be held to christian principles,
to turn them loose upon the world, that they may choose, in
matters of religion, for themselves ! to send them into the
thickening warfare of temptation, unprotected by the shield
of faith, unfurnished with the helmet of salvation, and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. We make,

102 MEMOIR OF
indeed, an exception, in this point, for those who are claimed
by their parents, as members of other regularly constituted
folds;* our local rules, in that respect, are public. We are
willing, we are glad, to give them education without meddling
with their tenets or religious discipline, but utterly do we
•renounce the maxim which would forbid it to religion to have
her share in the public training of youth, or would divorce
her from the national establishments, from the education of
the different classes of the nation. The Madras system has
been called exclusive, but I know of no exclusion so injurious
as the exclusion of religion. And, unless we mean to subvert
the whole constitution of the country, both civil and ecclesi
astical, in what shape shall it be introduced, (for it would be
a perfect Babel of confusion were we to open the door to all
at once,) in what shape but according to the received form
of the country itself ? Are we to be so afraid of training
children to be churchmen that we will not contribute to their
chance of being christians ? We are very wise, very en
lightened ; we have undeniably made great strides in civiliza
tion, but there is a wisdom in which we have gone back from
our venerable forefathers, by full as many steps as those by
which we have outstripped them in another field." And in
a note appended, on the publication of the sermon, to the
words, " tracts inspected and approved before they pass, and
stamped, as it were, for sterling doctrine," he says :
" The Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the
Gospel has laid it down as a rule for the guidance of the
missionaries, that the tracts which they disperse shall be
taken from this catalogue. There are, probably, many per-
* One of the rules of the schools was as follows : " The children of Roman
Catholic parents, and of those who are members of the National Church of
Scotland, will be allowed to attend their respective places of worship on
Sundays, instead of going with the other children to the English cathedral,
and the former (and if the parents should desire it, the latter also,) will be
(xempted from learning the catechism of the Church of England."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 103
sons to whom such restrictive provisions may appear rather
in the light of an objection than of an advantage, but they
might be led, perhaps, to view the subject very differently,
if they saw it more in its details. Among the religious wares
which are circulated in these days with an unwearied zeal,
there are too many which are unsound, and the practised
hand can readily detect in what forge they have been fabri
cated, and what peculiar interests they have been calculated
to serve. And hardly is there a more imperative point of
duty in the work of promoting religion, than to guard against
the insinuation of adulterated materials. I had intended to
exhibit some specimens of this nature, and to have left it to
the judgment of the reader, to pronounce whether a clergy
man, at least, may not be pardoned for some jealous anxiety
with respect to the quality of the food which is to be given to
his flock. But I should have swelled this note too far, and
upon this occasion I forbear. Volumes, indeed, might be writ
ten to point out the hurtful effects which arise from the man
ner in which particular doctrines (relating chiefly to conver
sion, regeneration, and what is called assurance,) are warped,
upon the danger of mixing in with things spiritual and unseen,
the gross alloy of physical causes, and the meretricious excite
ment of the imagination ; upon the temerity, pregnant with
mischiefs to the cause of religion, which seats itself in the
chair of inspiration, and challenges to enjoy those favours
which were peculiar to the times of visible interposition and
direct revelation from on high. Volumes might be written
upon the shades and gradations of these mistakes in religion,
upon the effects of adopting a certain turn of phraseology,
and wearing the marks, as it were, of affinity to this school of
doctrine, upon the system of precisely identifying the success
of this school with the extension of the gospel. But let it be
well remembered, on the other hand, that there is a far more
usual and less excusable manner of promoting error or ex-

104 MEMOIR OF
travagance in religion. It is by turning our own backs upon
it, by coldness and indifference to the characteristic doctrines
of the Gospel. The comforts of the Gospel will be sought, and
if food be withheld in one quarter, it will be asked for in another.
I am aware that such observations as the foregoing often bring
upon the clergy the charge of broken charity. And I take
the risk. I do more. I boldly plead not guilty. We are
the special guardians of sound doctrine ; we are pledged in
the most solemn manner to execute our trust in this point.
Charity in religious matters is not indiscriminate approbation.
Charity has no field where this exists, no subject of trial. It
is the delicate part of true charity, while she earnestly con
tends for a sound faith, to go fearlessly on to her mark, and
to keep clear, at the same time, from all animosity of feeling,
from all harshness of thought or expression, from all spirit
of misconstruction or ill-will. ' And, at least, it is no worse
charity in us to uphold vigorously what we conceive to be a
right system, than in others sedulously to undermine it."
For several years, beginning in 1823, he also took his turn,
once a fortnight, at a weekly service which he established at
a sort of a poorhouse, called the Quebec Asylum, or mOre
familiarly the Red House, by which name it has been men
tioned before, nearly two miles from his residence. At all
these new openings, he seems to have begun by going back,
in his teaching, to " the first principles of the doctrine of
Christ," so as to insure a good foundation for future labours.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 105

CHAPTER VII.
Second visit to Gaspe' — Journey to York — Visitation of Eastern townships,
and district of Quebec.
In the autumn of 1826, the Archdeacon made a second visi
tation of the district of Gaspe", in the whole of which, owing
to some unfortunate occurrences, there was not at that time
one resident clergyman. He obtained a passage in a small
vessel belonging to the provincial Government, which was
going to Halifax, and called for him, on her return from that
place, to take him to Quebec. He visited all the places where
congregations had been formed, and went as far as Nouvelle
in the Bay of Chaleurs, administering the Sacraments and other
ordinances, and enquiring into all that concerned the welfare of
the Church. Speaking of the congregation at St. Georges Cove,
to whom he again preached in French, he says: " The little
chapel was very full, and the people were all glad to have
the services of the Church performed among them again.
The great body of them could be easily kept fast in their
attachment to her, if she could afford them some regular care
and attention. It is a defect in our system that we have no
workmen of a humbler class whose services might be dispos
able for purposes like these, and that people living scattered
in new and small settlements must go without religious ordi
nances, if they adhere to the Church. We ought to have
deacons, as a distinct order, and persons ought to be admit
ted to it for particular objects, whose pretensions are not such
as to allow of their looking higher. At any rate we might
H

106 MEMOIR OF
have catechists acting as lay-readers ; and, if such a system
had been organized and carried into effect in time, it might
have gained us some members, and preserved to us a great
many more. While we leave the people unprovided, how
can we blame them for using the only means within their
reach, and how can we expect that they can transmit to their
children any attachment to a system, or veneration for a
Church, in the ordinances of which they have few or no
opportunities of partaking ?'' Another httle extract will
shew the effect upon his mind of his admiration of striking
scenery : " It is a romantic little spot, and put me in mind
of some of the scenes of Salvator Rosa. Its general character
is not unlike that in which he lays the preaching of the
Baptist in the wilderness. It was ' to a desert place apart '
also that Christ retired to pray, and such solitudes assuredly
fit the frame of the mind to devotion. For the time, you do
not belong to the world."* At one place on the coast, he
* In one of the letters of his brother, Colonel Mountain, a very similar
expression occurs : " I quite agree with you as to the effect of scenery
upon the mind. I always feel, when alone (or genially accompanied)
with nature, whether in her grander or gentler moods, nearer to
nature's God, soothed and raised in feeling and resolve. Strange and
humiliating, that the being who stood, almost as an angel, upon yon hill,
should become again a monster on transition to the tracasseries of life
and the trammels of office. But so it is with human nature, save with the
happy few who have overcome their nature." There was a wonderful
similarity of taste and sympathy between these two brothers, and I am
tempted to give an extract from another letter in a similar strain, dated
Simla, May, 1849- " My dearest brother, This is a most lovely morning,
and all nature rejoices, and I would fain give you greeting 1 Many a day
must elapse before these lines meet your eye, but when they do, if ever they
do, it may be, perchance, on as sweet a morn. Oh! it is a great privilege
to retain freshness of mind, power of enjoyment, appreciation of the works
of God. Nothing so lames the elasticity of spirit necessary for this accessi
bility to pleasurable feeling, as the being use" in the world, as the con
sciousness of sin ; but weighty cares and anxieties in continued wearing
course and weak health, are also lamers of the spirit, and you and our
dear Care as much perhaps, losers of many sources of pleasure around from

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 107
mentions a person who " officiated very respectably as clerk,
but in the churching of women, being determined to avoid
the singular, said, ' and let our cries,' etc."
Part of the voyage round the coast was performed, as before,
in an open boat, but at Perce" he was persuaded to take pas
sage in a small decked vessel, where he suffered the greatest
discomfort from " dirt, closeness, evil odours, sea-sickness,
tedium, and utter loneliness as to all sympathies of taste and
feeling," amid which he says, " my thoughts turned to my
own dear and happy home, and all the blessings, — one there
was very prominent in the picture, — which God has given
me there. But you must not suppose that I allowed the
contrast to produce any present impatience or dejection in
my mind ; for though I know full well that there are many
occasions when I do not behave as I ought to do, yet, when
the discomforts and inconveniences of travelling begin to be
serious, I make it a practice to think of the real and severe
sufferings to which others are exposed, and it is a rule which
can hardly fail to reconcile the mind to these lesser evils."
One more extract will shew, like this, that he was not un-

the latter causes, as I from the first. But, thanks be to God and to my
earthly father who took pains to cultivate in me a love of nature, I do yet
feel, despite the writhing effect of my own sins and follies, the suscepti
bility of delight in the beauties of the creation, and particularly in the
genial influences of morning and evening." In a letter dated in 1824, the
younger brother thus expresses himself: "There are many points of
resemblance between us ; the same things give us pain and pleasure ; the
same tincture of romance, the same chivalrous feeling, the same respect for
the olden time, the same enthusiastic love and early perception of the
beautiful, the gentle, and the peculiar in nature, in art, or in human charac
ter, the same love of justice and indignation of injustice, live in both our
breasts ; in yours, enriched by originality of humour, supported by talent,
softened by patient temper, regulated by habitual piety, and always subser
vient to the great end of your existence, the good of others, and the care
of your own soul. * * * I have often been moved, even to tears, by
¦ accidental circumstances, such as a fine sunset or sunrise, the sudden view
of sublime scenery, or the magnificence of a storm."

108 MEMOIR OF
mindful of his own failings. " I laid my hands upon a book,
the only one in a room where I was waiting, and just turn
ing the leaves over to see the order and distribution of the
contents, I stumbled upon a passage at once, treating directly
of a fault of which I had that very day pronounced myself
not guiltless ; and reading on, I found what was calculated
to benefit me, and I hope may have done so."
Early in 1829, the Archdeacon was sent by the Bishop to
settle a dispute respecting the site of a church at a settle
ment some distance above Bytown, and took occasion to visit
the other settlements on the Ottawa River, — Hull, St. An
drews, and Lachute, — preaching everywhere, according to his
usual practice, as well as inspecting schools and the affairs
of the Church generally. The only clergyman resident on
the east side of the Ottawa was at St. Andrews, Hull being
served from Bytown. A similar dispute caused a journey
to Rawdon on his way home, to which place he was driven
by the rector of Montreal, from whom he derived much help
in the object of his visit. Sorel and Three Rivers were also
visited. He had gone to Bytown by way of Cornwall and
Hawkesbury, and the journey between these two places was
performed on horseback. He passed through Glengarry,
where he called on the Roman Catholic Bishop McDonell,
who received him " in his frank and friendly way, assisting
himself to unstrap my valise, and giving directions, in Gaelic,
to his people, about a little repair required in one of the
straps. He made me stay to dine with him. The Bishop
said a short grace in English like our own, and after dinner
proposed the health of our Bishop." *
* When the first Bishop of Quebec arrived there in 1793, the Roman
Catholic Bishop appeared unfcignedly rejoiced, and greeting him with a
kiss on each cheek, declared that it was high time that he should come to
keep his people in -order. The following letter addressed soon afterwards
to his lordship will exhibit a proof of the same spirit of friendliness :
" llonseigneur, j'ose me flatter, d'apres les temoignages sensibles de
votre estime dont notre communaute' fut honore' lorsque votre seigneurie

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 109
A winter journey to the capital of Upper Canada, in
January, 1829, is the next of which I have any account.
It was difficult and fatiguing after entering Upper Canada,
where recourse was had to wheels. The object of this jour
ney was to confer, by the Bishop's desire, with the Lieuten
ant Governor of Upper Canada, whose guest he became, and
the Archdeacon of York, on measures to be taken respecting
the Clergy Reserves. On the way down, he had for a
fellow-passenger " the Scotch minister of Kingston, whose
movements were caused by the same competition on the part
of the kirk which produced my own journey. We did not
touch upon this topic, however, and got on very harmoniously
together, our conversation being, in a great measure, relig
ious, and our views, as far as they were mutually developed,
very much the same. * * * When I was at  , on
my return to the inn from drinking tea with Mr.  , I
engaged the landlady, who is of our own Church, in conversa
tion respecting her attention to her religious duties, and the
religious care of the family and household. Speaking of Mr.
 , she said he was ' a fine man and a good man,' but
she might go to hear him seven years without having the
same insight into the truths of the Gospel, and the importance
of attending to them, as in this short familiar conversation
with me. Do not think that I mention this with any feeling
of vanity, or that it inspired any feeling of the sort. I

nous fit la faveur d'entrer dans notre monastere, qu'elle voudra bien
agr<5er l'honorable et gracieuse liberty que nous donne le renouvellement
d'annee pour nous procurer 1'indicible satisfaction de lui presenter nos
tres humbles hommages et assurances des voeux que nous adresserons au
ciel pour sa pr^cieuse conservation et prospe>ite' de son illustre famille.
C'est avec ces vifs sentimens que nous avons l'honneur d'etre, avecle plus
profond respect, monseigneur, de votre seigneurie les tres humbles et tres
ob^issantes servantes, Sr. Th^rese de J^sus, Sup. aux Ursulines des Trois
Rivieres, le 30 DiScembre 1794."
A very similar letter was addressed to his lordship, about two years' later,
by the successor of this lady.

110 MEMOIR OF
assure you it only made me humble, and partly sad, to think
how great a responsibility attaches to us, if so much may be
done by opportunities so often neglected by us all, and partly
thankful that I had turned the half hour to so good account.
It also led me to reflect how very, very faulty many of our
clergy are, in firing over the heads of our audiences. Do
not shew this to any body. * * * I have often reflected
since I left you upon your labour and persevering assiduity
in making that transcription (of a series of lectures for Saints'
Days) and upon many other testimonies of your goodness and
your love. All the little difficulties which this winter journey
has presented remind me of those far more serious ones which
you encountered to visit me in my illness at Hatley. Let us
always most dearly cherish a tender mutual affection, and
unreserved mutual confidence ; and do not think that I love
my family the less because the duties to which I am called
draw me away from their society much more than accords
with my own desires. Domestic affections are the first
earthly comfort that I have, and they are, indeed, so sancti
fied when cultivated under the guidance of religion, that they
are not merely worldly ; but no interfering claim of domestic
tie or duty ought, according to the conviction of my con
science, to lessen the amount of service which I actually
perform as a minister of Christ. ' He that loveth father or
mother more than Me is not worthy of Me,' and in competi
tion with that service, we must hate, in figurative language,
all our nearest and dearest connections, and our own lives
also, or we cannot be His disciples. But the domestic love
of one who feels this conviction is more worth having than if
he did not feel it. We will talk these things over when we
meet." Early in 1829, another visitation of the Eastern townships
was undertaken. Passing through Three Rivers, the Arch
deacon instituted the new rector of that place, the Rev. S. S.
Wood, who accompanied him to Shipton. At Drummond-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. Ill
ville the same ceremony was performed for Mr. Wood's
successor, the Rev. G. M. Ross. The number of resident
clergy in the St. Francis district had been increased, since
the Archdeacon's last visit, from three to four, by the appoint
ment of the Rev. A. H. Burwell to Lennoxville. The pro
vision for the maintenance of schools under the auspices of
the Royal Institution seems to have been much larger than
has since been the case, though the expenditure was not
perhaps in every case justified by the results. A great
deal of business arose out of their inspection. The Arch
deacon visited all the stations of the clergy, and preached in
all their churches (there were five in the district), and
in several school-houses. But his chief care seems to have
been bestowed on destitute settlements. In this way he had
spent a Sunday at Nicolet, and officiated in Shipton, Mel
bourne, and Durham (his labours in these three townships
being shared by Mr. Wood). Writing of a visit to one of
these, he says : "It was a very humble cottage,* but there
were plenty of hot cakes, and a most cordial welcome, which,
with the opportunity of a kind of pastoral conversation with
people who rarely see a clergyman, and gladly avail them
selves of it, made me feel as happy as a king. I have indeed
often felt that if I had not other duties marked out for me, I
would gladly devote myself to such scattered sheep as these
about the country ; and I am well persuaded that a clergy
man who would give himself to the work, and engage, at
once with kindness and zeal, in guiding and gathering them
* At a house where they slept, having reached it at two A.M., " though
all else was comfortable enough, we detected the signs of pre-occupancy in
the sheets, which deterred us from going between them, and inspired W.
with the following parody, with which he greeted me in the morning :
No dirty sheet encircled my breast,
With no quilt or blanket I wound me,
But I lay like a clergyman taking my rest,
With my camlet cloak around me,"

112 MEMOIR OF
together, would decidedly fix them by degrees in regular
habits of religion and compliance with all the ordinances of
the Church. We settled what psalms should be sung, and
proceeded to the school-house, which was excessively full. *
* * ' On the way back I stopped to call on a family which
I had not had time to visit in going, and in which I had bap
tized the mother and several children at once, in 1823.
These persons, or the survivors of them, — for the mother was
dead, — I wished to remind of their baptismal covenant, and I
found other work besides in the house, for the step-mother
was seemingly in a hopeless consumption, and willingly re
ceived my ministrations, added to which there was a young
infant to be baptized." At Eaton, mention is made of a
Scotch widow* " whose zeal and perseverance in attending
the services of the Church are so great, that at certain seasons,
she makes light of wading a ford on foot above her knees,
having previously walked in an overflowed path for about a
mile, and this she does without ' undressing ' her legs or feet,
which the stony bottom would render very painful in its con
sequences. She told Mr. Taylor that she was once in her life
subject to rheumatism, and that she did not know what had
cured her, unless these aquatic walks had done it." At
Lennoxville the Archdeacon assembled the clergy of the dis
trict together for mutual conference, after divine service, and
he recommended it to them, " to appoint quarterly meetings
with each other, read over together their ordination vows,
confer on all points of pastoral interest or difficulty, and hold
a public service on a week day." The last services per
formed in the St. Francis district were at Hatley, where the

* I remember, many years after this, seeing an Irish widow at Lake Beau-
port who had brought two of her children, when a snow storm had blocked
up most of the roads, a long distance, which in winter could never be tra
versed but on foot. On my remarking that she must have left home early
in order to reach the church when she did (soon after ten o'clock) she said
1 Well, we set off about six ' "

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 113
Archdeacon instituted Mr. Johnson to the. rectory, and " was
called upon, without previous notice, to preach two sermons
at the dedication, as they term it, of the new church. They
know little or nothing of our form of consecration by the
Bishop, and the opening service with sermon is considered
by them as the dedication." At this point he passed into
the Montreal district, preaching in school-houses at Water
loo Village and Granby, and in a church at West Shefford.
At Yamaska Mountain, (to which, at his suggestion, the
name of Abbottsford was afterwards given, the Rev. J.
Abbott being at that time the missionary of the place,) there
was a church, of which it is remarked, "Many of our churches
in this diocese are not placed according to rule, their steeples
being at the east end, and the communion-tables at the
west ; but in this instance, it seems to have been resolved
to be right in one of the two points, for both are placed
together, the recess for the altar being in the lower part of
the tower, which is at the farther end from the entrance."
At Granby, having occasion to ask for a pen, in transacting
some business respecting the Clergy Reserves, one was
brought to him made out of an eagle's plume, which sug
gested the following lines :
" How fleet is a glance of the mind 1
Compared with the speed of its flight,
The tempest itself lags behind,
And the swift- winged arrows of light." — Cowpeb.
Trace my thoughts, thou eagle plume,
Faj' to those I love they fly ;
Ne'er shalt thou thy flights resume,
Traveller of the boundless sky.
Fleeter than thy flights of yore,
Speed our thoughts and farther range,
Traverse time remote, explore
Space, and ah 1 remember change.

114 MEMOIR OF
Years, 0 years, for ever fled !
Thought can all your track pursue ;
Sleepers with the peaceful dead,
Thought full well can picture you !
Homeward still the wanderer's care
Flies athwart this waste of snow ;
When, he knows not, knows not where
Fate may deal some withering blow.
Wanderer, cast thy care on One
Who to care for thee descends ;
Think what He for man has done,
Trust to Him thy home and friends.
Lift, 0 Lord, our thoughts on high,
Teach our truant hearts to soar ;
Thought can pierce beyond the sky,
Pierce where change shall be no more.
Lord of lords, and King of kings,
Bear us all our journey's length ;
Bid us ride "on eagles' wings,"
Sheath us in eternal strength.
At Abbottsford he preached on prayer, " and there was a
woman in the congregation whom Mr. S. observed to have
been repeatedly in tears, and on his enquiring who she was,
we found she had been a careless person in religion. If
those tears were like the tears which washed the feet of the
Saviour, this was a day which I ought thankfully to note.
How many days might ungrudgingly and gladly be given to
be rendered instrumental in an event which causes 'joy in
the presence of the angels of God !' "
From Abbottsford the Archdeacon proceeded to Dunham,
where he preached, and afterwards addressed the people on
the duty of contributing to the support of divine worship.
Here again the rector was instituted, a measure for the
legal erection of parishes according to the establishment of
the Church of England, on an extended scale, having been

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 115
recently adopted by the Government. The same ceremony
was performed, farther- on in the journey, at Clarenceville
and Sorel. The rectory of St. Armand had been established
at an earlier date. To this place the Archdeacon was driven
by the Rev. James Reid (who had come over to Dunham to
meet him) the successor of Bishop Stewart at Frelighsburgh,
of which he still holds the charge.* Between him and the
Archdeacon there always existed a strong mutual respect and
regard. They " spent the evening with a family who really
are patterns of what such families should be. All that they
possess is the fruit of the father's own industry blessed from
above, for he made his war originally upon the forest, with
no resources but the weapon with which he waged it. All
within the house was plain, substantial, plentiful, orderly and
neat. The father of the family is a placid, benevolent, and
humble-looking man, with his grizzled hair smoothed down
upon his forehead, and /ailing behind in cleanly locks upon
his collar. All the eleven children, several of whom are grown
up, are exemplary young people. The girls are among Mr.
Reid's church singers, and their father is one of his church
wardens. The farm is large, fruitful, and well-stocked, with
appendages of orchards, etc. The whole family are steadfast
church-people, and such as we should wish church-people to
be ; they are devout, but in a sober, settled, and enduring
way, and the blessing of God seems, as it were, to rest visibly
upon the house. Mr. Whitwell came up to meet me from
Philipsburgh. Mr. Reid's infant was baptized, and I was one
of the sponsors. We must bear our god-children in mind,
for although we have not perhaps undertaken the office in
any case where we are called upon to interfere, we ought not
to lose sight of our obligations. There is one way in which
we can always remember those with whom we have contracted
* Since these words were written, this venerable man has rested from his
labours.

116 MEMOIR OF
this voluntary relationship. I preached, and after church
visited the school and some of the families in the village with
Mr. Reid, who drove me to the house of his other church
warden, where I was to sleep on the road to Philipsburgh.
He is a very substantial person, lately married to an
American, a warm-hearted woman, who is an episcopalian.
The Bishop is an especial favourite of hers, and nothing seems
so much to delight her as to get a clergyman under her roof.
The comfort and feeling of confidence which is engendered
by church-fellowship and community of religious sentiment
may furnish an idea of the happiness of Christian society at
large, if it were more like one fold under one Shepherd, for
which I firmly believe that episcopacy must be the common
bond of external union, and that the correction of prevailing
lax notions respecting irregular assumptions of the ministry
must be an indispensable pre-requisite. God remove such
faults among ourselves as help to obstruct a consummation
so devoutly to" be wished ! I was pleased to see in this house
the retention of old customs brought from the home of our
fathers. The wall of the room was decorated with the word
' Christmas ' in large letters, and some ornamental flourishes
wrought with some evergreen plant or creeper. It had been
put up at that season, and suffered to remain."
After the usual duties at Philipsburgh, the Archdeacon was
driven by an American clergyman, who had come across the
lines purposely to meet him, to Clarence ville, where this gen
tleman took part in the service, " having no sort of scruple
about praying for King George." At the two churches in
Mr. Townsend's mission, at St. John's, Chambly, (where some
divinity students were under the charge of Mr. Braithwaite)
and Sorel, similar duties were performed, and the Archdeacon
had now visited all the parishes and missions south of the St.
Lawrence. The number of clergy was fourteen in all, and
these, with one on the Ottawa, and three on the north shore
of the St. Lawrence, made up the whole number in Lower

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 117
Canada, with the exception of those resident at Quebec and
Montreal. The last letter written on this journey is dated
25th of February : " I preached at- Sorel yesterday, and
instituted and inducted Mr. Jackson, at whose house I was
quartered. It was, you remember, St. Matthias's Day. There
was a very good congregation, and the singing, accompanied
by instrumental music, was, for a country church, excellent.
Part of the service was chanted, and an anthem was performed.
This afternoon I preached in the diminutive stone church at
Riviere du Loup, to a congregation of forty-two persons.
Small as this church is, and without steeple or tower, I
like it better than the township wooden churches. I cannot
avoid attaching the idea of something trumpery, and as it
were a make-shift, to a wooden building, however neatly
finished. This little church has very thick stone walls,
and looks as if it belonged to institutions on a permanent
foundation. I am obliged to confess, however", that these walls
were cracked, and the churchwardens, with the concurrence
of the minister, made application to me for aid towards repair
ing them." This aid the Bishop afterwards granted, on the
condition of local, exertion being made for the object.
The account of this journey was embodied in a report to
the Bishop, which was published* by the S. P. G., from the
concluding portion of which I make the following extract : —
" That the Church, speaking generally, is in a positively prosperous and
flourishing condition in the tract of country comprised in this visitation, is
a belief of which severe and impartial truth will not permit us to lay the
flattering unction to our souls :
" That her condition here, as in other parts of the diocese, would have
been more flourishing and more firm, if she had not been unfairly attacked
in the province and unfairly represented at home ; if encouragement had
not been afforded by circumstances to continue this system of aggression;
if her rights as an establishment had not been suffered to be so long and
* See Annual Report for 1830, Appendix, pp. 110 and seq., where will
also be found some regulations for catechists in the diocese of Quebec,
drawn up by Archdeacon Mountain.

118 MEMOIR OF
loudly questioned, and the various mischiefs arising from the unsettled
state of the Reserves question, so unhappily, though no doubt unavoidably,
protracted, is what we may pronounce, I think, as confidently as we can
pronounce upon any thing which would have been, but is not :
" That the situation of her clergy is extremely difficult and trying, and
such as calls for the most devoted zeal and watchful circumspection for
themselves, but at the same time for much indulgence and allowance
towards them on the part of others; and that sensible good is effecting by
their means, both as it regards the salvation of souls, and the planting of that
Church whose system and all its provisions are to be directly regarded' as
instruments for that grand object, and whose success is only to be desired in
conjunction with it, — is what must, in common candour, be acknowledged."
In the course of this tour, the Archdeacon met with
exceedingly heavy storms and drifts, which, on one occasion,
suggested the following lines : —
THOUGHTS OF A TRAVELLER IN A VERY VIOLENT SNOW-DRIFT
IN LOWER CANADA.
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks, rage, blow,
I tax not you, ye elements, with unkindness. — K. Lear.
Rage on, thou whistling tempest !
Sweep high the snow in air ;
Ye blinding gusts, relent not,
I can your fury dare.
0 we might heed but little
The storms which blow above,
If man upon his fellow
Would breathe the breath of love 1
I pass the homes of peasants,
Thick scattered through the land :
I mark each spire, a banner
For God which seems to stand :
I hear the bell which calls them
To bend the duteous knee ;
I see them troop responding, —
Alas I it calls not me.
0 who can speak the sadness
That chills the Christian heart,
To think that in Religion
We have not common part !

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 119
That as you hold us outlawed
From holy Church and hope,
We mourn your deep enchantment
Beneath a sorcerer Pope, (<z)
'Tis not alone the children
Of old usurping Rome ;
They who her yoke have broken,
Are dissidents at home :
To thee, loved England's Zion,
On different sides alike
There stand whose will is evil,
Whose arm upraised to strike.
Each spokesman of the people
Insidious wrongs thee still ;
Each newsman's weekly trumpet
Remorseless blows thee ill :
Their teeth are spears and arrows,
Their tongue a sharpened sword : (4)
With mischief to thy children
Their ready lips are stored, (c)
0 for the dove's free pinion,
That I might, flee, and find
The rest (a") which you refuse me,
My brethren of mankind !
Ah me 1 the post of duty
Is not for soft repose :
Our term of toil and conflict
The grave alone can close.
0 sure and peaceful shelter,
Which none but God can break,
When all who lie expectant
The general trump shall wake :
Then in their promised country
Thine Israel shall be blest,
0 Captain of Salvation, — (e)
It is the land of rest.
a. Rev. xviii, 23 ; b. Ps. Ivii., 4 ; c. Ps. cxl. 3, 9 and Prov. xxiv, 2 ; d. Ps.
lv, 6 ; e. Heb. ii, 10.

120 MEMOIR OF
My God, before Thy greatness
No child of man may boast —
Yet look on us thy servants,
And go before our host : (a)
Beset by many a danger,
And soiled by many a sin,
0 from without defend us,
And purify within I
We have not wronged this people —
We have not proudly dealt ; —
Thy Word we freely tender,
If this a wrong be felt : (6)
We draw, to do them service,
Our wages from afar,
And rob, for this, the Churches (c)
Beneath a different star. (<2)
We count among our shepherds
True hearts the fold to tend ;
None to be spent more willing, (c)
None readier seen to spend :
Far through the gloom of forests
Their welcome steps are traced ;
Their hands the rose of Sharon
Plant in the howling waste. (/)
Turn, turn, good Lord, Thy children, (g)
That they may all be one,
E'en as, 0 Holy Father,
Thou and Thy -Blessed Son:— (A)
When shall we see the leopard
Lie gently by the kid,
And with the bear to pasture,
The fearless kine be bid ? (i)
Full many a stone of stumbling
Must from our path be hurled ;
Full many a fault be weeded
From this misjudging world;
a. Exod. xiii, 21., xiv., 19 ; b. 2 Cor. xii, 13 ; c. 2 Cor. xi, 7, 8 ; d. — alio
sub sole jacentes ; e. 2 Cor. xii, 15 ; /. Cant, ii, 1 ; Is. xxxv, 1 ; Deut xxxii
10; g. Lam. v, 21 ; h. S. John xvii, 11 ; i. Is. xi, 67 ;

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 121
Full many a speck be purged
From things we love and prize ;
Full many a schism repented
Ere that blest Sun shall rise.
Far hence the hollow seeming
Of unity and love,
Which leaves to choice of fancy,
Truths given from God above;
Far hence their pliant baseness,
Whom from their standard sways
Poor meed of fashion's favour,
Or breath of mortal praise.
The gems of truth to barter,
We purchase peace too dear ;
Pure faith and ancient order
Must still be guarded here ;
All, all, we love, we pray for,
All holy zeal commend : (a)
But for the rule delivered
Of old, we must contend. (6)
0 come, 0 come, blest Kingdom,
0 Saviour, bid it speed : —
One Spirit, one rite baptismal,
One hope be ours, one creed I (c)
'Tis then the Cross, blest ensign,
One way we all shall wave ;
Nor more with dissonant trumpets,
Proclaim its power to save.
In seemly strength and order
Shall march our conquering band ;
And Christ shall win the Paynim,
With followers hand in hand :
Till God shed wide His glory,
Earth's utmost verge to sweep,
E'en as the rolling waters
O'erspread the boundless deep, (d)
a. Gal. iv, 18 ; b. Jude 3, 9 ; c. Eph. iv. 4, 5 ; d. Hab. ii, 14.
I

122 MEMOIR OF
The Archdeacon returned to Quebec just in time to witness
the opening of a new parochial institution, an asylum for
female orphans belonging to the Church. This was under
taken by the zeal of several ladies, in whose labours Mrs.
Mountain took the prominent part. Some rooms were fitted
up over the National School, which had been removed from
Hope gate to its present site near St. John's gate. He
always took a special interest in these orphans, and the fifth
of March was an anniversary which he never forgot, and
which was observed, while he lived, by assembling the ladies
and children, as well as the friends of the institution, to whom
it was his practice to deliver an address whenever he was in
Quebec. In 1842, when he was prevented from doing so by
illness, he addressed a letter to the clergyman who was to
take his place, in order to convey to the ladies the assurance
of his regret that he was unable to be with them upon an
occasion connected with many interesting and many sacred
associations, adding, " I cannot unite, in bodily presence, in
the prayers which it will devolve upon you to offer, but although
absent in body, I shall be present in spirit. * * * I cannot
conclude without requesting you to say one word from me to
the children themselves. Although my occupations do not
permit me to visit themsoften, and my illness has prevented
me from seeing them for more than four months, let them
know that the Bishop of the Church cares for them, and
prays from his heart that they may please their Heavenly
Father, Who cares for them too, and may be enabled by His
grace, given for the sake of Christ, to make a good and dutiful
return to the ladies who have been so kind to them. To Him
I now commend both them and their benefactors." This insti
tution was removed, in 1862, to a wing of the Church Home,
which was formally opened on the 2nd August in that
year, after the service held in the cathedral to mark the
completion of the 50th year of the Bishop's ministry. That
day was also the anniversary if his union with her to whom

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 123
the asylum was chiefly indebted for its existence, but who
was not permitted to see it upon earth.
In June, 1829, the Archdeacon accompanied the Bishop
to York, for the purpose of assisting his lordship in the exam
ination of the candidates who were to be admitted to Holy
Orders at that place.* On this occasion they first became
acquainted with Sir J. Colborne, the Lieutenant Governor of
the province, whose guests they were, and who, like his pre
decessor, was sincerely attached to the Church, and anxious
to do his utmost for the cause of religion. I make extracts
from two letters written from York: " An Indian chief, called
Yellow-head, with four or five of his train, was introduced to
the Bishop by Sir J. C, and we had a good deal of conversa
tion with them through the interpreter. They were very
dark, and partook a good deal of the olive in their complexion.
They have recently become Christians, and the adoption of
Christianity is spreading most rapidly and Avith most blessed
effects, producing a marked and total change of character and
habits among the Indians in this province. The principal
instruments of this blessing have been persons in connection
with the Methodists ; but whoever they are, and whatever
mixture of error may be found in their opinions, we must
rejoice and thank God for what has been effected, and is now
proceeding. Our own mission among the Mohawks is pros
pering, and we have now sent another labourer there, who has
been among them some time learning their language, and
who brought testimonials to the Bishop in Mohawk as well
as English, (the Rev. A. Nelles, ordained Deacon on this occa
sion.) * * * * We had some conversation with a person
of the name of Jones, who, with his brother, was the chief
* In a letter to the S.P. G., the Bishop mentions having invited the Arch
deacon to accompany him on this occasion, not only as his examining
chaplain, but that he " generally might have the benefit of his counsel and
assistance, well knowing how valuable they would be whenever he needed
aid or advice which might be useful to himself or the Church."

124 MEMOIR OF
engine, in the first instance, of the conversion of the Missis-
sagas, settled, or as it is called, villaged, by Sir P. Maitland
on the river Credit. He told me that the number who had
embraced Christianity since the late impulse was given was
from twelve to fourteen hundred, including the children of
believers. We had also a visit from Mr. M., a Hungarian,
and once a Romish priest, who applied to the Bishop some
time ago, and has undergone a kind of probation, the result
of which is that the Bishop has felt satisfied in deciding to
ask the Society for £50 a year for him, in addition to what
the people on the spot will do. He is to continue officiating,
with a German translation of our Prayer book, to a large body
of settlers from Alsace, who are established at the lower end
of Lake Erie. * * * On Sunday I woke with a bad headache,
having sat up rather late in preparing notes to preach for the
ordination (for I have had no possible time to write a sermon);
and preach I did, thank God, though not without some little
degree of inconvenience, yet without any which was apparent
to others, but I found myself obliged to leave the church
immediately after the sermon. * * The Bishop, with his usual
kindness, provided a doctor, who unexpectedly marched into
my room, and prescribed just what I should have done myself
without him ; but I gained the advantage of having my malady
and symptoms, as well as the mode of cure, embellished with
sundry learned names." The other extract is from a letter
addressed to one of his children on her birthday, June 18,
1829 : " There are many celebrations, my sweet  , of
this day ; and I am not insensible to the glories of the public
anniversary: for the battle of Waterloo turned the fate of
the world, and the British arms were the instrument of Pro
vidence to strike a decisive and final stroke which changed
the whole aspect of European affairs. But the day has a
domestic interest which touches me more nearly, and my
thoughts are not occupied with scenes of carnage, or the
political effects which follow them : they fix themselves rather

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 125
upon my dear child, who is now both of an age and disposition
to have some serious thoughts of her duties to God and her
fellow-creatures. You may well believe that I do not forget
my child in my prayers ; never do I forget any of you ; but
I now specially pray for you that you may be happy here and
for ever ; that you may still advance in serving God as He
grants you year after year ; that His blessing and grace may be
with you through your time on earth, and that you may enjoy,
through your Saviour, an eternity of blessedness in Heaven. *
* * On Monday the 16th there was a confirmation at York.
Fifty-one persons were confirmed ; the sermon was assigned to
me, and the Bishop addressed an exhortation to the young
people. The next day there was a confirmation at a church
on the road called Yonge Street, seven miles from York,
and the church was consecrated at the same time. Lady
Colborne, her sister, and the children, went with us ; and we
filled two carriages ; the private tutor and one of the sons
going on horseback. The horsemen, being a little before us,
went to the house of a farmer, who is a most zealous church
man and a great promoter of schools and other good works,
but a strange kind of man, where, the conversation turning
upon religious subjects, Mr.  (the private tutor) asked
him if he had heard the Archdeacon's sermon on Sunday,
(meaning mine.) ' Why,' said the farmer, 'I thought you
were the Archdeacon.' Mr.  explained to him that he
had no pretensions to be so regarded.* ' Well, then,' said
he, ' you are some piece of the Bishop's furniture.' We
robed ourselves in a shed which stood in the church-yard,
there being no vestry-room, and proceeded to the solemnity
of consecration, a service in which I had never taken a part
before. It is extremely impressive, and we had Archdeacon
Strachan and two other clergymen with us, in their sur
plices. The sermon was again allotted to me, after which
* The gentleman referred to is now a Bishop.

126 MEMOIR OF
twenty-six persons were confirmed. * * * Upon the whole,
this is a residence in which I should delight to live and let my
children run loose, and in the neighbourhood of which we
might enjoy many agreeable walks and promenades ' en voi-
ture ou a cheval.' But the calls of duty fix my residence in
a town, and with all the manifold blessings and advantages of
a country life, it must be admitted that many more opportu
nities of personally doing good present themselves at Quebec
than at Stamford Cottage, not only to me, but to all of us.
And at any rate, we have abundant cause to be thankful
for the portion which we enjoy. We must cultivate our
rural predilections by driving out when we can, and once
in a while, on special occasions, making holiday in the
country." On their way back to Quebec, (where another ordination
was held on St. Peter's day) the Bishop and Archdeacon
took part in the " ceremony of taking possession of McGill
College," when the Archdeacon, in his capacity of Principal,
delivered an address, and conducted the devotions. "It was
an interesting occasion, and it is a nice place : I should have
no objection to live there, and fulfil my present nominal
charge. * * * Altogether we are pressed to pieces with people
and business." A confirmation was held at Montreal, when
the Archdeacon again preached.
It has been already mentioned that the Bishop had been
anxious all along for a division of the diocese. Having" so
far failed in the accomplishment of this desire, and feeling
strongly the great need of a resident Bishop in Upper Ca
nada, his lordship, after this visit to York, determined to
procure a house there, and divide his time between that place
and Quebec. In the summer of 1829, the Reverend Dr.
Mills, being about to visit England, was intrusted with a
commission to obtain the consent of the Imperial Govern
ment to the erection of a separate see ; and two years
later the Bishop himself went home chiefly for the same

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 127
purpose.* The difficulty of procuring the necessary funds
seems to have been an insurmountable obstacle.
Early in 1830, the Archdeacon made a circuit of the town
ships in the district of Quebec, south of the St. Lawrence,
where there was not one resident clergyman. They had, how
ever, received stated visits from a missionary of the S. P. G.,
whose time was chiefly so employed, but in these they shared
with the settlements on the north shore, so that the supply of
the ministrations of the Church was but scanty. This being
the first mention of these townships, I shall give some extracts
from a continuous account of the visit.
The Archdeacon left Quebec in his own vehicle on the 6th
March for West Frampton : baited on the road at St. Henry :
then " I betook myself very thankfully to my canister, and
doled out a cracker or two to the children of the house, as
well as some biscuit for myself, after which I begged for a
little milk, and this a pleasant-looking good-natured lass, as
there was none in the house, procured at once from the foun
tain-head ; — ' je m'en vais tirer la vache.' We baited again at
the toll-bridge on the River Etchemin at the house of Wood-
house, respecting whose family Mr. Archbold is interested.
I made the little girl whom he particularly mentioned say
her prayers, the belief, &c, to me in English, but it was in
miserably broken English. She seems to be almost losing
her own language. The people would take no payment.
They promised to come up to service the next day at West
Frampton, and I was much disappointed at not seeing them."
On Sunday, the 7th, he held service and preached at the house
of Mr. Ross at West Frampton, where sixty-five persons were
assembled, and " after service addressed the people in a more
familiar way respecting family prayer, service on Sundays,
teaching their children the catechism, preparing for the com-
* It was on the occasion of his lordship's return from this visit, that the
bells of the cathedral of Quebec rang out their first peal.

128 MEMOIR OF
munion, &c. There was a second service at which about fifty
persons were present, with sermon and catechising." An
appointment had been made for service at East Frampton,
the next day, but the Archdeacon was so unwell that he was
detained till the following day. The weather was such that,
when he got up in the morning, water freshly brought into the
room became crusted over in a few moments, and " I really
suffered in dressing, but it would be a shame indeed to
complain of suffering no worse than this, and a strange for-
getfulness of the charge of St. Paul to the Christian minister,
' thou, therefore, endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ.' On arriving at East Frampton, I was mortified to
learn that the people had assembled' the day before in a
strong muster to meet me, and that there was also a full
attendance at the school in expectation of my visit. To-day
I fear that I shall have hardly any congregation ; the people
waited so long yesterday, and so much snow has since fallen,
that I can hardly expect the settlers to come again. I have
been to the school." He had, however, a congregation of
thirty-five, children included, and then returned to West
Frampton, and on his way " passed the house of a settler
who had built his house not upon but against a rock, a huge
mass of stone forming one end of his dwelling, against which
he makes his fire, which, when the whole face of the mass is
heated, protects him against the most intense cold." The
whole of the 10th, from nine a.m. to half-past ten p.m., was
occupied by the journey to Aubert Galleon on the river
Chaudi£re, where, on the 11th, service was held, as well as
at a neighbouring settlement, with sermon and baptisms, fol
lowed by the examination of the school. The next note is
dated Broughton, 13th March: " I have only the time which
will be occupied by stowing away the things in the cariole
(the horse being at the door) to say that I am well, and I
hope not proceeding without, at least for the moment, doing
some good. God bless the seed which I scatter, and bring it

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 129
to effect ! I have had service this morning in the loft of a
mill, where I also baptized a child. I have thirty-five miles
to go before night, through desperately heavy wood-roads the
greatest part, I fear, of the way : snow-storms, as usual, have
escorted me on my route. Leeds, 14th. — I may as well see
the whole line of country through which the Protestant popu
lation is scattered, and add my report to that of others as a
ground for endeavouring to establish a mission here. Three
Sundays are not much to be away on such a circuit, when it
begins on a Saturday and ends on a Monday. It is, indeed,
very insufficient for all that is required. The heavy rain,
however, of last night and to-day is discouraging. The
people in New Ireland are all running into the wildest enthu
siasm : they have fourteen preachers, as I understand, among
them. I arrived here at about twelve o'clock last night. I
have been preaching here this morning, and am going on four
miles to preach at five this evening : to-morrow I expect to
preach twice, once at the end of my journey, at the house
of Mr. Lord in New Ireland, and once at Sergeant Lee's
on the way. As to my doing any of my writing, I see no
chance of it whatever, and pray tell the Bishop so. I wonder
what fresh disagreeable work awaits me, at which you hint in
your note. God grant me wisdom, perseverance, patience
and charity ! they are all wanted enough." One letter of
the series is unfortunately wanting, but the whole portion of
the county of Megantic (in which there was not a single
church) where there are now missionary stations seems
to have been visited. The last letter is dated St. Giles, 20th
March, and speaks of service at that place, in its neighbour
hood, and at Plomer Range in Inverness. A rough memo
randum of a report to the Bishop shews ten places in the
county of Megantic, besides Frampton, the Chaudi£re settle
ments, and St. Giles, at which service had been held. At
each place the congregation averaged from forty to one
hundred persons, and twenty-two children were baptized,

130 MEMOIR OF
although the Rev. R. Burrage had baptized about the
same number on a similar circuit, about two months before.
The Archdeacon appeals earnestly " for the establishment of
at least one resident missionary in this district, whose head
quarters should-be at Leeds. The charge is indeed much too
extensive, but an active and zealous missionary would, under
the divine blessing, prove a great comfort to the people and
effect much good, and there are many circumstances which
indicate that no time should be lost." He also adverts to
the spiritual destitution of the townships of Melbourne and
Shipton, mentioned in his former journal. Both these points
were soon afterwards gained.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 131

CHAPTER VIII.
Archidiaconal duties and journals, 1830.
The visits of the Archdeacon to the parishes and missions
within his archdeaconry were continually called for by the
necessity for taking measures for the establishment of new
stations, and sometimes by local difficulties which required
his presence in order to their removal. They were neces
sarily every way different from the visitations of an Arch
deacon in England, and he never followed the English prac
tice of assembling the clergy of any one district to receive a
charge. In this respect the visitations of colonial Archdea
cons are, perhaps with scarcely an exception, alike. But
he always had a note of certain points of enquiry or recom
mendation on which he took occasion to enlarge in private
conversation with them. These are mentioned in one of his
journals a£ being, "first, catechizing ; second, Sunday-school ;
third, pastoral visits from house to house ; fourth, preaching
at out-posts; fifth, observance of certain holydays ; sixth,
conformity of the people to certain ordinances, such as
the institution of sponsors, churching of women, etc., and
manner of obviating prejudices and difficulties, or of exercis
ing discretion in making out a case of necessity to dispense
with rules ; seventh, font for baptism ; eighth, ecclesiastical
dress, wearing of canonicals recommended in preaching at
out-posts and performing the occasional offices of the Church
in private houses ; ninth, family devotion, and attention, in
travelling, to the performance of family prayer and the read-

132 MEMOIR OF
ing of Scripture by the clergy in the houses where they pass
the night;* tenth, correspondence with the S. P. G."
He always kept notes, more or less full, of his journeys,
which took the shape of letters to his family, and from these
the foregoing extracts have been taken. About this time,
however, he began to endeavour, as he had leisure, to draw
up a more formal and official report of his journeys, addressed
to his Diocesan, and generally intended also for the informa
tion of the S. P. G. In June, 1830, he says, " I keep a
journal of my proceedings, but it is very different from any
that I have kept before, and I feel a difficulty in keeping it,
which makes it stiff and constrained. It may possibly be
sent home to the Society, and as the object of sending it is
that they may have something favourable or interesting to
tell the public about the Canadian Church, I ought to make
a good, or at least, decent figure, as the hero of my own tale ;
* * * the interest which we feel about religious objects, the
pains which we take to promofe them, the manner in which
we endeavour to let our light shine before men and to recom
mend the Church when we have to give an account of them
with our own pens, and when this account itself is to be cal
culated to recommend the Church at home, produce a divided
feeling between a natural backwardness, on the one hand, to
all semblance of puffing, and a desire, on the othe,r, to do
justice to the cause which we support, and to meet the expec
tations of the Society. A simple narrative of facts without a
single touch of description or a single glow of feeling would
be found cold and dry ; yet how far to indulge in description,
what subjects for description to select, how to carry the reader
into the interest of the scene and to sustain his attention with
out making more of one's own part in it than it deserves, or
* I have seen a note to a clergyman who, from being a comparative
Stranger to the state of things in a new country, might, it was feared, omit
attention to this point, in which it is suggested with great, kindness and
delicacy.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 133
more than one likes, — in short, without thinking one's self
egotistical, — are points which it passes my skill to manage
to my satisfaction." With this preface, I give some extracts
from the journal of 1830, which is the only one of this kind,
except that of the preceding year, which has come into my
hands. Leaving Quebec on the afternoon of St. John Baptist's
day, he spent one day at Three Rivers, where two divinity
students were under the charge of the rector. " It is an
arduous but a blessed task for which these young men are
training themselves, and all who pray for the peace and wel
fare of our Jerusalem should remember those who are (pre
paring to stand as watchmen upon her walls * * * At
Nicolet I had the satisfaction of finding the family engaged
in prayer, upon which even the Roman Catholic servants of
the house attend. I promised, if possible, to spend a Sunday
here on my return, and perform service in the church, which
depends upon such occasional visits. Much pains are taken
by the family of the seigneur to keep up a spirit of religion
among the scattered Protestant settlers, by the distribution
of the Scriptures, the liturgy, and tracts of the S. P. C. K.,
by instructing the children in the catechism, and by reading
the prayers of the Church and a printed sermon, coupled
with the performance of psalmody, at the house on Sundays.
Among the most constant attendants at this service are the
members of a family who occupy a solitary clearing back in
the woods, at a distance of from twelve to fourteen miles from
the spot, and who have no means of coming but on foot.
The man and his wife attend alternately, each accompanied
by some of the children. Upon some occasions they pass the
night on their way back at a house on the road, and when
ever the woman proceeds the whole way home, she is provided
with a candle, without which she will not venture through the
darkness and depth of the wood. * * * Nothing can be
more ugly or dreary than the swampy parts of the road to
Drummondville, yet along its edge, — as there is always some-

134 , MEMOIR OF
thing beautiful to be seen in creation, — besides some other
httle flowering shrubs, the lovely and blushing calmia, now in
the height of its flower, grows in the richest profusion. I
have often reflected with thankfulness on the circumstance
that whatever trifling privations and occasional little rough
nesses of travelling, just enough to do us good, we may en
counter in our circuits of official duty, yet go where we will,
we have the best which the country affords, our visit is
regarded as a special favour, our accommodation is zealously
studied. We often meet with discouragements, and some
times with opposition, in the discharge of our duty ; but how
different is our lot from that of the early planters of the faith
who were ' made as the offscouring of all things,' and from
that of many missionaries of modern times ? How careful
ought we to be to cultivate a spirit which could accommodate
itself to humbling circumstances and contemptuous treatment
in the world, and would ' know how to be abased ' as well as
' how to abound !' How watchful against the indulgence of any
habits or feelings which would unfit us for such humiliations,
and cause us, in the event of reverses in the Church, to shew
ourselves unprepared, unmeet to be the servants of a Master
Who ' came not to be ministered unto but to minister,' and
'had not where to lay His head!' Yet as long as we do
our duty, I am persuaded that we shall always meet with
kind treatment. * * *
" Sunday, June 27th. The Bishop in his instructions to
me had marked out this day to be spent at Drummondville,
on account of the absence of Mr. Ross. He has desisted
from attempting' two services in the day, from the difficulty
of collecting a sufficient congregation in the afternoon, most
of the people living at a considerable distance, and having
bad roads to pass. As the occasion, however, was peculiar,
and the days were at the longest, and as Mr. Ross's absence
might leave them some whole Sundays without service, I told
them, after the morning service, that if twenty of them would

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 135
attend in the afternoon, I would have a second. (There
were about sixty present in the morning.) One of the set
tlers answered, that ' he lived as far off as any other, and that
he, for one, would attend,' and trusting to this example, I
decided at once upon having service at three o'clock. I was
not disappointed, for there were about as many present as in
the morning. I visited the Sunday-school, and questioned
and instructed the children. As some of them ' came from
far ' and remained for the evening service, I was appre
hensive of their feeling the want of food, which a very few
shillings would have provided for them, and I gave directions
accordingly ; but only one could be prevailed upon to take
advantage of the offer, and the person who supplied him
refused to be paid. Mr. Ross has other preaching stations,
which he regularly attends. Every second Sunday he offici
ates at two different places, the nearest of which is fifteen
miles from Drummondville. The persons who conducted the
Sunday-school particularly expressed their want of a pre
scribed system, an example, among many others, which con
firms the useful character of the endeavours set on foot by
Mr. Archbold.* There are three brothers here, Canadians,
whose father was from France, all of whom are Protestants.
One of them is a churchwarden. The father, upon his first
arrival in the country, experienced some difficulty from the
priesthood respecting his marriage with a Protestant, and (as
the son told me) upon his applying to the Governor himself,
General Haldimand, for a license, and stating his case,
received a French Bible from his Excellency, who told him
' that it was the Word of God, and he ought to consult it.'
He appears to have profited by the advice, for all his children
were baptized and brought up in the Church of England.
" June 28th. For the first ten miles of the way to Mel
bourne, (to which a resident missionary had been recently
* The S. S. Association mentioned in p. 101.

136 MEMOIR OF
appointed,) the road lies through the woods. There are,
however, habitations lying some miles off the road, accessible
now by horse-paths, but not even thus in the first stage of the
settlement, when the inhabitants could not get backwards and
forwards except on foot, and in the wet season were in many
places up to their hips in water in doing so. Their provisions
and other necessaries they carried on their backs. Such are the
hardships which men will submit to with the prospect before
them of an independent provision to be transmitted to their
children, and such is the sustaining power of hope, applicable
to the highest purposes and objects to which the mind of man
can be directed. I stopped at the house of a man who is a
Roman Catholic, and whose daughter had just been driven
from his house, because he would have forced her into a
conformity to his religion. He had always expressed this
determination, and she had, in the perplexity of her trials,
more than once resorted to the expedient of feigning herself
sick, in order to avoid receiving her premiere communion.
It would have been right, no doubt, that instead of this she
should have at all hazards declared the truth ; but much
allowance must be made for her, and she has, at least,
evinced a resolute adherence to the dictates of her conscience.
His wife, a Norfolk woman, told me that his zeal was most
noisy and troublesome when he was in his cups. At other
times he was often very quiet in his family upon the subject,
but when he was in liquor, she said, then " Religion was all
the crack.' She said, however, that he had a great respect
for Mr. Wood, who is well known in all this part of the
country, who, she hoped, might come and see them and have
an opportunity of talking to him, for he had often declared
that Mr. Wood was ' the best man in the country, let who
will be the other.' '* * * After preaching in a school-
house twenty-two miles from Drummondville, I proceeded to
Melbourne ; * * * crossed the ferry in a little ticklish
canoe, in which it is the practice for the passengers to stand
upright, to see the new church at Richmond village.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 137
" June 29th. The church-building committee came to
meet me, according to appointment, and I trust that things
were put in train for the advancement of the work. * * *
After a good deal of conversation with Mr. F., chiefly with
reference to his approaching admission to Priest's Orders, I
set out for Sherbrooke. * * *
" July 1st. Divine service was appointed at six p.m., and
after my sermon I requested, acting in accordance with the
wishes of the Rev. E. Parkin, that the heads of families
would remain to consider some means for putting in better train
the temporal affairs of the Church, all whose affairs, indeed,
upon this spot (as cannot be wondered at after the defection
to Universalism of the pastor who was lately in charge) wear
an aspect disheartening to those who love her. Heresy run-
ing like wildfire through the neighbourhood ; many tossed to
and fro and ' carried about with every wind of doctrine '; many
' after their own lusts ' heaping ' to themselves teachers, having
itching ears'; two Univ-ersalist newspapers circulating in the
village itself ; among the adherents of the Church ' the love
of not' a few waxing 'cold'; the languishing condition of
religion intimated by the external face of things ; the build
ing out of repair and becoming unfit for service in severe
weather ; no collections established, nor any revenue raised
whatever for the support of the Church ; no churchwardens
appointed ; the last register of the mission carried off and
not returned ; the singing in the congregation faint or none ;
the burying-ground exposed without fence to protect the
graves of believers from being trodden by cattle or upheaved
by swine. * * * But God, if it be His pleasure, can
retrieve His Church from the worst circumstances, and lift
her up when she lieth in the dust. * * * Nothing can
be imagined more delightful than many of the landscapes on
the road from Sherbrooke to Hatley, if the fields were inter
sected by green hedges and scattered over with rural-looking
farm houses, and here and there an ancient seat, or a grey
K

138 MEMOIR OF
church-tower mantled with ivy. * * * But to conclude
this digression by bringing the whole question to its only sure
test, ' the fashion of this world passeth away,' and they who
' think that their dwelling-places shall endure from one gen
eration to another, and call the lands after their own names,'
leave only a monument of the vanity of human projects. It
is not, therefore, for the perpetuation of anything dear to our
particular associations, tastes, or prejudices, that our solici
tude ought to be felt, but rather for the extended knowledge
of the Word of the Lord which shall endure for ever, and
the advancement of that kingdom in unity and strength in
which 'there is neither Greek nor Jew, Barbarian, Scythian,
bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all.' " *****
" July 4th, Sunday. I performed the whole service at
Charleston, in the forenoon, to a congregation of upwards
of two hundred persons, whom I afterwards took the liberty
of addressing before they dispersed, to press upon them,
with some earnestness, the renewed cultivation of church-
singing. I was impelled to' do so by the mortifying occur
rence of a psalm having been given out, which, after a
distressing pause, was followed by my resumption of my own
part of the service, not a single voice having been raised. *
* * There are certainly some truly pious church-people
in this village. Immediately after service I drove to the
new church in Compton, which is quite in an unfinished
state, and had never been used, but a temporary arrange
ment was made for the accommodation of minister and people.
The number present was probably something more than one
hundred. It would have been greater, but a preacher of the
sect who call themselves Christians preached twice in the
township this day, because some mistaken" information had
got abroad that our service was to be at four instead of three.
He would otherwise have dispensed with his second perform
ance, for all or the greater part of his hearers would have
come to hear me, as it is a prevailing principle to go to hear

G. J. MOUNTAIN^ D.D. ] 39
everybody ; and he intended to have left them time to do so
after twice hearing himself. Several of them came dropping
in very late, and the preacher himself just as I was uttering
the last sentence of my sermon. A psalm was sung, and a
few persons had prayer-books, of whom three or four made
the responses. A clergyman established as the pastor of
these people must first win them to attend diligently upon
his ministrations by his acceptableness in his public perform
ances and the personal respect which he acquires among
them, and may then succeed in teaching them a right know
ledge and a just value of the Church and her ordinances. It
is a great point if he is an able preacher, or, as some of them
express it, a smart speaker, but it is of more importance still
that he should be discreet, circumspect, spiritual, zealous and
laborious. The Americans expect a great deal in a clergy
man, and it is useless for a man to go among them in that
capacity who will not seem to be truly a man of God. A
hypocrite may sometimes succeed with them. A careless
worldly clergyman never can. A sincerely devout and ex
emplary pastor will seldom fail to build up the Church among
them, and to gain the respect and goodwill of those who con
form but partially or not at all. Upon the whole, however,
it must be plainly confessed that the difficulties of the minis
try are great in the missions of this diocese. * * * On
my way back I drove round a few miles to see a poor afflicted
man crippled with rheumatism, whom I had once known in
Quebec. We found his wife at a house on the way, where
my friend who drove me from Charleston went in, and waited
for my return while I drove the woman on in the waggon.
The poor man and his wife most thankfully received my
ministrations, and I baptized their two youngest children.
They occupy a quiet and secluded spot, beyond which the
road does not pass, and their farm would be a productive
one if they had a hand to till it. But it is the suffering and
want endured by one portion of God's creatures which afford

140 MEMOIR OF
exercise to the benevolence of another, and this poor family
have found some neighbours who have shewn them great and
continued kindness.
" July 5th. I met this morning the committee for build
ing the academy at Hatley, the frame of which, surmounted
by a cupola, is already erected. The whole affair seems to
be in proper train, and it is provided that the head-master
shall be a clergyman of the Church of England, although, in
the first instance, it has been considered that the inadequate
state of the funds may warrant an exception to this rule.
After taking leave of the Rev. T. Johnson, I got away
about the middle of the day, a single-horse waggon having
been engaged for me, which was driven by the church-clerk.
His house being on our road, I went in and sat with his wife
while he got his dinner. She has been in a declining state
for many months, but she bears her burthen with a willing
spirit and is constantly occupied in reading her Bible. I
had much satisfaction in conversing and praying with her,
and was interested by her relation of an occurrence which
took place upon her first settling in this neighbourhood, then
a howling wilderness of forest, about thirty years ago. It is
well known that trees which grow thickly together depend
partly upon each other for support, and many of them have
no depth of root to resist the action of a tempestuous wind,
when they are exposed to it by clearing. Thus, when a road
has been opened through the woods, a tall hemlock is often
seen uptorn and prostrate ; his roots, with the spaces between
them filled up by earth, presenting a flat surface, like a table
turned over, perhaps ten or twelve feet in height. The httle
tenement which this woman occupied was, of course, in the
settler's first establishment, upon the edge of the forest.
One night, when the wind blew violently, and, as it is some
times expressed, the bones of the trees began to crack, the
woman, who was alone with her children, became terrified,
expecting to be crushed by their falling upon the house, and

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 141
she took her children without their reach, into a little clear
ing in front. But here it soon began to rain heavily. She
then considered that she was exposing the children to a
certain evil and to almost certain danger of illness by suffer
ing them to remain all night in the wet, and took them at
once back to the house, confiding the issue to the Providence
of God. The storm raged on with unabated fury, and the
threatening sounds continued among the trees ; but she assured
me, with evident marks of feeling, ia^voev yeiaaaoa, that she
never in her life felt more strongly the presence of God, or
reposed more securely in His protection. * * * I had
been pleased during this day by an anecdote (new to myself)
of Sir H. Wotton, which I saw in a printed sheet, posted up
in the house where we baited. Being asked to pronounce
whether a papist could be saved, he replied, ' You can be
saved without knowing that.' We may, indeed, go farther,
for surely there are papists of whose salvation we have reason
to enjoy a comfortable hope, however deeply we may lament
their errors ; but still the answer is excellent. I gather
something from all sorts of sources as I go along. * * *
" There is no encouragement at present in Stanstead for
planting the Church, there being no more than three or four
even nominal adherents to her communion. The British
Methodists and Close-communion Baptists are the sects who
occupy the ground. There are however many persons, no
doubt, who (as they would express it) have never joined
any society ; and are pretty equally accessible by all except
Roman Catholics. The Church has been planted with suc
cess where there was no better promise at the beginning.
But there is no need to obtrude her unsought, where there
are so many demands for her aid which cannot be answered.
" July 6th. After crossing Lake Memphramagog we en
tered Potton. * * * The road passed through a kind of
defile, magnificently wooded on one side, but shut in on the
other by prodigious bristling crags, rocky, rugged and pre-

142 MEMOIR OF
cipitous,' which rise at a short distance, running parallel with
the road and the opposite ridge. Over the highest point of
this vast and rude elevation, we saw, ' sailing with supreme
dominion,' a bird which we could discover to be a white-tailed
eagle. We saw afterwards partridges and wood-pigeons,
perhaps destined to be his prey. Wonderful and warning
extent of the curse which came from sin,, pervading all
creation and causing it to groan and travail together in pain !
We met several waggon-teams, and one (which I never saw
before in this country) drawn by six horses, drawing flour
and cases of merchandize from Montreal. The struggles of
the poor loaded animals in these dreadful roads, and up the
hills which constantly occur, did not tend to do away the
reflections suggested by the eagle and his prey. At present
the road is such that, with a light load and an excellent horse,
we could not effect more than fifteen miles in the first six
hours. * * * At Frelighsburgh there is a tombstone on
which the death was recorded by saying that at such a time
' her ethereal part became seraphic' * * * * It is
gratifying to see the number of schools established through
out the .townships, and increased by the late grants of the
provincial parliament. Few or none of them, I believe, are
inefficient. The teachers are generally Americans, and the
books used are chiefly procured from the States. But no
republican kind of objection to render obeisance seems to be
inculcated among them, for the little barefooted boys and
girls rarely fail to make their bow and curtsey to the travel
ler as he passes. The former is frequently accompanied by
taking off the hat, and is performed by a jerk both forward
and downward of the head, very zealously respectful, but
almost ludicrous in its effect. But if they are trained to
'honour all men' and 'love the brotherhood,' the eccentricity
of their salutation should not be sufficient to provoke a laugh.
" July 12th. I had called a meeting the day before in church
to deliberate on some matters connected with the removal of

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 143
Mr. Abbott, who had already left the place, and the prepara
tions to be made for receiving Mr. Johnson. The difficulties
related to a parsonage-house, for which no final and satisfac
tory arrangement had been made, and it is impossible for
any person unaccustomed to such modes of doing business to
conceive the intricacy and involution almost ad infinitum of
which agreements and proceedings of this nature are made
up, when the circulating medium is comparatively no part of
the various equivalents to be calculated. Payments in labour,
provisions, grain, goods, cattle, or transferred debts ; — what
ever the Americans understand by the term trading ; —
demands conditionally relinquished, exchanges and private
arrangements passing from hand to hand, and comprehending
perhaps many of the foregoing items in the bargain ;— all these
are to be unravelled and disposed of before a clear result can
be obtained. * * * There was a thunder-storm towards
evening, and I never saw anything more exquisitely beauti
ful than the setting of the sun behind the Beloeil mountain
which followed. The glories of creation may- give us some
faint idea of what must be the grandeur of those things which
' eye hath not seen,' when we reflect that these visible works
of God are to be destroyed when they have had their day,
are as a nothing which will leave no void among the wonders
of His hands. Too happy if we can be made instruments to
forward, each within his sphere, the work of creating ' all
things new in Christ Jesus,' to be fully developed when ' the
restitution of all things' and ' the times of refreshing shall
come.' I had now completed all that constituted the special
objects of my circuit, and might have returned at once by
the most direct route to Quebec, had it not been that I had
promised to allot Sunday the 18th to the little unprovided
flock at Nicolet. It became my duty therefore, of course,
to consider in what way I could most profitably dispose of
the intervening time, and I decided to visit some settlements
at no great distance from Abbottsford, where there are sheep

144 MEMOIR OF
of our own fold without a shepherd, although visited occa
sionally by some of our clergy. * * * I found a table
provided for myself, and planks arranged for the hearers, in a
school-house at Rougemont, where I preached to about forty
persons. The people all knelt during prayer. I also bap
tized two children. * * * I gave a caution to the spon
sors before I allowed them to make their engagements,
endeavouring to explain the office in such a way as that the
bystanders might benefit by the removal of objections against
this custom of the Church, or by the communication of new
impressions to their minds as to the seriousness with which
the duty should be undertaken. * * * I got a comfort
able dinner at the tavern, but the table was set out in the
kitchen, which appeared also to be a place of rendezvous for
persons whom business or gossip brought together ; and if it
had been consistent with my occupations and the purposes
before me to catch and delineate the humours of the scene,
there were strokes which might have been not unworthy of
appearing in the pictures of Erasmus or Sir Walter Scott.
American and Irish peculiarities were intermingled with the
broken English of an old French Canadian notary from a
neighbouring village. The people of the house, who had
shewn me every attention and provided me with their very
best, absolutely refused to receive any payment. * * *
The family spoke in the warmest terms of the zeal, attention,
affability, and cheerful submission to difficulties and priva
tions, exhibited by our clergy and some of the divinity
students who have come over from Chambly as lay-readers,
from the time when the Rev. E. Parkin first began to
visit them : snow-storms, severe cold, roads which broke their
vehicles, and coarse entertainment after their fatigues, have
been no obstacles to their coming to hold service and to
extend their visits to more distant sick who needed those
consolations which make the desert rejoice. As the necessity
for my going off early the next morning precluded any inspec-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 145
tion of the R. I. School in this settlement, I sent for the
school-master, and spent some time in questioning and advis
ing him ; and while I was setting before him the responsiblity
of his charge, at the same time with its interesting nature, if
rightly considered, and the extent to which the good effects
of his assiduity in the day and Sunday-schools might reach,
I saw the poor fellow's eyes more than once become moist.
" The line between the French Canadian and his British or
American neighbour is still strongly and conspicuously marked,
and the bonnet-rouge, the grey homespun dresses, the beef-
skin moccasins, and the party-coloured ceinture, the close
cap, the striped petticoat, and the skirted body, are not more
decided distinctions of the people themselves, than their build
ings and whole system of agriculture are of the tracts which
they inhabit. In travelling through these tracts, these rural
characteristics of a simple people, the uniform aspect of their
institutions, their brotherhood in religion, the full and regular
provision made everywhere for religious worship and instruc
tion, their substantial churches, with the presbytere always
immediately adjoining, and the glimpse, perhaps, of the curS
himself in the distinctive habit of the priesthood, produce a
favourable impression upon the mind, and convey ideas, at
least much beyond the truth, of peacefulness, comparative
innocence, good order, and well-timed discipline. * * *
It cannot, I think, fairly be disputed that standing institutions
and observances interwoven with the feelings and habits of
the whole population, — order, unity and discipline existing in
vigour in the administration of religious affairs, — although
they may be found in bad company, yet produce in them
selves a good effect upon the manners of a people. And
when, — for whatever wild and visionary notions may be enter
tained upon the subject of the millennium, we are surely
taught to look forward to a fuller and more blessed estab-
lishment of the kingdom of grace than has yet been seen in
the world, — when that happier time arrives which is antici-

146 MEMOIR OF
pated in the christian world, the evils of schism as well as of
superstition and Church tyranny must be swept at least from
the prevailing aspect of the scene. Roman catholic unity
and order must be combined with Protestant doctrine and
Worship, and with Protestant enjoyment of liberty and light.
* * * Close to the church "at Sorel, upon an unenclosed
level space of smooth turf, is an open bocage of pines, into
which I was tempted to stroll. The breeze blew rather
freshly through them, and I never heard to more advantage
the sound which gave pleasure to one of the oldest of moral
poets, a sound which is soothing in itself,
' Round an holy calm diffusing,
Love of peace and lonely musing,'
and which often carries with it a kind of mysterious charm,
wafting back a thousand fleeting associations and remem
brances of a tender and pleasing nature, although they fix
themselves upon no tangible object, and present no distinct
picture to the mind."
I close this chapter with two short extracts from private
letters written on this journey : " I cannot help being a little
anxious, now and then, about private and public objects at
Quebec : the singing in church, the mariners' chapel, the
national school under its new master, are all objects of parti
cular solicitude. I commit all to God above and to His bless
ing, but I must return prepared for some disappointments and
vexations. * * * I stand prepared for changes, as I have
often told you, and as far as I am personally and individually
concerned, I think I could soon accommodate myself even to
poverty : but God has blessed us with means far beyond what
we could have once looked for ; and while we have them, we
must do justice to our children, and cheerfully contribute
our share to the promotion of good objects and the relief of
distress. But I know you feel with me on all these points.
Let us enjoy our present blessings, and endeavour to conse-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 147
crate them by the manner in which they are used. ' The
morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.' Although we
must exercise a fair prudence, the future is in the hands of
God, and there we must leave it, in confidence that all things
needful will be done for them that love Him." *
* He made it a rule never to save any thing out of the income which he
derived from his profession, although for many years he had no private
means. And when he became possessed of these to a small amount, he
employed them upon the education and setting out in life of his sone, rather
than diminish his expenditure for other objects. It was not till these objects
were accomplished that, for only a few years before his death, he allowed his
private income to accumu'ate, and latterly, as he never wished "to be what
is called rich," be devoted a large portion of it to objects of charity. When
he succeeded to the administration of the diocese, at the death of Bishop
Stewart, he had no salary as Bishop, the vote of the Imperial Parliament
by which it had been supplied having been then discontinued, but chiefly
through the representations of Mr. Pakington (now Sir J. Pakington) £1000
per annum were granted for his life. This was about the same amount as
he had received as Archdeacon and rector of Quebec, and one-third of the
salary of his predecessors in the episcopal office. It would have been very
difficult for him, therefore, to meet his increased expenditure as a Bishop,
with the expectations which his own habits of liberality, as well as those of
Bishop Stewart, who was a single man, had formed, without retaining some
portion of the income attached to the subordinate offices. His salaries as
Archdeacon and rector were limited to his incumbency of those offices, and
he always thought it desirable to retain these, rather than that the Church
should lose this pecuniary advantage. He made repeated attempts to effect
an arrangement for resigning them without loss to the Church, but without
success. On his first assumption 'of the episcopal office he surrendered to
the curate of Quebec one-half of his emoluments as rector, discharging,
himself, to the last, a large share of the duties of that office, and he was
then certainly a poorer man than when he had been only Archdeacon and
rector. For many years before his death, when his private expenses had
been diminished, he gave up the whole of the rector's salary to other clergy
in the parish, and for several years devoted that of the Archdeacon also to
Church purposes within the diocese. He was always eminently self-denying
in personal expenditure.

148 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER IX.
Journeys as Archdeacon continued — 1832,
I have no record of any journeys in the year 1831, though
I remember accompanying him, for the first time in my life,
in a short one which he undertook in the summer of that year
to the township of Frampton, which was still without a resident
clergyman. At this time he had an assistant in the parish of
Quebec, who lived in his house, and devoted part of his time
to the instruction of his sons. In February, 1832, he set
out on a journey to the Ottawa river, on which a new mission
had been established at Grenville, and a congregation formed
at Vaudrueuil which was served once a fortnight from Cdteau
du Lac. The description of the rectory at Three Rivers is
worth preserving, now that the house has been modernized.
It was originally a convent, the chapel of which is now the
parish church. " I delight in the character of this strange
rambling building, especially in this country, where there is so
little that approaches to the venerable in the works of man.
The walls are of a most massive thickness, but what I like
most is a heavy arch under which you pass to gain the stairs,
and the staircase itself, which is very wide, with an antique
and cumbrous banister, or balustrade. In the lower part of
the building, which is rude and strangely divided, owing to
the different uses to which it has successively been put, and
in which, although I cannot say that the hands of the builders
have been employed ' to raise the ceiling's fretted height,'
nor in 'each panel with achievements clothing,' nor in making

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 149
' rich windows that exclude the light,' yet there are plenty of
' passages which lead to nothing.' * * * The journey was
extended to Bytown* respecting which he writes, ' I think I
never spent a Sunday with less comfort to my feelings than
that at Bytown and Hull. I began the day by officiating for
Mr.  to the troops at the former place, f where, in the
unfinished Methodist chapel which we borrow for the purpose,
I read prayers and preached to a sergeant and eight men,
with just about an equal number of other individuals, includ
ing a christening party of country people who came from a
distance, and were no part of the Bytown congregation. Mr.
 then went across to the tavern where he puts up (he lives
about three miles off in Hull) , and performed the christening
in a back-room : the apartment in front, divided from this by
a thin wooden partition, was occupied by loungers reading
newspapers, to whom every word of the. ceremony was dis
tinctly audible. I left them and passed into the other room,
where I found Mr.  administering this solemn ordinance,
altogether in a manner and under circumstances not at all
tending to clothe it with reverence. He then drove me across
the river to Hull, (where I preached) which is in Lower
Canada, but the church of which, the largest and most showy
country church that we have in the diocese, is supposed to
• accommodate such of the Bytown episcopalians as do not
attend the military service. My visit was expected, and it
must be presumed to have added something to the congrega
tion, which nevertheless consisted of about thirty persons.
There was no singing, nor did anybody but myself make the
responses. The church was intolerably cold, though the day
was not severe, and several people left their pews to get over
* Mention is made of meeting sleighs carrying barrels of pork, flour, &c,
from Montreal to Bytown, the owners of which performed the whole jour
ney, both ways, for five dollars.
t Bytown, being in Upper Canada, was not within the archdeaconry of
Quebec.

150 MEMOIR OF
to the stoves. Coldness, neglect, and unprosperous manage
ment seemed to hang about every thing. In the afternoon I
had an invitation to the military mess, none of the members
of which (with perhaps one exception) had been at either
of the services, which I declined. * * * The people of the
house were quite pleased at my performing the usual evening
devotions with them while I staid there, and said they had not
had such a thing in the house since Bishop Stewart was
there. On Monday I transacted business with the Rev.
R. Leeming, who came by appointment to meet me : at six I
went to dine with Colonel B  : at eight a cariole called for
me by appointment to take me to visit a poor dying man in
the village : between nine and ten I returned to meet the
Rev. R. Short at the inn, who had also been summoned
from his station to meet me : afterwards I had prayers, and a
visit from a half-pay naval officer, settled far up the river, who
wants to get things in train for a church where he lives ; and
by the time I had packed and got ready for the stage which
was to be at the door by six o'clock in the morning, it was
half-past one a.m. The next clay, in the township of Lochaber,
two lovely children were brought to me at the stage-house
for baptism, by persons who had heard of my passing through
the country. I had expected to proceed to St. Andrews,
although the stage puts up for the night at Grenville, but
the Rev-. J. Abbott had made an arrangement, in conse
quence of a proposal of my own in going up, which at the
time he had thought hardly practicable, that the congregation
should meet for a week-day evening service in the school-
house. The place was crowded to excess, and the singing
was by far the best that I ever heard in a country place.
After preaching I detained the heads of families to arrange
some points respecting a church which is immediately about
to be built, in reference to which I had conferred with Mr.
Abbott, the churchwardens and others, on my way up. I
left Grenville by the .stage, at five o'clock on the morning of

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 151
the twenty-second, which clay was allotted to a visit to the
Gore settlement, after we should reach St. Andrews, to which
place we came to breakfast. Never was seen any thing in
the shape of human habitations more wretched than the huts
occupied by a number of Irish Roman catholics, who have
established themselves along the line of the Grenville canal,
having been drawn there originally by the labour offered in
the works. They are constructed, in the rudest conceivable
manner, of mud, sod, Bark and other materials immediately
accessible, and some of them are so excessively low and
drifted over by the snow that they are hardly observable,
except from some projecting corner, or the wreath of smoke
which perhaps issues from an old flour barrel converted into
a chimney. The Gore settlement lies among woods, rocks,
lakes, and mountains (although of small elevation,) and is com
posed entirely of Protestants, all, but a very few, Irish and of
our own Church. These poor people have no Church-service,
except on a week-day once a month. The congregation was
assembled in the largest house which the settlement afforded,
and it was so insufficient that some persons at first had got into
the loft, intending to catch what they could of the service
through the floor. They all, however, squeezed into two
rooms, but most of them were kept standing. They sang,
and were led by an experienced parish-clerk. * * * I had
written to the Rev. J. Leeds to meet me from the CSteau du
Lac at Vaudrueuil on the twenty-third, and had suggested
that he should assemble the congregation. No Mr. Leeds,
however, appeared, and no congregation met. From all that
I heard, I was so convinced of the importance of my meeting
these people, and endeavouring to put things in train for more
effectual provision for their spiritual wants, that I came to the
determination to return to them on Saturday from Montreal,
and spend Sunday with them. While I was at Vaudrueuil,
old Mr.  was brought in to see me. Till last autumn he
was a worldly and irreligious man. At that time he met with

152 MEMOIR OF
a fall which produced consequences rather of a serious nature ,
and led him to think of death. For this he found himself
wholly unprepared. His sins rose up before him in the form
of dreadful accusers, and he began to despair of mercy. But
he has been graciously brought to find the way of pardon and
peace, and is in a most humble, penitent, and devout frame of
mind, self-abased and comforted at the same time. I talked
and prayed with him, and he wept like a child. * * *
Proceeding with my little rat of a horse through heavy and
drifted roads (for there was a determined snow-storm all day),
I was so annoyed by the ceaseless curses and unmerciful
blows which the driver bestowed upon it, and there was so
little prospect of our getting to Montreal at night, that I
dismissed the man, and engaged another conveyance in the
parish of Pointe Claire. Here, in the village, is a large old-
fashioned Canadian house, which is one of what may be called
the branch convents scattered about the country for the
education of girls, and conducted by a couple of ' les soeurs.'
There are fifty children at present in this establishment. No
person can wish to see such things as these swept away in
any religious revolution which might shake the empire of
Romanism. I dined this clay for two-pence. It was about
four o'clock, and I foresaw that I must be quite late in Mon
treal. I asked, therefore, for some refreshment ; and without
cooking, there was nothing to be had but dark-coloured bread
and butter. The woman declined to take any thing for it, but
three half-pence being paid for what my driver drank, I prof
fered four, happening to have the vile coin about me, for what
I myself ate, and they were received as a favour. It is a
sort of maxim with me, and I find it useful, to accommodate
myself to any little privations or rough occurrences on a
journey, so that I do not in the least regard it as necessary
in travelling to have any regular dinner, nor sometimes,
indeed, any dinner at all, and it does not affect me in any
unpleasant way, if this happens for days together. The

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 153
ignorance of the Canadian habitants may be judged of from
the circumstance that the man who drove me did not at all
relish the idea of coming into Montreal after dark, because
he had been told that there were persons going about the
streets who clap an adhesive plaster upon your face, and then
carry you off to murder you, in order to procure subjects for
dissection, there being a contract with Governmenb to send
bodies home to England for this purpose. The origin of this
story is evidently the account of the Burkism carried on in
London, but it is curious to see how the poor Government is
coupled with everything which carries odium on its face.
The next day was a busy day, and indeed I am always busy,
except when actually on the road. After breakfasting with
Mr. Stevens, where Mr. Bethune came to meet me to digest
and prepare all our arrangements for a meeting (to be men
tioned afterwards), I returned to the hotel to see divinity
students, catechists, &c, by appointment, and to write letters
till the hour of the meeting. Its object was the establishment
of a central committee for the district of Montreal of our
new Sunday-school society, and of a parish Sunday-school
in Montreal itself. It devolved upon me to preside. I had
the evening to myself till ten o'clock, at which hour the secre
tary of the medical faculty of McGill college came to me,
by appointment, on business. I had to write afterwards, and
did not get to bed till between one and two. On the twenty-
fifth I had appointments with Mr. Bethune and others, and
Mr. B. assisted me in examining a catechist and lay-reader
whom I then licensed for Terrebonne and parts adjacent.
The day was fine in the forenoon, but my star pursued me ;
the heavens gradually became overcast and a snow-storm soon
followed. I left Montreal at one o'clock, and stopped to bait
at Pointe Claire, where I again dined, in .spite of your*
injunction, upon crackers and milk-and-water. As to your
• These extracts are from letters addressed to his children.
L

154 MEMOIR OF
recommendation of roast-beef, although rosbif has become a
standing dish in France where English travellers are con
cerned, this is not quite the case in Canada : the beef is not
thawed, much less cooked for you, if there is any, but it is a
hundred to one that there is none in such houses as those of
which I am speaking. When I was passing through a room
filled with Canadians, who were in company upon the road,
and whose traineaux were at the door, I heard one of them
say that I was obliged to stoop under the beam. As I had
done this unconsciously, I turned round and told the man I
thought he was mistaken, upon which some of them begged
me to try, when, thinking it best to be complying when no
harm is intended, I found by the experiment that he was
right, upon which a kind of shout broke forth from the party
which was not perfectly polite, and certainly not comistent with
respect for the dignity which, whatever they thought at the
time, they afterwards ascribed to me : for I heard, after I got
upstairs, that I was ' Va.rcheveque de Quebec Anglais.' I
walked into the church here for a moment, and I cannot help
liking the Roman catholic custom- of leaving their churches
always open, the sanctuary at all times accessible. I also think
their arrangement of the interior in one respect infinitely better
than ours (according to our received custom rather than our
rule), namely, that the chancel is very large, and the whole
service is performed within the rails, instead of boxing up the
clergyman in a tub-like enclosure, down among the congrega
tion, and obstructing their view of the solemn offices performed
at the communion-table. The pulpit, is always, and properly,
among the people. It is mere prejudice, and hurtful preju
dice, to think that because the Roman catholic religion is
decidedly corrupt and superstitious in doctrine and worship,
therefore there can be no usage among them which is prefer
able to the corresponding usage among ourselves. I wish,
indeed, that the observations could not be extended to points
of more importance, but with respect to discipline in the

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 155
Church for the preservation of purity and order, they are
better off than we are. Their discipline is imperfect and
mixed with many things that are objectionable ; our discipline
at present can hardly be said to exist. I saw one thing, how
ever, in this church which (I do not speak of the evidences
of a superstitious and erring worship, which are matters of
course) was very offensive, a row of spitting-boxes on each
side within the chancel, for the use of the priest and his asso
ciates in the service. I thought it bad enough to see this in
the Legislative Hall at Albany, but I never expected to see
it in the House of God * * *. At Vaudrueuil I began the
Sunday by a visit to the bedside of my hostess, who is in ill
health. She was born of English parents, but brought up
from the age of six years in the house where she now lives,
and has reached sixty-five without any ministrations of Pro
testant clergy nearer than Montreal, till within the last year
or two. She seems, however, to have read her Bible with
regularity, and the Bible and prayer do a great deal to estab
lish and preserve our intercourse with Heaven. I heard, in
the course of this journey, of an old German settler, who
lived in the woods ten miles from any other human habita
tion, and without any other inmate of his dwelling. A person
happening to be at his house expressed some wonder at his
choosing to live in so forlorn and unprotected a state. ' I have
plenty of company,' he replied, ' and am taken very good
care of,' and he then pulled out a German Bible, saying,
' there is my company, and there I find the promise of pro
tection.' The school-house where I officiated was crowded,
and is very insufficient for the congregation, who were chiefly
Englishmen and church-people, and who sang three times,
not without an appearance of devotion. I took occasion in
preaching to advert to their own situation, and to recommend
their making exertions for the erection of a church, and after
wards addressed the heads of families in a more familiar way
on the same subject. I was obliged to stand at one side in

156 MEMOIR OF
the desk on account of a beam in the centre with which my
head interfered. The epistle of the day (Sexagesima) is
strikingly calculated to put us to the blush, if ever, for a
moment, we are disposed to murmur or become impatient at
the fatigues and inconveniences to which we may be subjected
in the discharge of our itinerant labours. I could not get off
again from Vaudrueuil before three o'clock. It was necessary
that I should leave it on the Sunday, in order to effect the
objects which I had in view in the time remaining at my dis
posal. I intended, indeed, to reach Chateauguay in the
evening. But the drift, which still continued though the day
was clear and bright, had so choked up the roads, that when
we came to the Isle Perrault, the driver said it was hopeless
to attempt crossing Lake St. Louis, and we drove to the
Cascades, and put up at the stage-house, kept by a High
lander, and, apparently, a stiff sort of presbyterian. I
introduced, however, a proposal, to which he acceded, for
turning the Sunday evening to some improving account ; and
as there is no Protestant worship within reach, and there
were eight or nine persons assembled, I rather lengthened
the offices which I performed, reading and then expounding,
and concluding with prayer. I thought the man of the house
seemed to relax sensibly after this from a kind of repulsive
manner which characterized him before. I had ordered my
driver to be at the door at half-past five on Monday morning,
but he was nearly an hour after his time, and the sun rose
upon the earth in her mantle of snow, as we descended upon
the ice to cross the mouth of the Ottawa to Isle Perrault,
and lit up a golden blaze in the windows on the island's edge.
* * * My business at Chateauguay was to meet Mr. Forest, a
licensed catechist and lay-reader, and his report was such
that I never more forcibly felt (what indeed I have had
abundant reason to feel on this journey) that our case is, in
this diocese, that the harvest ' is plenteous and the labourers
are few,' and that we ought to pray earnestly to ' the Lord

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 157
of the harvest that He will send forth labourers into His
harvest.' He gave me a regular return of children requiring
baptism, and candidates for confirmation and the Lord's
Supper. There are forty-five unbaptized children of the
Church of England in Ormstown alone. I regretted exces
sively that it was wholly out of my power to attend person
ally to these crying wants : it was indeed by a mere chance,
if I may so express it, that I was able to take a visit to
Chateauguay, which formed no part of my original plan
nor of my instructions from the Bishop, into my circuit at
all. I baptized three children there, and have since made
arrangements with Mr. Bethune for devoting the time between
two Sundays, next week or the week after, to this tract of
country. * * * Mr.  is very ill, and could not meet
me at Montreal, so I have come to see him. I fear his sor
row is preying upon his constitution, and it will be a great
consolation to me if I can pour oil into his wounds. He does
not want to be guided by me, but ' as ointment and perfume
rejoice the heart, so doth the sweetness of a man's friend,'
and ' a word spoken in season, how good is it !' A little
encouragement and a few soothing words from a brother in
the ministry may possibly serve to cheer him. * * * On
Wednesday morning I purpose to take the stage, which, if all
go well, will bring me home on Thursday. Pray tell Mr.
Brown* that I shall be glad to be with him again, and to ease
his shoulder from part of the burden."
* Assistant minister at Quebec.

158 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER X.
Visitation of cholera at Quebec — Correspondence.
New scenes of trial were before the Archdeacon in the memo
rable year which we have now reached. I have already given
an extract from one of-Jbls letters* in which he spoke of its
being better than following even the highest bent of natural
inclination and taste " to stand, as it were, between the living
and the dead, and stay the plague of sin or suffering, and to
carry the consolations of religion into hospitals and the foul
and crowded lodgings of the poor." In this year he literally
stood between the dead and the living while carrying his
ministrations to his plague-stricken flock, augmented by a
large and continuous stream of immigration. Full well he
gave proof that those words had been no empty sound, but
expressed the full and deep conviction of his heart, for never
did his devotion to God and his fellow-creatures shine more
conspicuously than in the times of pestilence. With the
exception of the congregation of Trinity chapel, the whole
parish was still in the hands of the rector and his assistant
who lived in his house. The cholera broke out at Quebec
early in the summer of 1832,f and by the end of July it was
* See page 71.
f Its approach had been looked for, in consequence of the ravages it had
committed in other parts of the world In a circular drawn up for the
Bishop by the Archdeacon on the 10th April, 1832, to accompany a procla
mation of the Governor for the appointment of a fast, it is carefully pointed

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 159
estimated that one-tenth of the population, which at this time
numbered twenty-eight thousand, had been carried off. The
number of deaths, however, included those of immigrants and
sailors. The number of interments by the clergy of the
Church of England in 1831 had been three hundred and
eighty-two. In 1832 it was not far short of that number in
the month of June alone ; and in the whole year it amounted
to nine hundred and seventy-five, the number of resident
church-people being rather under five thousand. The pro
portion of deaths, therefore, among them was as two to one in
that among the whole population ; and when it is remembered
that many persons who demanded the services of the clergy
recovered, it will be seen that their duties were sufficiently
arduous. On two consecutive days in June upwards of
seventy persons were buried by the rector, but he noted it
as probable that in the distracting confusion which then pre
vailed, the bodies of persons who did not belong to the Church
of England may have been sent from the hospital to be
buried by him. I take these particulars and those which follow
from the appendix* to a sermon preached on the last Sunday
in 1832. He does not mention, however, what I well re
member, that a horse was kept saddled day and night in,his
stable to enable him or his assistant to meet calls from a dis
tance ; their rule was to take night calls alternately^ but on
many nights they were both out, and for whole days together
unable to return home. " Never can the scene be forgotten
by those who witnessed it which was exhibited in the dusk
of one evening at the emigrant hospital, before the forced
exertions of some members and agents of the board of health
out that this observance should not be regarded as a matter of form, but
that while " private discretion might be exercised as to the manner and
degree of abstinence, it certainly ought to be understood as forming a sub
sidiary part of the humiliation enjoined."
* " Id quoque quod vivam munus habere Dei," is prefixed as a motto to
this appendix.

160 MEMOIR OF
had provided another building in the Lower Town, exclusively
for the reception of cholera patients. A house opposite the
hospital had been engaged to afford additional accommoda
tion, but the unfortunate subjects for admission came pouring
in before any arrangements at all sufficient could be com
pleted ; and the desertion, in one afternoon, of part of the
servants who had been hired, rendered the attendance, before
most inadequate, so miserably inefficient, that the passages
and floors were strewed with dying persons, writhing under
wants to which it was impossible to minister, some of whom,
I believe, actually died before they could be got to a bed.
The health commissioners, the head of the medical staff, and
the first medical practitioners of the city were upon the spot
together, and doing all they could ; but how could their skill
or judgment meet all the exigencies of such a moment?
Women were met at the doors bewailing their affliction, who
had come too late to take a last look at their husbands while
alive ; parents or children were surrounding the death-beds
of those most dear to them ; patients were, some clamouring
in vain for assistance, some moaning in the extremity of lan
guor, some shrieking or shouting under the sharp action of
the cramps ; friends of the sufferers were contending angrily
with the bewildered assistants ; a voice of authority was
occasionally heard enforcing needful directions, but quickly
required in some other quarter of the establishment : a voice
of prayer was also heard, and the words interchanged between
the dying and their pastors were mingled with the confused
tumult of the hour. The clergy, in passing through some
quarters of the town, were assailed sometimes by importunate
competitors for their services ; persons rushing out of the
doors or calling to them from windows, to implore their
attendance upon their respective friends, and each insisting
upon the more imperative urgency of the case which he
pleaded. I have no reserve whatever in mentioning my own
share in these occurrences, because to suppose that the

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 161
clergy are entitled to any extraordinary credit for not flinch
ing from their plain and proper duty in such cases seems to
involve a supposition, that men whose whole employment
relates to the business of preparation for eternity j and who
preach Christ as ' the Resurrection and the Life,' are less
expected to be armed against the fear of death than all the
other persons who are engaged in visiting and tending the
sick, and performing the various offices successively required
after death. There is, indeed, a canon which directs the
clergy to visit their parishioners in sickness, if it be not
known or probably suspected to be infectious ; but the rubric
of the prayer-book was framed in better days, which provides
for the case where none of the parish or neighbours can be
gotten to communicate with the sick in their houses for fear
of the infection, and assumes it as a matter of course that
their minister will visit them under such circumstances."
The appendix concludes with the following characteristic
passage : " It was a remark that I often made during the
continuance of the cholera, how little the face of nature
betrayed the sadness of the time, or shewed any symptoms
of that principle of death which was in such fearful activity
among the delegated lords of the creation. I was particularly
impressed with this kind of feeling upon some of the lovely sum
mer evenings on which I officiated at the new burial-ground,
then still unenclosed. The open green, skirted by the remains
of a tall avenue of trees, and contiguous to the serpentine
windings of the River St. Charles, beyond which you looked
across meadows, woods, and fields dotted with rural habita
tions, to the mountains which bound the prospect, the whole
gleaming in the exquisite and varied lights of a Canadian
sunset, formed altogether a beautiful and peaceful landscape;
and seemed ' a fit haunt of gods.' How melancholy and strik
ing the contrast with all that had been deposited, and which it
remained to deposit in the spot on which I stood ! How full
of deep reflection upon the ravages of sin ! How coupled

162 MEMOIR OF
with deep thankfulness to Him Who came to repair those
ravages in the end, and to ' make all things new.' '
These scenes of suffering were ordained, to give occasion for
the exercise of true christian charity. Besides that which
was exhibited in attendance on the dying and the dead, the
case of the widow and the orphan called for sympathy and
exertion. A society was formed in Quebec to provide for
their wants, and the sum of £2750 raised. Many orphans
were adopted, and among the French Canadians in the suburb
of St. Roch, where the disease raged with great violence,
every individual orphan belonging to Roman Catholics was
thus disposed of. The number of inmates of the Church of
England Orphan Asylum was doubled, and the same head
and heart* which had conceived the idea of its establishment
now set on foot a similar institution for boys.
In an address to the members of the cathedral congrega
tion, issued in November 1832, at the request of the wardens
and members of the select vestry, (a body of twelve persons
whom, about this time, at the rector's suggestion, it had
become customary to elect at Easter to assist the wardens in
the discharge of their duties) which is headed with the first
two verses of i. Corinthians xvi, it was announced that
weekly instead of fortnightly collections, beginning on the
approaching Advent Sunday, would be made for the poor, in
consequence of the increased demands created by the visita-

* In a letter written at this time from Montreal, it is mentioned that one
of the cathedral churchwardens, a man of extraordinary energy and un
sparing self-sacrifice in times of emergency, in driving him down to the
steamer from the Bishop's house at Quebec, had said of the person here
referred to, that she was " a wonderful woman, and that he was more
convinced of it every day ; and if she took the male orphan asylum in
hand, it would go right, for she always saw things in a right point of
view." When the cholera revisited Quebec in 1834, it broke out in the
absence of the Archdeacon, and Mrs. Mountain, though there was illness
among her own children, left them at a distance of four or five miles, to
attend upon orphans in the asylum who were seized with it.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 163
tion of cholera. The following extracts may be interesting
as exhibiting some details of parochial history of which it may
be desirable to preserve the record. " The collections in this
church were originally made once a month upon each occasion
of administering the sacrament. It is now exactly ten years
since, in consequence of the increase in the numbers of the
poor, an additional collection in' the month was established,*
one half of which was applied to the relief of their temporal
wants, and the other towards the supply of their spiritual
necessities, by providing for the expenses of lighting and
warming a temporary kind of chapel for an evening service.
Upon the alteration of this building in the beginning of 1828,
to convert it into the regular chapel now known as St. Mat
thews, or the free chapel, a weekly collection was established
in the chapel itself, to provide for its own current expenses ;
and from that time the whole of the two half-monthly collec
tions in the cathedral was made available for the temporal
relief of the poor and some other parish expenses. Thus
the necessities of the parish have, in two former instances,
prompted measures for the augmentation of this fund. It
must be unnecessary to point out that the- immense yearly
influx of emigrants, while, in one point of view, it advances
the improvement and prosperity of. the country, causes at the
same time a constantly progressing accumulation of pauper
ism in this city. The Emigrants' Society, to which the com
munity is much indebted in different ways, can of course
relieve only the fresh emigrants of each year in succession.
And when the Beneficent Society, instituted for the relief of
sufferers by the late awful visitation, shall close its operations
in the spring, the Church of England list of persons who are
subjects of its bounty, comprising between thirty and forty
widows, and upwards of sixty young children, will be trans-
* The annual circuit of the churchwardens from house to house was,
however, previously discontinued.

164 MEMOIR OF
ferred to the parish. * * * The management of the expen
diture, which embraces all these six objects, is becoming more
and more an extensive and complicated concern, and it is
anxiously desired that the congregation should be aware of
the pains which are taken to conduct it. * * * The
labour having been too great for the unaided efforts of the
clergy and churchwarden in charge of the poor-fund, the
members of the select vestry have undertaken to hold sittings
in rotation, accompanied always by one of the clergy or the
churchwarden, every Tuesday and Friday, from nine to ten
o'clock, to conduct and control this whole expenditure, and
to receive and dispose of all fresh applications for relief."
The disease had so far abated by the middle of August,
that the Bishop held a visitation of the clergy at Montreal,
which had been fixed for an earlier day. The Archdeacon
preached the sermon on this occasion, which was published.
The few days spent there afforded no relaxation, though they
occasioned some variety in his labours ; those, indeed, of the
offices of Archdeacon and chaplain must have unavoidably
fallen into arrear. He speaks of having scarcely left the
hotel except to go to church. " The memorial from the
Clergy Reserve corporation, the task of putting matters in
train for getting the Sunday School Society in the diocese'
under weigh ; the business to be done with the professors,
etc., of McGill College ; various matters to be attended to
with various clergymen, and others to be disposed of with
the Bishop before our long separation, altogether fill my hands
completely." Before leaving Quebec, he had drawn up a
short and very hurried memorandum of his wishes respecting
his family and flock, respectfully representing to the Bishop
what he conceived to be the best arrangements for the parish,
in the event of his own removal. In the beginning of this
paper are these words : " Commending my soul to Him in
humble hope of forgiveness and acceptance through Christ,
I commend to Him also the best and most exemplary of wives

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 165
and mothers, my incomparable help-mate in private affairs,
training of my children, and the works of my calling in which
she could aid me. Words cannot speak her value ;" and it
concludes thus : " And, indeed, every clergyman who has
anything to do with the parish ought to be content to deny
himself hourly and take up his cross. ' None of us liveth
to himself ought to be unceasingly before his eyes. And
none of us dieth to himself. If I die, I trust I die to the
Lord. I am a poor sinner, — more in number are my sins
than the hairs of my head, but I believe in Him Who is able
to save."
The year 1833 was not remarkable for any occurrences
of unusual interest, and I have no record of any journeys
then undertaken. The extraordinary labours of the preced
ing year may have caused some addition, by way of arrears,
to ordinary parochial duties, his devotion to which, during
the summer of 1833,* was such that he was scarcely ever
able to go to see his children, whom he had sent for that
season into the country about four miles from town.
In 1834 he was engaged in a circuit among the destitute
church-people on the Chateauguay river, (mentioned at pages
156-7) when the cholera reappeared at Quebec, though its
ravages were mercifully confined within comparatively small
limits. In the course of this journey he preached at the opening
of a new church at Ormstown, which was crowded to excess.
On another Sunday he preached and administered both Sac
raments in the threshing-floor of a large empty barn, three
miles from Huntingdon. The whole interior of the barn was
filled, apd a large number, of persons stood abroad in front of
the open doors. In the afternoon of the same day he preached
and administered baptism in a small school-house at Hunting-
* In a letter from the Bishop, dated York, 29th April, 1833, his lordship
says, " I think you are apt, in your zeal, to propose for the clergy, especially
at Quebec, and for yourself, too much work."

166 MEMOIR OF
don, where the people were jammed together in an oppressive
degree, and there were also auditors on the outside of the
windows. The time was now approaching when the office of Arch
deacon was to be held in conjunction with that of a Bishop
in the Church of God. This part of the memoir may bejitly
closed with an extract from a letter, on a copy of which,
made by his desire, Bishop Stewart has written " Archdea
con's warning and exhortation to an unprofitable clergyman,"
and another from a correspondence in which he engaged
in 1833 and 1834 with a member of his flock, who, having
imbibed some predilection for Methodism, thought it his duty
to endeavour to correct the teaching of his pastor. I give
these extracts, as illustrating the manner and spirit in which
his duties as Archdeacon and rector were discharged. The
correspondence just mentioned is very long, and affords an
example of the patience with which he endeavoured to remove
the offences of even unreasonable men.*
"The charge of the flock of Christ is at all times a serious, an awful
charge, and if ever there were circumstances which could heighten the
responsibility attached to it, and call for a more than ordinary devotedness
and circumspection, the circumstances of the Church of England, at this
juncture, in the Canadas are such. If there are ministers among us of
whom it cannot be said that they have fed the flock ' with a. faithful
and true heart and ruled them prudently with all' their power, such
ministers are hot simply unprofitable, they are injuring the cause, and sadly
exemplify the maxim that ' he that gathereth not with Me scattereth.' I
fear, my dear sir, I greatly fear, that this description will apply too closely
to you. I shall be sorry if I offend you, and I am too sensible of my own
deficiencies to desire to use any harshness which is uncalled for; but there
is so much at stake that I must waive apologies for the freedom with which
I write, and must only hope that I may be an instrument to open your eyes
* The names of the clergyman and objector do not appear. In another
instance the signature has been torn from a letter of humble acknowledg
ment of sympathy and direction in difficulties, apparently because it refer
red to family occurrences of which it would not be desirable to preserve
the record.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 167
to the condition of the charge committed to your hands, and to rouse you
ere it be too late, to effectual exertion, in which case you will acknowledge
me to be your truest friend. The neglected state of your parish, and the
seeming unconcern with which you leave your hearers to be seduced into
the Romish Communion form the theme of conversation far and wide. * *
* * The great subject of complaint is a general remissness and indiffer
ence ; a total absence of that zeal and lively concern for the eternal interests
of the souls committed to you, which characterize the faithful minister of
Christ; an omission of that pastoral care and attention, that personal
intercourse of the spiritual guide with his flock, that solicitude for their
happiness and their improvement, which constitute some of the essentials
of an effective discharge of the ministerial duties. * * * Awake, then,
as out of a dream, and address yourself to your high and holy task. Read
over, I do beseech you, the charge given you in the service of the ordina
tion of priests, and the promises which you then made before the God to
Whom we must render account of our stewardship. Cast yourself before
Him in humble prayer, and seek ' a new heart and a new spirit ' in the
performance of the work committed to you. 0 what happiness will you
experience if He shall graciously enable you to recover the ground that has
been lost! What blessedness will be yours if you once seriously and vigor
ously devote yourself to the promotion of His glory upon earth, and the
¦ task of ' turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just' !
if you make it your business and delight to ' preach the word,' ' in season
and out of season,' and to warn your flock ' from house to house ' of the
truths which concern their salvation ; if you promote in families religious
and devout habits, and bring individuals to the knowledge of God and
Christ ; if you become an instrument of bringing the careless sinner to that
repentance of which one single instance causes 'joy in the presence of the
angels of God.' "
The extracts which I shall make from the letters to his
parishioner are chiefly such as exhibit his own views and
feelings and the character of his teaching and labours. I
omit what is designed directly to meet the errors of his
correspondent :
* * • " Those religious opinions upon which I build my own hope
of salvation, and teach my congregation to build theirs, have rather too
deep and solid a foundation to be shaken by a letter. Years of thought
and examination, of prayer to be rightly guided, and search in the Word of
God ; of study, snatched, indeed, at scanty moments of leisure, but mixed,
for the very same reason, with extensive and diversified professional experi-
, ence ; years in which I have had very advantageous opportunities of obser-

168 MEMOIR OF
vation as it respects both ministers and laity, have brought me to conclu
sions in which I do not rest as if my having formed them exalted me above
believers who may differ from me ; but they are conclusions not lightly
embraced— conclusions in which I am more and more confirmed. I wish
that I had more leisure to enter at large with you upon the subject, that
I might entertain a hope of convincing you. But it is with extreme diffi
culty that I can command time to throw together a few observations which
must be infinitely short, in their effect, of what I feel that I could say upon
the subject. My archdeaconry and my parish, combined with some half-
dozen or more appointments in different institutions or public commissions,
which peculiar local reasons have made me think it my duty not to decline,
besides the leading part which it devolves upon me to take in several
voluntary associations of a religious or charitable kind, so press upon
me that I have to lament the insufficiency of my attention to some import
ant objects ; and yet I do not see how I can well withdraw from any
department of my occupations. I am glad to have the opportunity of
making this observation, because it may account not only for my executing
the task now before me in an imperfect manner, but for a seeming deficiency
which I have often deplored in my desire to cultivate a familiar intercourse
with my flock. I have, indeed, more anxieties and more harassing occupa
tion to contend against than most people perhaps imagine ; and although
I bless God that He has not suffered me to sink under them, I am prompted
at times to adopt the language of the apostle, where he declares that he
has ' great heaviness and continual sorrow in ' his heart. Being at the
head of a parish comprising five thousand souls professedly of the Church
of England, to whom I should give, or cause to be given, 'their meat in
due season,' I find in one quarter ' things ready to die ' which must be
strengthened ; in another, Roman Catholics plying their engines of prose-
lytism among my people ; in another still, infidels and even atheists indus
triously circulating their poison ; in a, fourth, sectarians insinuating the
seeds of division and of error ; and to crown all, my own hearers charging
their pastor with want of fidelity or want of spiritual knowledge. With
out are fightings, within are fears. But I am sustained by the comfort that
man is not my judge.
" If you have ever supposed that when I have lamented, as I apprehend
that every faithful minister of every flock will feelingly do, the compara
tively poor return of those labours which are expended in seeking to ' turn
many to righteousness,' — if you have supposed, upon such occasions, that
I have wished to produce such fruits as are produced by Methodist preachers,
rather than such as it has pleased God to make me instrumental in effecting,
you have entirely misconceived me. I have not the slightest desire to
render my ministry remarkable by such incidents among my flock as often
figuTe well in newspapers and magazines. I do not mean to discredit the
pious exertions of men whom I may think in some points mistaken. But I

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 169
do mean that there never was a time yet in the Christian Church in which
that remarkable prophecy ' the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall heap to themselves teachers,
having itching ears,' was so strikingly fulfilled as in the present day. I do
mean that, with all the undeniable advantages and improvements of the
age, it is characterized by a restless love of excitement in religion, a rage
for publicity and display, a pruriency of appetite, a morbid fondness for
stimulants, and a disrelish for sober and wholesome food, which have
opened a wide door to religious empiricism, and through fear of man's cen
sure or love of his praise, or the mere contagion of feelings and opinions, have
borne with some vitiating influence upon the minds of many — both preachers
and hearers, — who are not drawn to the extravagant lengths of others.
" Whatever failures I may have had to lament in my ministry, it has not;
thank God, been without its encouragements. When I came to the parish
the cathedral was our only place of worship. We have now three others,
with growing congregations, and shall shortly, I trust, establish a fourth.
An improved spirit of religion has certainly, I think, been engendered, and
is advancing. Our communicants have greatly increased, while, at the same
time, a, careless participation has become less common. We have four
Sunday-schools, all prospering. My congregation in the little chapel where
I expound the Scriptures to the poor has been a source of much comfort to
me. The place is crowded to excess, and the voice of the worshippers is
raised devoutly in the praise of God. Several valuable charitable institu
tions have been established among us, in which a persevering spirit of love
has been called into exercise! In many individual instances, I have had
consolatory testimonies that my labours have not been wholly in vain.
Among others, several young persons who have attended my Lent lec
tures, and who have by this and other means been prepared for confirma
tion, have, I have reason to believe, imbibed impressions beneficial to their
souls. One in particular, on her death-bed, made acknowledgments to this
effect. The Rev.  , whose preaching you admire, declares that he was
first brought to a concern for his salvation through my means." Many
* I have a letter from a gentleman who many years ago held a responsi
ble office under the Crown in Canada, dated in 1854, in which) referring to
the Songs of the Wilderness, the following passage occurs : " Indepen
dently of all partiality of affection, it would have been impossible for me
not to be deeply interested in your tour, and delighted by your poems-
The truthfulness and evidently heartfelt piety which pervade the whole
production are of themselves sufficient to awaken corresponding feelings
in all who read them. And it would have been strange if I, who owe my
first awakening to a sense of religion to your friendly suggestions, were
blind or indifferent to works sent forth to the world with the same object
towards the benighted." M

170 MEMOIR OF
persons have privately consulted me or unburthened their grief to me in a
way which has convinced me that numbers of those who are never talked
of as religious persons, but quietly and unobtrusively discharge their blame
less part in life, have a deeper feeling of religion, and a more influential
faith in Christ than their fellow-creatures have ever given them credit for.
* * * There are thousands who never experienced certain precise symp
toms, — perhaps never heard of them, — who have been truly born again, and
perfectly know the reality of the thing, — perfectly understand from the
history of their own hearts the significancy of the expression. They have
discerned their lost estate, repented of their sins, believed to the saving of
the soul, received the seed of the Word into ' an honest and good heart,' and
brought forth ' fruit with patience.' They ' perceive within themselves the
workings of the Spirit of God,' because they find that that grace for which
they have prayed has made them altered beings, — beings different from what
they would have been by nature ; and although humbly conscious of infir
mity, they go on their way rejoicing, as they find their faith still gaining
strength, their steadfastness confirmed, their love to God and man increased,
their conformity to the will of God in inward affection and outward action
growing closer and closer, their discernment of spiritual things clearer and
clearer, their hope of heaven more bright, their application of the saving
power of the Cross more home-felt and consoling, and their attachment to
the world and the things of sense proportionably more faint. * * *
For myself, I feel that, like my fellow-sinners whom I am appointed to
teach, I am as ' a brand plucked out of the burning.' I am sensible that my
sins ' are more in number than the hairs of my head ' ; yet, little cause as I
have to exalt myself, let those who tell me that I am not faithful and full
in delivering the message of my Master judge as they please, — I stand or
fall to Him. And when I look to Him I am most confirmed in the views
which I entertain. The fear of man's censure, the love of his praise, the
torrent of the accidentally prevailing fashion in religion, the noise of popu
lar proceedings, might sway me in another way. But I can truly say that
I never felt more attachment to the principles which I have embraced, or
saw more cause to confide in them, than when they were brought to the
test of the late awful and appalling visitation ; when I was morning, noon,
and night among the dying, and with so many ghastly pictures of death
before my eyes, could not fail to have the consideration of my own brought
home to my breast, and to feel myself standing, as it were, upon the very
verge of the world unseen. * * * . The necessity of the renewal of the
heart, of the change to be produced in the natural man, of the conviction
of sin to be wrought by the influence of the Spirit, of the operation of the
same power to enlighten the understanding in divine truth, and to strengthen
the feebleness of nature against temptation, — the necessity-of all this, and
of faith in Jesus Christ, in order to pardon and peace with God and com
fortable sense of His favour, — these have been the constant subjects of my

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 171
preaching. * * * < With me it is a very small thing that I should be
judged of you or of man's judgment,' so far as concerns my own self-love.
As it regards the effect of my ministry and the retention of those in the
unbroken communion of the Church whom I am set over in the Lord, I feel
very differently. * * * It has happened within the sphere of my own
experience that the most thoroughly devoted ministers, and most amiable
as well as steadfast private christians whom I have known, have enter
tained the views which I regard as orthodox. I do not mean by this that
I profess to belong to any party, or implicitly to adhere to any set of men
and their particular opinions. It would be the joy of my heart that no
distinctions should exist, and never do I bring them needlessly into view.
* * * I shall go down to my grave without having the stamp of appro
bation affixed to my proceedings by any set of men who can be called a
party in religion. But oh ! how little does it matter, if I am counted faith
ful in mine office, with all my sins and infirmities, by Him Who seeth in
secret, and can be instrumental, as I have the consolation of believing, in
saving souls by winning them to Christ I * * * I have, indeed, so
strong a dislike to anything controversial, and it costs me so much pain to
advert to religious differences, that nothing but a sense of my duty as a
guardian of the truth of God would ever cause me to utter a polemical
expression ; and I was very near leaving out the very passage in question
simply from my love of peace. But this feeling was overborne by a convic
tion that the passage was calculated to do good."
The following is the passage (appended to the first letter)
to which exception was taken in the sermon :
"But the servants of God, let their crosses and trials be what they will,
enjoy a better portion. They 'dwell in the secret place of the Most High.'
' The love of God is shed abroad in ' their hearts, and ' the stranger intermed-
dleth not' with their joy. The profligate and the worldling are alike aliens
from the peace with which they are blessed. We do not here speak of
those direct assurances, those communications from God to the breast of
man made sensible at the very moment, .which some believers are too fond
of representing as the evidences of a state of grace ; things which may, in
some extraordinary cases, occur, but in which it is notorious that men may
dangerously delude themselves, and to make which the test of our spiritual
safety is inconsistent with the state of trial and probation in which we are
here placed. They resemble what, in the departments of human science,
are familiarly termed ' royal roads ' of attainment ; for the business of salva
tion lies in a very small compass, if God once for all speaks pardon to our
souls, and we are then secure. Let us remember that, although we may
entertain a deeply-seated trust that 'He Who has begun a good work in' us
'will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ,' and treasure a blessed con-

172 MEMOIR OF
fidence that nothing shall 'separate us from the love of God,' our posture
should be always a posture of watchfulness, distrust of ourselves, and
dependence upon divine grace ; that we are to work out our ' own salva
tion with fear and trembling ' ; that pur course is that of ' patient continu
ance in well-doing,' and ' patient waiting for Christ' ; that he ' that thinketh
he standeth ' must ' take heed lest he fall,' and that ' happy is he,' in this
sense, ' that feareth always.' But at the same time, without any enthusias
tic views, and without incurring the same liability to self-deception, we
claim for the faithful followers of Christ, in a safer and surer shape, all
the genuine and unpretending benefit of that sacred declaration, that ' the
Spirit of God beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of
God.' ' He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.'
The humble and thankful self-appropriation of the promises of the
Gospel; the comfort of casting our care upon God Who careth for
us, and the burthen of sin upon Him Who has promised to give us rest;
the sense of the healing power of the Gospel in our hearts ; our perception of
the hand of God in His providence over us, of the inspiration of His Word,
of the happy effects of His heavenly influence upon ourselves ; the growing
conviction of 'the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus ' ; the con
sciousness of cherishing a hope that ' maketh not ashamed ' ; the exercise
of that temper which the Gospel inculcates and which the grace of God
imparts ; the clear anticipation of a state reserved for the faithful after the
struggles of this weary life ; a state in which all the clouds of sin and sor
row and ignorance shall be forever chased away, — these constitute an
irresistible testimony that their source is from on high, and that we are
the son3 of God, adopted heirs of immortality through the reconciliation of
1 the first-begotten from the dead.' "
In the year 1833 the Archdeacon established a Wednesday
evening service, with sermon, in the cathedral. This was
some years later transferred to Trinity chapel, where he still
continued for a long time to take his share of the duty.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 173

CHAPTER XI.
Voyage to England in 1835 — Consecration as Bishop of Montreal — Death
of his mother.
The efforts of the Bishop of Quebec to obtain assistance in the
duties of his office had been nnrelaxed ; and in 1834 a letter
was addressed to his lordship by the Governor in Chief
(Lord Aylmer) on this subject, in which the following pas
sage occurs ; " I can have no hesitation whatever in stating
my conviction that should such an appointment (of a suffragan
Bishop) receive the sanction of H. M. Government, the
selection of the Archdeacon of Quebec would be hailed with
satisfaction by the whole of the protestant inhabitants of
Lower Canada ; and it affords me much gratification to be
furnished with this opportunity of expressing the very high
sense entertained by myself of the Archdeacon'3 eminent
qualities." Finding it impossible to bring the matter to a
satisfactory termination by correspondence, the Bishop in the
following year prevailed upon the Archdeacon to visit Eng
land for this and other purposes. The maintenance of the
clergy had become a matter of serious anxiety, in consequence
of the withdrawal of the parliamentary grant from the S. P. G.,
whose resources were so much crippled that it became ne
cessary to reduce the salaries of their missionaries, and to
shut out any hope of increasing their number, though that of
the members of the Church, particularly in Upper Canada,
was receiving enormous accessions, year by year, from emi
gration. In order, as far as possible, to provide for their wants,

174 MEMOIR OF
a society had been organized at Quebec and Toronto for
the propagation of the Gospel among destitute settlers and
Indians, a branch of which was afterwards established at Mon
treal. Each branch maintained a travelling missionary, in
whose duties in the Quebec district the charge of the quaran
tine station in summer was included.
The Archdeacon was furnished with a letter of general
introduction from the Bishop to persons in public authority in
England, in which his lordship said ; " The present state of
my health and the pressure of business upon hiy hands, which
in such a state I find excessive, rendering me desirous of
avoiding any unnecessary writing, * * * I wish it to be
known that he has my confidence, and that I commit it to
him, in concert with the friends of the Church at home, to
pursue all such measures as shall be judged advisable either
with reference to H. M. Government, to religious societies,
or to the British public. I commend him, therefore, and
his endeavours to the blessing of God above, and to the
prayers and co-operation of Christian friends." In a letter
written about this time, the Bishop speaks thus ; " Your
great kindness and partiality to me, and usefulness to the
Church bind me in ties of obligation and affection for you
more strong than for any other person almost. My prayers
for you • are very sincere and constant. God bless you !
Believe me always yours faithfully and affectionately,
C. J. Quebec."
The Archdeacon left Quebec with his family on the 10th
August, 1835. His parishioners presented him with an
address on this occasion, which was no empty form, for I well
remember the eagerness with which the congregation of St.
Matthew's chapel affixed their names to it one Sunday even
ing. With reference to the chief object of his mission, the
success of which he conceived to lie at the foundation of all
the rest, he entertained, to the last, the hope that some
English clergyman of experience and ability might be found

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 175
willing to accept the office of suffragan. A difficulty, how
ever, which proved to be insuperable, presented itself in the
uncertainty of the pecuniary provision to be made, for the
Bishop's offer of one-third of his own salary was necessarily
limited to his life, and there was no hope of any renewal of
the parliamentary vote. The Bishop, in the meantime,
continued to urge his own acceptance of the appointment
as the only arrangement which would be satisfactory to
himself, unless, failing this, he could induce any one of
three or four English clergymen whom he named, to take
it. On the 14th November, 1835, his lordship wrote from
Quebec, " I am sensible that it is my duty to spare no pains
to accomplish the appointment of a suffragan to assist me
in this see with as httle delay as possible, and that I should
urge, as far as I reasonably can, your soliciting the appoint
ment for yourself. * * * I am disposed to refrain from
positively recommending any one except yourself and Dr.
D.;" and on the 12th December, to his own brother (who
rendered essential service in the affair), "Your letter re
ceived to-day is very acceptable. As Mr. Stephen, Lord
Glenelg, and Sir G. Grey are quite well-disposed with
regard to a suffragan, I trust that Almighty God is about to
will and to order the accomplishment of the work. * * *
Is it not a good time for making an arrangement for provid
ing a Bishop in Upper Canada and one also in Lower
Canada ?* I heartily wish that Dr. Mountain may concur in
this plan, that I may be appointed to Upper Canada, but
God's will be done ! * * * I think the Archdeacon is
so well fitted to be Bishop of this Lower province, that I earn
estly hope that, D. V., a permanent provision may be made
for it." The result of the negociations with the Colonial
Office (all the authorities of which gave their attention,

* This was found impracticable until, three or four years later, the present
Bishop of Toronto consented to take the office without salary.

176 MEMOIR OF
with very marked kindness, to the subject) appears in a cor
respondence between them and Dr. Mountain, which was
printed for the information of the clergy of Lower Canada.
The Archdeacon was induced, by the advice of the Archbishop
of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and different friends,
no longer to withhold his consent, which was urged upon him
by Lord Glenelg in the following terms : " I can hold out
no secular inducement to any one to assume the labour and
responsibility necessarily attached to such an office. I am
aware that when it was proposed to me that a suffragan
Bishop should be appointed with a permanent, salary, you
expressed an unwillingness to accept the appointment, although
the Bishop of Quebec was most desirous that you should be
selected for this station. Sensible, however, as I am of the
disinterested anxiety which you have evinced to promote the
welfare of the Church in Canada, I am encouraged to hope
that, under the circumstances which I have stated, you will
not refuse your personal assistance towards carrying into
effect the arrangement in question. If upon consideration
you should feel yourself able to accede to this proposal, I
shall have much pleasure, with the concurrence of the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, in sanctioning the appointment, and
in submitting your name to His Majesty as suffragan Bishop
of Quebec. I cannot doubt that much benefit will accrue to
the interests of the Church in North America from the zealous
and efficient discharge of the duties which will devolve upon
you in that character." On the 30th December, the Arch
deacon wrote to inform the Bishop that he had yielded to his
wishes, adding, " It is just possible, however, that a person may
yet be found, who, having an independent fortune, and being
in all respects eligible, may be substituted for myself. * * *
I am sure I shall have your special prayers, if I am to be
called to a more arduous post in your diocese." In the next
letter, four days later, he says, " I am thankful to have
executed the arrangements respecting the suffragan in a way

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 177
accordant with the wishes which you express, although it is
not a very encouraging prospect. * * * gtiU I feel
satisfied that, unworthy though I am, the path of duty is
marked out for me. * * * I esteem it a matter of great
thankfulness (this is on the 3rd February, 1836,) that I shall
be associated with such a person as your lordship, whom as
a Christian Bishop I unfeignedly and deeply revere, and
to whom as a friend uniformly kind I am strongly attached.
God grant me increased wisdom, humility, devotedness, and
love to Himself and to my fellow-creatures in the more
elevated and arduous post to which I am called ! When the
clergy hold their next meeting, request them all to remember
me in their private prayers, with a special reference to the
task which now opens before me. I sometimes feel discour
aged and depressed, especially when I first wake in the morn
ing ; but I trust God will strengthen me, since it appears to
be the will of His Providence that I should hold the office,
for circumstances have conspired in a manner scarcely to
leave me the option. I rejoice to think of the unity of senti
ment which prevails between us, and although infinitely behind
you in the race of godliness, I trust that I shall be found pur
suing the same track, upholding in a consistent manner the
interests of the episcopal Church of England, but always
identifying them with the advancement of the kingdom of
Christ, and regarding all maintenance of the claims of the
Church as in subordination to her efficiency in promoting the
genuine influence of the Gospel. When I look back upon the
way that I have measured, I cannot but deplore my own
unworthiness ; but the greater it is, so much greater is the
mercy which has called me to the office of pastor, and finally
to that of Bishop in the Church of God ; and I hope that my
sense of this mercy will be an additional incentive to my
devoting myself to the work assigned to me."
The Bishop replied, " I am inexpressibly obliged to you
for your kindness in consenting to accept the appointment."

178 MEMOIR OF
The consecration took place in the chapel of Lambeth
Palace, on Sunday, 14th February, 1836, at the same time
with that of Dr. Broughton, the first Bishop of Australia.
The Archbishop was assisted by the Bishops of London,
Winchester, and Gloucester. The preacher, the Rev. Dr.
Molesworth, referred to the persons to be consecrated in the
following terms :
" I have ample grounds of assurance that they are not persons who would
lightly or unprepared encounter such a fearful responsibility. In the indi
vidual who is to be consecrated to the diocese of Montreal, we have one
who has been long tried in all the duties of the ministry, and whose useful
ness is placed on honourable record in the proceedings of our Church socie
ties. He has had also to prove his devotion to the cause of bis Master, as
St. Paul did, 'in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in hunger and thirst,
in cold,' and in those privations and hardships which the climate and the
difficulties of the country have compelled him to encounter, and which
he has encountered as one conscious of the service in which they were
required." The day after his consecration, his friend and former tutor,
the Rev. J. K. Miller,* wrote to his elder brother :
" Your letter arrived yesterday evening, the day, it seems, appointed for
George's consecration with his brother Archdeacon, now Bishop of Austral
asia. May all blessings from above attend him and both of them ! As for the
preferment or prelacy, I regard it much in the same light that you do.
Congratulations would be — I was going to say — quite out of place; but
at least they must have been steeped in pensive lookings-out, and certainly
cleared of all worldly and carnal views, before one would think of offering
them. Having undergone that process, they may, perhaps, be suitably
presented ; and if you write to your brother before I do, perhaps you will
be so kind as to express our feelings to him accordingly. After all the rest
of our household had retired to rest, S. and I knelt down to repeat the
prayers contained in the office of consecration in behalf of the two new
Bishops, with such alterations and additions as the case required. We
begged that our voice might be added to that of the congregation, and our
prayer not cast out, though we were distant, and ' small, and of no reputa
tion,' and unworthy. And this petition, as made sincerely, I now repeat.
And now congratulate me, if you please, on having a pupil a Bishop. Of
* See page 18.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 179
such a Bishop I may indeed justly be proud. But how strange it seems I I
dare say you participate in a great many of the indescribable feelings which
crowd upon my mind at this development of time and Providence."
I cannot withhold an extract from a touching note addressed
to him on the day of the consecration by his youngest
brother, accompanied with a ring on which was a mitre and
his crest :
"My Dear Lord and Dearest Brother: .
" This ring was thy father's, and is now thine by thy mother's command.
"Thou wilt not value it the less because it has been nearly eleven years
in my keeping, during the last four of which I have constantly worn it-
* * * May the Lord God of our fathers bless thee ; may He fill full the
measure of thy earthly prosperity ; may He reserve for thee that crown of
happiness unspeakable which I, save through a miracle of His mercy for the
sake of Christ Jesus our Saviour, may never hope to wear with thee."
There is a letter from his mother, dated 18th February,
in which she says :
" My prayers were for you ; my mind much with you. I am thankful to
the Giver of all good Who has raised you to this responsible station, and
assisted by His grace and Spirit I have no doubt but that you will endea
vour to do your duty as you have in all situations. God will bless you,
my own dear son, and reward you hereafter. May we all so conduct our
selves here as to hope to meet him who is gone before us in a blessed
eternity I * * * The Archbishop told R  he never laid hands on
any one with more entire satisfaction, or looked with more confidence to
the good such men would do. That you, my son, deserve such commenda
tion fills my heart with thankfulness to Almighty God."
On this letter is written, " The last from thy hand, dear,
honoured, sainted mother ! God be praised Who gave me
thee for a mother, and still bless the remembrance of thee to
all thy children !"
It was on the 13th April that the mother whom all her
children so deeply and so justly revered was taken from them.
She had spent part of the winter at Southampton, to be near
her son, the Archdeacon, who had a house there during his
stay in England, and there her four sons (one from Canada

180 MEMOIR OF
and another from India) met together for the first time for
upwards of five and twenty years. They met again at
Havant Rectory, to partake with her and one of their sisters,
for the last time, in the Holy Communion administered by the
Bishop, and to receive her parting blessing. On the 13th the
Bishop wrote to his own family :
"It is all over, — but, thank God, in a most blessed, blessed way. I
have lost the mother that bore me, that nursed me out of her bosom, that
tended me in helpless infancy and in many a weary hour of sickness by
night and by day, and that watched and prayed for all her children to the
last. * * * What suffering she has had in the last few days has served
only to leave an increased impression of her humble resignation. Yester
day she gathered us all round the bed, and, with joined hands and uplifted
eyes, prayed for us and blessed us, — a sweet prayer and memorable bless
ing, — and as we were leaving the room, she said, ' I have blessed you and
you. shall be blessed.'"
Her children erected a monument to her in'Havant church,
for which the Bishop wrote the following lines :
"Yes, thou art gone; thy children will not raise
The common notes of monumental praise :
What they have lost in thee, asks not for speech;
What thou hast found in Christ, words cannot reach."
I shall conclude this chapter with extracts from two letters
written with reference to this occasion. The first is from the
Bishop of Quebec. After mentioning that on hearing of Mrs.
Mountain's death he had called upon the only person then
bearing her name in Quebec, and prayed with her, he adds,
" I reflect with pleasure on the comfort and happiness I
derived from my acquaintance and intercourse with your
mother during many years." The letter ends with the words
" Pray for us frequently." The other is from the aged Dean
of Winchester, Dr. Rennell :
"Deeply as I lament the event of your excellent mother's decease, I can
not but feel some gratification in your lordship's thinking me worthy of a
communication of the sad tidings. Indeed you do me but justice in sup
posing that in every circumstance materially concerning your family I take

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 181
a sincere interest. Besides the veneration in which I, in common with all
those to whom Christianity is dear, hold your father's labours and exertions
the obligations I owe to him and his memory for the great kindness he
shewed the orphan of the B  family, and which has been so kindly con
tinued by yourself, must leave a great debt of gratitude to you. Allow me
to express my most sincere congratulations on your advancement to the
episcopate, for which every requisite seems to meet in your character.
Notwithstanding the boisterous storms and waves which seem to surround
you in the quarter where your labours are to commence, yet the very dan
gers and conflicts are the high privileges of your calling, and you serve a
Master Who will 'never leave or forsake you.' But I feel that I am guilty
of much presumption in suggesting to so superior a mind thoughts that
must have long occupied it."

182 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER XII.
Return to Canada, — Death of Bishop Stewart — Statistics of the diocese-
Parochial labours — Visitation tour.
Archdeacon Mountain was appointed to assist the Bishop
of Quebec, under the title of Bishop of Montreal. He had,
however, no separate jurisdiction, nor was any see erected
at Montreal, and he acted under a commission from Bishop
Stewart. The understanding between the Bishop of Quebec
and himself was that he should relieve him entirely of the
charge of Lower Canada, and render such assistance in that
of the Upper province as might become necessary. It was
also understood that on the occurrence of a vacancy he was
to assume the charge of the whole diocese.
During his stay in England, which lasted till the end of July
1836, he was constantly engaged in efforts for the advance
ment of the interests of the Church. He addressed the Colo
nial Office on the subject of the Clergy Reserves, with which
he had been specially charged ,' but having been informed that
it had been comprehended in the instructions given to the
three Royal Commissioners who had then been recently sent
out to enquire into Canadian affairs, he thought it better to
leave it in the hands of the Bishop, to be brought before the
Commissioners at Quebec. With the societies for the Propa
gation of the Gospel and Promoting Christian knowledge he
was naturally in continual correspondence and intercourse.
But he was also much occupied with a new society which the
wants of Upper Canada had called into existence, and of

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 183
which the Earl of Galloway, nephew of the Bishop of Quebec,
was the chief promoter* In writing to the Bishop soon after
his consecration, he says, " I have had the satisfaction, by
attending the meetings at Lord Galloway's, and by corres
pondence with the secretary of the Upper Canada society, to
get that vessel fairly launched, which before was only upon the
stocks." He drafted its rules, and procured the adhesion
to it of the Bishop of London. He also endeavoured
to persuade the Rev. W. J. D. Waddilove, who had devoted
himself with extraordinary energy to the cause of the Cana
dian Church, to take the same step. Mr. Waddilove had
raised, by his own private exertions, a fund which was called,
after the Bishop, (to whom he was related by marriage) the
Stewart Mission Fund, and was the means of maintaining
travelling missionaries in Upper Canada, as well as of afford
ing some aid to Lower Canada, for many years. The Bishop
of Montreal had a great objection to the unnecessary multipli
cation of societies and agencies, and ultimately succeeded in
procuring the incorporation of the U. C. C. S. with the S. P. G.
This venerable society had lately, notwithstanding its difficul
ties, increased its grant to the diocese of Quebec by ,£500 a
year, by means of the sale of some of its capital ; and the
Bishop of Montreal, in consideration of the aid given to Upper
Canada by the new society and Mr. Waddilove, put in a plea
for Lower Canada in the distribution of this bounty, specially
instancing the wants of the Chateauguay country, the Gore
on the Ottawa, the county of Megantic, Kilkenny and Framp
ton. He addressed an appeal to the S. P. G. on behalf of the
Canadian Church, which was published by that body, and in
which all these places are particularly mentioned as affording
striking examples of spiritual destitution. I extract what is
said of Kilkenny :
* In a letter dated 2nd March, 1836,Lord Galloway expresses "the assur
ance how much gratification your consecration had given to myself and my
friends * * * as a means of spiritual advantage to Canada."

184 MEMOIR OF
" I have been assured that there are one hundred and twenty families in
the township, and that they all belong to our own Church. I do not think
that any of our clergy have ever penetrated to this settlement ; and I have
no reason to doubt the melancholy truth of an account given to me, that
the people, hearing of a protestant minister whom some circumstance had
brought into the adjoining seigneurie, came trooping through the woods
with their infants in their arms, to present them for baptism in the name
of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to one who was a preacher of
the Unitarian persuasion."
The Bishop landed at Quebec on Sunday, the 11th Sep
tember, 1836.* On the following Sunday, the letters patent
appointing him Bishop of Montreal, and his commission from
the Bishop of Quebec were read in the cathedral after the
Nicene Creed. The health of Bishop Stewart had become so
impaired that he was obliged to make arrangements for pro
ceeding immediately to England, instead of spending the
winter at Toronto, and thus the charge of the whole diocese
devolved at once upon the Bishop of Montreal. Bishop Stewart
never returned to Canada. Becoming more and more en
feebled, he atlast sank in July, 1837. He was able to write once
only, on the 6th December, to his coadjutor after his arrival
in England, and on the back of the letter, the person to whom
it was addressed wrote : — " The last which I ever expect
from the hands of that worn-out servant of Christ. God
grant me a measure of the same spirit which was given to
him." In his correspondence with the S. P. G. he thus refers
to the death of Bishop Stewart : — " His decease deprives the
Church in Canada of one who was her boast and her blessing,
and the clergy of a father and a friend. I have myself lost
a personal friend who had long honoured me with the most
intimate confidence, and I succeed for the present to his
charge with much fear and trembling, having no hope of
ever doing what he has done, and being destitute of many
* By a curious coincidence the present Metropolitan of Canada, then
recently consecrated under the same title of Bishop of Montreal, reached
that city on exactly the same day fourteen years afterwards.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 185
advantages which he enjoyed ; but at the same time, with
the determination, by the help of God, to follow up whatever
he had put in train to the utmost of my power. I may
well be content to be one day worn out like him, if I am
worn out in the same service."
The Bishop of Montreal had secured in England the
assistance of the Rev. George Mackie, B.A., of Pembroke
College, Cambridge, who accompanied him to Canada to
relieve him of the greater part of his duties in the parish of
Quebec, as well as to adt as examining chaplain. He still
took, however, his regular turn in preaching both in the
cathedral and St. Matthew's chapel, and continued to do so
at the former place as long as he lived, and at St. Matthew's
till 1858,* besides bearing an active part in the management
of parochial institutions and constantly visiting his parishioners,
especially the sick and the afflicted. For many years he
preached on every Saint's day, as well as catechized the
children of the schools and the congregation on Wednesdays
and Fridays in Lent. And he took a large share of all these
duties as long as he lived. He made repeated efforts to pro
cure the appointment of Mr. Mackie to the rectory, bat the
consent of the Government could not be obtained to this
arrangement, except at the sacrifice of the grant for the
* In May 1838, the Bishop removed from the town of Quebec to March
mont, where his father had spent the latter days of his life, about a mile
and a half distant. He fitted up a building in the grounds as a temporary
chapel, where he regularly performed service and preached on Sunday
afternoons, besides superintending a Sunday-school which he formed there,
without any interruption of his regular turns at the cathedral or St. Mat
thew's. These labours were continued during the three years of his resi
dence at Marchmont, and the recollection of them still lives in the memory
of many poor who benefited by them. The Sunday-school was kept up for
some time afterwards through the exertions of the ladies of a family who
succeeded him in the occupation of the house. On his return to Quebec,
after leaving Marchmont, in 1841, he had a Bible-class of young men;
chiefly candidates for confirmation, in his own house, and on every occasion
of confirmation in Quebec he prepared some candidates himself.
N

186 MEMOIR OF
rector's salary, which it was not thought desirable, in the
existing circumstances of the Church, to lose. Soon
after his return to Quebec, the Bishop established a
parochial lending library of religious and useful reading,
and organized a district-visiting society, in behalf of which
he issued an address. A few extracts from this address
may serve to shew the principles on which he worked
himself, and invited the co-operation of others. A Church
of England clothing society was established at the same
time. " We all profess to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ ; and professing
this, we must acknowledge the authority which tells us that, ' if any man
have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of His '; that in kind acts of lowly
condescension He has given us an example that we should do to our breth
ren as He did to them whose feet He washed ; that even in suffering, if
necessary, for others, He left ' us an example that ye should follow His steps,'
and has charged us Himself that, as He loved us, so ought we ' to love one
another.' These are very plain declarations, and there is no escape from
their force. We must confess that they indicate our positive duty, or we
must renounce the Gospel.
"But is it so that any of us can wish to escape from their force? Is it
so that we desire to avoid being followers of the Lamb of God? Do we
really believe that He died upon the Cross to save our sinful souls, and shall
we refuse to recognize for the rule of our own practice the maxim of scrip
ture that ' the love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that
if One died for all, then were all dead ; and that He died for all that they which
live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him Which died
for them and rose again '? If we are truly touched with any sense of what
that love was which Christ shewed for us, we shall surely be prompted to
evidence our sense of it, and impelled by our own feelings to do whatever
little we can for His sake. We can render no benefit to Him, and, when we
have done all, are unprofitable servants, but He graciously says that what
we do for the love of Him to one of the least of our brethren, we do it unto
Himself. And we have just seen how His own example is proposed to us.
What then was the general character of that example ? What was the
business of His life while upon the earth? He ' went about doing good and
healing all that were oppressed of the devil.'
" A little time, therefore, a little trouble, a little self-denial, a little effort
to surmount obstacles, a little perseverance in spite of disappointed labour,
will not be thought too great a sacrifice when we can hope to promote His
cause on earth. And if you are willing to make this sacrifice, you have

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 187
good grounds for such a hope in bearing your part in the work of this
society. In so doing you will go ' about doing good,' promoting the tem
poral and spiritual good of your fellow-sinners. The rules of the society
are before you ; the instructions for the visitors are in your hands. You
have only faithfully to follow them, and you may be instrumental to the
welfare of old and young around you. If you can make one poor family
or one member of it more orderly, contented and comfortable, it is some
reward of your labour. If you can suggest thoughts to one erring soul
which may lead to repentance unto life, you will cause ' JOY IN THE
PRESENCE OF THE ANGELS OF GOD.'
" And this exalted privilege you may humbly hope to enjoy. You can
not tell, you cannot calculate, the extent of good which you may be
employed in the hands of God to effect. An affectionate interest mani
fested for the poor by those above them may of itself open their hearts to
new views and hopes. A plain remonstrance may draw the negligent to
the house of God to hear that Word which may prove to them the savour
of life. A judicious and impressive tract left in their houses may awaken
in them a concern for their own salvation. An enquiry respecting the
catechism and the habit of prayer, or an invitation to the Sunday-school
may produce benefits to their children which will cause them to be num
bered among the children of God and to transmit to their children's chil
dren the inheritance of faith. A simple recommendation of the Bible may
lead them to open it, and, opening it, to apply its saving truths. A very
few words of friendly and christian advice or comfort may prove to be seed
dropped in a happy moment and destined to spring up into everlasting
life. ' A word spoken in due season how good is it. "
The Bishop's first ordination was held on the 28th Octo
ber, 1836. The number of clergy in the diocese at the date
of his assumption of the charge was eighty-five. Of these
thirty-four were in Lower Canada, equally divided between
the present dioceses of Quebec and Montreal.* The number
* At this date it may be interesting to give the names of the stations
of the Lower Canada clergy. Besides five resident at Quebec, three at
Montreal, and one travelling missionary, there were, in the district of
Quebec, only one, at Leeds ; in the district of Three Rivers, only two,
the rectors of Three Rivers and Drummondville ; in the district of St.
Francis, four, at Melbourne, Lennoxville, Eaton and Hatley ; in Gasp6,
two, at Gasped Basin and Carlisle ; in the present diocese of Montreal,
fifteen parishes and missions (of which one was served from the Upper
Canada side of the Ottawa,) at Sorel, Abbottsford, Chambly, St.

188 MEMOIR OF
of churches in Lower Canada was forty-two, and this also
was equally divided between the present dioceses. The
increase in the number of clergy in the whole of Canada
during the ten years of Bishop Stewart's administration had
been twenty-four.
As soon as the Bishop was fairly settled at Quebec, he
began to make arrangements for visiting the* parishes and
missions of Lower Canada, and in November issued a circular
to the clergy, appointing confirmations. He left Quebec on
his first visitation-tour, immediately after morning service
on the feast of the Epiphany, 1837, "after one of the most
remarkable snow-storms which had occurred within the
memory of man." On this account the journey began with
disappointment. His first mark was Rivi&re du Loup en haut
(the Bishop of Quebec having recently held a confirmation at
Three Rivers) which he reached, by the most forced efforts,
at noon on Sunday the 8th January. The missionary at
Sorel, within whose charge this place was comprehended, had
been prevented by the snow-storm from coming down to con
clude the preparation of the candidates for confirmation during
the previous week, and abstained from doing so on Sunday,
thinking the Bishop's progress impossible. From Lake Mas-
kinonge", where there were other candidates, prepared by a
catechist, who were to have come to Rivi&re du Loup, there
was no egress for fifteen days afterwards. " It was some
consolation, however, (in the words of the journal addressed
to the S. P. G., from which the following passages are taken)
that I had it in my power to officiate to the few Protestants
Johns, Clarenceville, Frelighsburgh, Philipsburgh, Stanbridge, Dunham,
Shefford, Rawdon, St. Andrews, Grenville, Hull, and Coteau du Lac.
To these Chateauguay, Nicolet, Perce, and Frampton were added very
shortly afterwards. In November 1836, having learned that the sum of
£600 per annum was available from the Clergy Reserve Fund, the
Bishop applied, but without success, to the Royal Commissioners for
the establishment of new missions.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 189
who were sufficiently near to be collected for afternoon ser
vice, and I preached to about twenty persons in the little stone
church, which had never been opened since the visit of the
Bishop of Quebec, about a year before. On the 10th January
I held my first confirmation. Twenty-two young persons were
confirmed at Sorel ; eight were prevented from attending. I
addressed a charge to them and afterwards preached, which
practice, having no chaplain with me, I followed as a matter
of course in all the remainder of my visitation * * *- The
church at Rawdon has been built by the exertions of the Rev.
C. P. Reid, who, by the Divine blessing, has overcome great
disadvantages under which he entered on his charge. It is
a very homely, though at the same time a decent, structure,
being built of squared logs, and not having arched windows,
but it has a steeple surmounted by a large cross.* * * Twenty-
seven were confirmed, and among them two whose faces were
very familiar to me, they having been educated at the Quebec
National School. * * * On Sunday the 15th, I admitted
to Priest's Orders at Montreal, a deacon who had come from
Upper Canada for the purpose. He was in sole charge, owing
to the absence of the missionary of the Mohawks on the Grand
River. * * * There ivs a great, deficiency of church accom
modation at Montreal, the parish church, although very large,
being alone quite insufficient. Mr. Bethune and Mr. Robertson
do their utmost to supply this deficiency, by a service which
they have established, by candle-light, in the national school-
house. It is well attended ; but two clergymen, with all their
exertions, cannot do all the duty which the Church would
require at Montreal, especially as one of them serves the
church at Lachine.* Mr. Bethune is endeavouring to put
matters in train for the erection of another place of worship
and the introduction of another minister, to be supported by
the pew-rents. * * * In bearing my part in the solemn
 *—  — 
* The rector at this time was acting also as chaplain to the forces.

190 MEMOIR OF
ceremony of confirmation, I have been more and more struck
as well with its impressiveness as its importance, and with the
obligation which lies upon the rulers and pastors of the Church,
to turn to all the happy account of which they are capable,
means which may at once be believed to afford an actual con
veyance of grace to the recipients, and, by the blessing of
Heaven upon the ordinary train of causes and effects, to
guard the lambs of the flock against a fatal estrangement from
the great Shepherd of their souls, and retain them also within
the regular bounds of the fold. * * * The Bishop of Quebec
had established a rule that no person should be admitted to
confirmation under the age of fifteen ; but I was requested by
the clergyman at St. Andrew's to dispense with the rule in
favour of a female, who, although she had not attained that
age, had been for some time married. * * * If the Board
should find that there is no prospect of obtaining from Govern
ment what I have pressed upon the attention of the Royal
Commissioners, I must only hope that, in their own solicitude
to relieve the spiritual destitution of Canada, they will feel
warranted in applying for the same object a portion of the
funds of the society, and look to an increase by the Divine
blessing in proportion to the compassion which they extend.
On my way down the Ottawa I saw, between nine and ten
o'clock at night, so glorious a spectacle that I regard it as a
privilege to have been permitted to behold it in my day upon
the earth. It was a display of the Aurqra Borealis which
was seen all over the colony and in the adjoining States, and
was so brilliant that the reddening reflection upon the snow
was everywhere supposed, upon the first aspect, to be caused
by some neighbouring building in a blaze.* In the centre of
the arch of heaven there appeared a kind of radiating crown,
* At New York it was said that the fire-engines were got out. At Quebec,
where it was seen a few hours earlier than is here mentioned, the appear
ance was not unlike that which is described in " Life with the Esquimaux,
the narrative of Captain Charles Francis Hall."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 191
diverging from which were broad dependent streamers of
which the skirts reached nearly to the horizon, and which,
when I first saw them, looked almost like an assemblage of
united rainbows covering the whole face of the sky ; but the
only colours which remained after a time were a beautiful red,
and a brilliant silvery kind of white, the latter forming, as it
were, a broad edging to each streamer of the former hue.
Nothing to be compared to this display of glory has been wit
nessed before in the Canadas, within the memory of man.* * *
From some want of precision in the notice respecting the con
firmation at Vaudrueuil, a mistake arose, and on my arrival
there on the evening of the 25th, I found that Mr. Leeds had
appointed a meeting with the candidates at twelve o'clock the
next day, which I had fixed for the confirmation. Having
made my arrangements to proceed to CSteau du Lac in the
afternoon, I sent round messages to desire their attendance at
ten instead of twelve, and I occupied the two hours before
his arrival in examining and instructing them myself. Punc
tually at twelve he came into the school-house, and after he
had read prayers, I confirmed twenty-five persons, with the
evidences of whose preparation I had been satisfied. I took
up my quarters at the CSteau at the house of an American
of the congregationalist persuasion, but with no prejudice
against the Church, and always desirous of the assistance of
her ministers who may happen to be under the roof in family
devotion. In describing the footing occupied by the ministers
of his own communion among their flocks, he told me that
having engaged a preacher, they kept him as long as they
pleased and quarrelled with him when they pleased.* * * In
emerging from a wood, on the road to Huntingdon, into a
clearing full of stumps, we were at a loss to pursue the right
track, and drove up to a log hut, where, by a light through
the window, I saw a mother reading the Bible to her children
closing round her knees. She was rejoiced to see me, and,
bringing out a lantern, walked in front of us for some distance

192 MEMOIR OF
through the snow, and set us in our right course. * * * At
Ormstown I confirmed seventy-two persons, and the number
would have been much larger had it not been for the inability
of some of the candidates to meet me at this point : and I
baptized ten children. I preached at Huntingdon, in a small
edifice of squared logs, ' contrived a double debt to pay,' being
constructed for holding the sessions of the magistrates, and
adapted also for use as a school-room. I had thirty-nine
communicants, baptized eleven children, and churched the
mothers. The next day at a settlement called the Gore, in
a school-house of squared logs, I preached, administered the
Lord's Supper to thirty-two communicants, baptized eleven
children, and churched the mothers. At Chateauguay I con
firmed twenty-six persons (making in all ninety-eight on the
Chateauguay river) , baptized two children, and churched the
mothers. Part of the service was chanted, and I fully believe,
that a spirit of devotion pervaded the assembly. * * * Dr.
A  having had a stove put up in the church at Laprairie,
which had been long closed, I officiated to between fifty and
sixty persons, and encouraged them to hope for the renewal
of regular services in the spring. I afterwards baptized two
children. * * * The smallness of the number confirmed at
 was partly, I believe, to be accounted for by the strict
standard of the requisites for preparation established by Mr.
 ; and even if it was too strict (which I am far from mean
ing to affirm that it was), the error was on the right side. The
people themselves, however, in places where, as here, the
American population predominates, are so far from being
disposed to laxity upon this point, that, in my judgment, their
notions are often hurtfully overstrained. Instead of regard
ing the ordinance as an aid to those who are in an early stage
of the Christian life, and whose voluntary engagement the
Church may in good hope receive, if they manifest a serious
impression of its nature, can give a distinct account of their
own faith in Christ as the Saviour of sinners, and the leading

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. ' 193
points of scriptural truth, and are known to be religiously
correct in their deportment, the persons in question are apt
to exact as a pre-requisite a degree of spiritual attainment
to which I conceive that confirmation, rightly understood, is
one of the commencing steps. The communications of Divine
grace to the soul are supposed to be wholly independent of
any such means ; and confirmation is rather admitted as a
public declaration of having experienced religion, with a
peculiar sense attached to those words, than recognized as a
solemnity in which the preparation of the candidate, sealed
by his own promise and crowned by the prayers and benedic
tion of the Church, which draw down the blessing from on
high, confirms him in seeking the way of life. Some may,
in this way, be prompted to come forward who have mistaken
a transient excitement for a true conversion: others are
deterred from doing so by the very humility which is the best
qualification for approaching God. Nothing surely can be
more contrary than all this to the evident spirit of the Church
in framing her ordinances. Yet after all, as I said before,
the error of strictness is the better of the two. * * * A
few miles brought us to Mr. Reid's parish. The house was
pointed out to me from a distance, on the road, in which the
Bishop of Quebec first lodged, and we passed the site of the
school-house, now demolished, in which he began his preach
ing. These are among the cherished traditions of the neigh
bourhood, which has none beyond the memory of living man.
* * * We stopped to bait at a log farm-house close to the
church. The mistress of it was a daughter of  , who
gave the Bishop of Quebec 800 acres of land towards the
church-building fund which his lordship was forming for the
diocese. Her husband was lying on his back in a rude and
homely bed, having, at the age of more than sixty years,
suffered a severe fracture of the leg. The son who lives with
them had, a year before, broken his arm, which remains awk
wardly bent. The woman herself had been for a great numher

194 ' MEMOIR OF
of years afflicted with incurable lameness, proceeding from
some disorder and causing continual pain. As I sat and
warmed myself over their fire upon a hearth of ill-assorted
stones (for they had no stove, and scarcely any comforts
about them) I got into conversation with her ; and I might
rather say, perhaps, that I had an opportunity of learning
than of teaching, for, as far as I could form a judgment from
iher words, I found her, under the circumstances which I have
described, not only resigned and contented, but thankful and,
n a manner perfectly plain and unafiected, able to express
her sense of that goodness which weans us by affliction from
the world, and conforms us to the example of a suffering
Lord. * * * Divine service was held in the school-house in
the evening, and I preached to a good congregation. They
brought their own candles, and as they walked home through
the snow with lighted candles in their hands, they had very
much the appearance of some procession. At Abbottsford
the impressive and affecting ceremony of adult baptism was
administered to four persons by Mr. Johnson, who was well
satisfied with their state of preparation. Twenty-one were
confirmed. The state of the roads was very unfavourable.
Four young persons, however, belonging to the family of an
Englishman, came the distance of sixteen miles. Mr. Johnson
received them all into his own house, and kept them for the
night.* I had proposed to preach in the evening at the
school-house in Granby, an offer which was very gladly
accepted ; but upon its being afterwards recollected that a con
gregational minister had previously sent to make an appoint
ment for the same purpose, I withdrew my proposal at once,
to avoid the appearance of opposition. I found, however,
what may appear sufficiently characteristic of the state of
* A similar instance of hospitality on the part of a clergyman is recorded
elsewhere in this year, where upwards of twenty candidates for confirma
tion were received for the night into the parsonage.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 195
things among newly-established settlements, that the people,
by communication with this minister, had made arrangements
for my officiating as soon as he should have closed, and he was
so accommodating as to limit himself in point of time. I
thought it best to acquiesce in this arrangement, and the
minister himself remained with the other hearers. * * * The
Rev. L. Doolittle has opened a school at Lennoxville, and such
has been the accession of respectable families of late to his
neighbourhood, that' I think I have nowhere seen in America
such a collection of right English-looking youths of a gentle
manly stamp. * * * Mr. Slack, a half-pay officer of the
navy, drove me to Eaton, and from thence to Bury, where we
put up for the night in a solitary public-house by the road
side. The whole accommodation disposable for our benefit
was one tiny room, in which was one bed. We set off early
in the morning, and as I came out of the house, I was struck
by the characteristic nature of the scene. Long icicles were
hanging from the roof of the log-built house ; the snow freshly
fallen was lodged in masses upon the branches of the trees ;
and the only view was up and down the track passing in front
of the house, which was broken through the narrow vista of
tall wintry woods. It took us three hours to accomplish the
eleven miles which we had to go to the Victoria settlement,
which is a kind of focus of the operations of the Canada Land
Company in this tract of country, and promises to become
hereafter an important place. It had been arranged that I
should take advantage of the day on which the settlers attend
to receive their rations ; and the issuing-house, a* log-building
having a counter within, was appointed as the place for ser
vice. The number present was at least seventy, and the
house would scarcely have held more. I baptized one child
and churched the mother. A great many of the Company's set
tlers are from Norfolk, my own native county, and I hope that
it was pardonable, after the affectionate manner in which an
apostle speaks of his ' kinsmen after the flesh,' to feel some

196 MEMOIR OF
increased interest in them on this account. We returned the
same evening to the public-house before described. Among
the habitations which we passed on the way was one con
structed of bark, without either door or chimney, but with
an aperture in the roof for the escape of the smoke. It was
almost buried in snow, which formed indeed the best protec
tion of the miserable inmates. I stopped at two houses on
the road for the purposes of baptism and churching. The
settlers, dispersed about at different distances in the woods,
came flocking to meet me the next day at Bury Village, and
service was held at the appointed hour in a house belonging to
the Company, two rooms of which were occupied for the pur
pose. The people were jammed together, and there were
some who, after all, could not gain admittance. It was
calculated that three hundred were present. If, in the very
infancy of the settlement, at such extremely short notice, and
upon a week-day, so many people could be collected, and
those manifesting such eagerness to attend, it will be evident
how imperative is the claim of this place, combined with Vic
toria, for spiritual assistance ; and the Society will, I am sure,
approve of my having allotted to this station a portion of the
grant made in November, 1835, for additional missionaries.
As a provision, ad interim, for this object, I directed the Rev.
J. Taylor of Eaton to give one Sunday in the month to these
two settlements ; and the people appeared very grateful when
I announced my intention of making this arrangement, and
my hope of providing them, at no very distant period, with a
resident minister. Although there could be no confirmation
in these settlements, because there was nobody to prepare the
candidates, I am thankful that I was enabled to visit them.* *
The village of Sherbrooke, in which the district court is
established, and which the Land Company have made their
central point, is likely to become a place of consideration ;
and an impulse has been given to all the surrounding town
ships, which opens the prospect of rapid improvement and

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 197

accumulating population. Even the tracts of continuous
forest may, before many years have passed, exhibit scenes of
industry, cultivation, and social intercourse ; and the voice
of the bridegroom, the sound of the millstone, and the light
of the candle may be things familiar in what is now a vast
howling wilderness. It is melancholy to think how meagre
and precarious is the provision for the first interests of those
to whose enterprise the stores of nature are thus laid open ;
how utterly inadequate are the means at command, and,
according to all earthly calculation, the means in prospect
for furnishing to these successive aggregations of the human
family what they want as immortal beings, and gathering them
into the fold of the Church ' that they may be saved through
Christ for ever.' The patrimony of the Church stands
adjudged, in the purpose of Government, to other objects
which are conceived to be more important ; and the Company,
although they are obliged to make a certain expenditure in
works of public utility, among which the erection of churches
is especially mentioned, appear to have decided that this shall
be the only work which they will omit. The plea for declin
ing assistance in the case of the settlements at Bury and
Victoria was the inexpediency of opening a door to applica
tions of the same kind from different sects. But, even if it
were admissible, in a reasonable or 'a religious view of the
case, to place the claims of the national Church of England,
preserving its hierarchy from the first ages of Christianity,
upon a level with those of modern and irregular sects, it might
have been considered that the great bulk of the population in
these settlements are confessedly adherents of the Church. I
am greatly mortified at this decision on the part of a body
whose operations in other respects must be regarded as highly
beneficial to the colony: and it may, perhaps, be judged
proper by the Board to open some communication with the
heads of the Company at home, in order to impress upon them
the responsibility which it surely cannot be questioned that

198 MEMOIR OF
they contract, to provide for the religious interests of the
thousands whom they remove from the home of their fathers,
and in them of the millions of whom they must be believed
to be the progenitors. * * * I had written* on the 10th
February to the Rev. W. Anderson, and to the catechist at
Lake Maskinongg, in the hope of being able to repair the
disappointment at the Riviere du Loup, where, as before
mentioned, I had expected to perform, for the first time in
my life, the office of confirmation, for which I now fixed Sun
day 5th March. Upon my arrival there, I found that it had
pleased Providence again to defeat my wishes in behalf of
the little flock. Mr. Anderson had been suddenly called to
Quebec, on account of the dying state of a near connection.
My letter to the catechist did not reach him in time. No
confirmation, therefore, could be held. The consolation
remained, however, of spending one more Sunday with a
congregation who had seen no clergyman but myself on my
former visit for more than a year. I received a letter after
wards from the catechist expressing the most bitter disap
pointment. On the 7th March, I was within fifteen miles of
Quebec, but had to set my face the next morning another way.
A famine prevailed partially at this time in this province, and
in some places dogs and horses are said to have been eaten :
in the neighbourhood of Leeds, among the French Canadians,
I was assured 4hat there were families who had been living
upon such food as bran and hay broth. After service, at
Leeds, I was waited upon by a deputation with an address of
congratulation on my appointment to the episcopal office,*
which took me entirely by surprise. The authors of it stated
themselves to be, in part, persons who had been members of
my flock in Quebec. * * * At West Frampton, the Rev.
R. Knight received me into his house, which I cannot forbear

* A similar address had previously been, presented by the clergy of
Lower Canada.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 199,
from describing. The walls of the principal room were formed
of upright trunks of trees, smoothed off in front, but with
the bark left adhering to them at the edge. The floor was
composed of rough boards laid loosely together, and the ceil
ing was in the same unfinished condition. This may be truly
called, even after its completion, ' the village preacher's
modest mansion,' but close by the side of it is a hovel in the
form of a shed, of which the elevation at the highest side of
it is seven feet and a half, built of round logs with the bark
on, with the rough ends projecting where they cross each
other at the corners. Here the pastor dwelt before the erec
tion of his present house. I confirmed forty-one persons in
the little church, which was well filled,- and fourteen in a
private house in another part of the township in the afternoon,
some of whom had come sixteen miles. I had much ground
for being satisfied, according to all the evidence by which
I could judge, with the pains taken to convey correct impres
sions to the minds of the young persons who came forward in
this mission, as well in ascertaining their knowledge of the
leading principles and objects of Faith, and requiring, in order
to their admission, consistency of practice, as in founding
their recourse to the means of grace upon a distinct recogni
tion of their own natural helplessness and sinfulness ; and thus
exhibiting the only just view of those doctrines of repen
tance and faith which the Church insists upon as the two
great branches of the promise made in baptism and confirma
tion. And, indeed, I think that very generally, on the whole
visitation, the clergy were faithful in setting before the
candidates for the latter rite, the nature of the covenant to
which they were to declare their adherence, and warning
them of their obligation to regard themselves as not their
own, but ' bought with a price.' "
The confirmation at Frampton concluded the visitation, and
the Bishop returned to Quebec on the 13th March, having been
absent since the 6th January. The whole number of persons

200 MEMOIR OF
confirmed on this tour was six hundred and sixty-seven, of
whom five hundred and forty, including one hundred and
fifty-one at Montreal, were in what is now the diocese of
Montreal, and only one hundred and twenty-seven in what is
now the diocese of Quebec. The Bishop of Quebec had,
however, very recently confirmed at Quebec and Three
Rivers, to which place the candidates from Nicolet had
been brought ; and other circumstances prevented a confir
mation being now held at Leeds and Rivi&re du Loup, as
well as at Hull in the district of Montreal. The number
of candidates was also greatly diminished by the state of
the roads, which, in repeated instances, prevented those who
had been prepared from meeting the Bishop. " No one in
the country remembered such a winter, as it respects the suc
cession of snow-storms and the quantity of snow." All the
missions had been visited, and services held at four places
where there was no provision either by clerical ministrations
or those of a catechist. Seventeen confirmations were held
in the district of Montreal, including two where there was
no resident clergyman, and only six in the remainder of the
diocese. In what is now the diocese of Quebec, these six
sufficed for all the fixed missions, except Leeds, Nicolet, and
the two in the district of Gaspe". There were at this time
six clergymen resident in the city of Quebec, and these,
with one travelling missionary, made up the whole number
of seventeen. The change which God had wrought before
the Bishop rested from his labours, exactly twenty-six years
from the day on which he began his first visitation tour, may
surely teach us not to despise " the day of small things."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 201

CHAPTER XIII.
First visit as Bishop to Gaspe1 — Primary visitation of the clergy — Visit
to Upper Canada — Division of diocese.
The visitation of the district of Gaspe" was yet to be per
formed, in order to complete that of Lower Canada. There
were at this time but two clergymen within its limits, holding
charge, respectively, of the counties of Bonaventure and
Gaspe". The Bishop left Quebec for this purpose on the 6th
June, having been so fortunate as to secure a passage in a
small vessel chartered by the Government for the use of the
naval officers engaged in the survey of the St. Lawrence. On
board this vessel he performed a short service daily, with
exposition of Scripture (in which, as the officer in command
expressed it several years afterwards, " he was peculiarly
happy,") and the weather was so fine as to cause no single
instance of its interruption. It did not, however, favour the
progress of the vessel, for it was seventeen days before the
voyage was concluded, though nearly one-third of it was
performed in twelve hours by the aid of a fair breeze which
sprang up towards its termination. " So remarkably like
some pilgrims in their mortal course were they favoured at
the close of a voyage which had been distinguished by cir
cumstances perseveringly adverse to their progress." From
Gaspe" Basin to Carlisle the voyage was continued in an open
boat. The churches of Gaspe" Basin, Malbaie, Perce", Paspe"-
biac and Carlisle, all of which, except the last mentioned, were
unpainted, and most of them in a more or less incomplete
O

202 MEMOIR OF
state, were visited : and confirmations were held in them all
as well as at St. George's Cove, L'Anse a Beau-fils (in a
fisherman's house) and Hopetown. The whole number con
firmed in the mission of the Rev. W. Arnold was one hundred
and nineteen, of whom eighty came forward at the Basin
church alone. The Rev. A. Balfour had sixty-four on his
list, of whom fifty-two were confirmed. A large number in
every part of the district were, on this and every subsequent
occasion, deprived of the ordinance by their absence from
home, being engaged in the whale-fishery. On the last occa
sion of the Bishop's visit to the district (in 1862), he left
Quebec on the very first opportunity which presented itself
after the opening of the navigation, on purpose to provide for
the case of the whalers. It was so early in the season, that
the steamer which conveyed him was detained several hours
in the ice, before he could reach the Magdalen Islands.
One or two extracts from the journal of 1837 may here
suffice. Leaving the Gaspe" Bay mission, the Bishop embarked
in a four-oared boat, with Mr. Arnold as steersman. " I was
anxious," he says, " if possible, to reach Carlisle before Sunday.
Like the disciples, we ' had forgotten to take bread,' and after
embarking returned to the house for a supply, which afforded
another, though a small, opportunity to the friendly people,
of manifesting the eager pleasure with which they rendered
us any service in their power. Our wind, which had been
favourable, having soon died away, we took to the oars, but,
with the object in view which I have stated, we persevered,
and at midnight reached a settlement where we knocked up
one of the Jersey traders, or rather, as he was himself con
fined to his bed by sickness, the two fishing lads by whom his
menage was conducted. They got up half-naked, struck a
light, and kindled a fire on the rude hearth, over which we
were glad to crouch while the kettle was boiling. My travel
ling-bed was spread upon the floor ; Mr. Arnold found some
place to throw himself down ; and we allowed ourselves and

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 203
the men, who remained abroad, two hours and a half for sleep.
* * * In every place where public worship is held in this
district, the congregation, according to the charge of, the
Psalmist, sing praises lustily and with a good courage."
On the 7th July, the Bishop embarked at Carlisle to return
to Quebec, in a " schooner of forty tons, very roughly fitted
up, and the whole ship's company consisted of two men and
a boy. Having reached Perce" on the evening of Saturday the
8th, and having encountered a foul wind, I sent word on shore
early on Sunday morning, to make arrangements for divine
service. I have recorded two occasions for thankfulness,
upon which a fair breeze had enabled me to dispose of my
two Sundays in the district to the best advantage : it now
occurred that the adverse elements caused my passing a third
at the very point where, if a choice had been given me in
the case of my detention, I should have wished to spend it,
Perce" being an important point, and one for which there is
but slender spiritual provision.* Without presumptuously
claiming a special interposition, I could not but be grateful
that, in the course of events, these opportunities were so
happily afforded. I preached twice to good congregations.
On Monday the wind continued foul, but it happened very
well ; for a funeral came from L'Anse a Beau-fils with a
large train of followers, and, although the resident catechist
was in attendance, the people, who are so much strangers to
clerical ministrations, were rejoiced to find a clergyman to
officiate. Under these circumstances, I added a sermon to
the usual service. Towards sunset, the wind having shifted,
I returned to my vessel, which lay out at a short distance,
near the entrance of Malbaie : and, as the sun was now sinking,
and after it sank, a peculiar tint was shed over the landscape by
a very wild and yet bright evening sky which most beautifully
•One result of this visitation was the appointment of a third missionary,
who had charge of Perc6, Cape Cove, and Malbaie.

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heightened its effect. I do not remember to have been ever
more impressed with the grandeur and the glories of creation.
In going on board in the boat, I passed close under the enor
mous and frowning mass of the pierced rock (from which
Perce" takes its name,) and scarcely emerging from the very
midst of that striking assemblage of objects which I have
before described, — the rock itself, the site of the village, the
mountain behind, the island opposite, the overhanging cliffs
of the shore, — I saw before me on one side the broad expanse
of ocean, and on the other, Malbaie, like a sheltered recess,
with its mountains and its hills still retiring, range behind
range, and swell behind swell. After beating about all the
next day, without being able to weather Cape Gasp6, we came
to anchor towards evening at Malbaie Cove. I went ashore
and called to see one of the churchwardens. His children
were brought to me to be examined, and I was reminded that
I had christened the eldest of them, upon my first visit, thir
teen years before. I believe it will generally be found that
the children of our people in this quarter are at least taught
the elementary truths of the Gospel, and the habit of prayer
to God through Christ, a benefit which may often lead, it may
be hoped, to happy results, and which they owe, under Pro
vidence, in a very great measure to the S. P. G. Since I
have known the county of Gaspe", there have been among its
protestant inhabitants no ministers or religious instructors of
any kind (with the single exception of the methodist local
preacher at St. George's Cove) but those supplied by the
Society. Bibles and prayer books have been largely supplied
by the S. P. C. K. * * * On the voyage up to Quebec, I
made it a practice to collect my shipmates together (there
were four steerage passengers) every day, and after a few
prayers from the liturgy, to lecture familiarly upon one of
the portions of the 119th psalm. How far any seed may
have been blessed which was thus dropped, I had no very
decided means of judging, but in such cases we have always

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. _ 205
the comfort of being permitted to hope that good may have
been done, although mixed (at least in my own case) with a
feeling that the opportunity of communicating the benefit
might have been more zealously improved. * * * On
Saturday 22nd July, I went ashore at Berthier, and found a
Canadian on the beach, who engaged to give me breakfast
and drive me up to Pointe Levi. The change was indeed
refreshing from the schooner to the shore. The beach was
profusely ornamented with hare-bells ; the meadows looked
fresh and rural through which we passed up to the house ; the
road-side, as we travelled, was fringed with the wild rose, the
convolvulus, the spiraea frutex, all in blossom, with other shrubs
and flowers ; the day was bright and beautiful, and the breeze
seemed to give fresh life to nature ; the greater part of the
drive, through the villages on the bank of the St. Lawrence
with the Island of Orleans opposite for twenty miles, and the
mountains of the north shore beyond, presents scenery and
views of an enchanting character. My driver was a simple
but substantial habitant, dressed in the grey home-spun of
the country, and every thing in his house and establish
ment possessed that rural character, not absolutely rude, but
appropriate to a frugal and simple race very moderately
advanced in the arts of hfe, which few travellers, whatever
their deliberate judgment may pronounce upon it with
reference to the improvement of human society, can avoid
contemplating with emotions of pleasure. There was a huge
ancient and mutilated folio in the room where I breakfasted,
which I found to be the Vie des Saints. In the mood which
is inspired by such scenes and objects as I have described, we
are disposed to more indulgence than the truth will warrant
towards the errors of an adulterated Christianity, and there
is something soothing to our own minds in the large exercise
of what seems to be an amiable charity of judgment upon the
subject. But although there is danger here and deception too,
and although it is the part of genuine charity to be intent, if

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God seem to open the way, upon the communication of better
light to souls possessed by hurtful superstition, and to promote
this object by all judicious and temperate endeavours ; yet,
after all, in the exercise of that grace, hoping all things,
behevmg all things, and seeing that certainly in some points
a salutary effect is produced by the discipline and instruction
of the Church of Rome, we may be glad that, till their ' times
of refreshing shall come,' the truth reaches them in part, and
may believe that, through the very intercession of Him Who
is obscured to their view, a measure of grace is not denied to
them, and the sins of their system are not always visited upon
their individual heads. At present I do not think that we can
gather it to be the will of Providence that any effectual impres
sion should be made upon the Roman catholic population of
Lower Canada ; and all the resources which we can command
are inadequate for the spiritual instruction of our own people.
I am disposed to believe that, under existing circumstances,
we best prepare the way for recovering this branch of the
Romish Church to the primitive system of faith and worship,
by exhibiting before the eyes of the people the proper fruits
of spiritual religion; letting our light so shine before them, that
they may see our good works. The great obstacle to their
conversion is our disunion. Their only strength lies in our
being divided (speaking of protestants collectively) into
sects, and our fatal admission of the principle that men may
set up new standards, and create new ministries at will
within the Church. The greatest friends to the prosperity of
Romanism, although often the most eager assailants of the
Romish system, are those persons who have low and loose
views of the Church. But, although it is not for us ' to know
the times or the seasons,' it is impossible not to feel a long
ing that the French Canadians should be enlightened, when
the effects of their ignorance are seen. Fortunati nimium
sua si bona ndrint, they enjoy a condition, in temporal mat
ters, as happy as any people upon earth ; and are so well off

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 207

and so entirely exempt from any painful or irritating pressure
received in any single point from the Government, that, unless
they were very ignorant, it would seem impossible that they
should be engaged to enter into rebellious plots for obtaining
changes by which they must infallibly be losers ; to which it may
be added that, unless the received principles which mould and
actuate them were defective, they could not seek to compass
their object in the spirit which they have manifested. This
people, who have so much reason to be happy, and who
present a picture to the eye of a peaceful simple peasantry,
with much that is courteous in their manners and amiable in
their attachments, have shewn, in too many instances, when
acted upon by designing and unprincipled demagogues, the
latent and unsuspected wickedness which is in the heart of
man ; and with whatever just horror we may regard the
leaders who would plunge such a peasantry, so situated, into
causeless revolt, we are compelled to admit, at the same time,
that among the people themselves a disposition both sanguin
ary and treacherous seems only to have been dormant within
many bosoms, by the sudden fierceness with which it has
broken out. In this point of view, our own religion, as it
exists in this province, is a precious deposit which ought
zealously to be fostered and protected as the leaven which
may yet be destined to leaven the whole lump : and this con
sideration may be an additional incentive to the venerable
Society to continue its pious endeavours for the support and
extension of the Church of England in Lower Canada."
Some idea of the incessant character of the Bishop's
labours may be formed when it is stated that it was not till
February, 1838, that he was able to write the journal of this
visitation, which had been concluded more than six months
previously. He had been absent from Quebec about four
months in 1837, during which he had travelled 2208 miles.
This first visitation of the diocese was concluded by a visit in
February, 1838, to the county of Megantic, when seventeen

208 MEMOIR OF
persons were confirmed at New Ireland, and thirty-five at
Leeds. The church at Leeds was consecrated at the same
time. This journey added 140 miles to the number just
mentioned, and brought the whole number of confirmations in
Lower Canada up to thirty-three, and of persons confirmed
to eight hundred and seventy-seven.
The charge of the whole of Canada had passed into his
hands on the death of Bishop Stewart in July, 1837, and the
correspondence which it involved both within the diocese
and with societies and other benefactors of the Church at
home, all of which was conducted without any assistance,
was enough to fill the hands of one man, besides that which
came upon him daily, ' the care of all the Churches' and
especially of his own parish of Quebec.
On the 1st August, 1838, the Bishop delivered his primary
charge in the cathedral to the clergy of the city and district
of Quebec, whose number had then increased to fourteen.
On the 7th of the same month twenty-three clergymen were
assembled for the same purpose at Montreal, where, on the
following Sunday, an ordination was held. From Montreal
the Bishop proceeded to Upper Canada. There being no
immediate prospect of the erection of that province into a
separate see, he thought it right not to leave it any longer
without the ministrations of the episcopal office. The Earl
of Durham, who had been sent out a few months before as
Governor General and High Commissioner to enquire into
the condition of the Canadas, provided the Bishop with the
means of taking a clergyman with him on his tour through
Upper Canada, for the purpose of assisting him in procuring
information on the state of the Church. The visitation occu
pied upwards of three months, and was extended to all the
missions. Confirmation was administered to 1995 persons
at fifty-nine places, the largest number of candidates being
at Perth, where 156 were presented. Nine churches were
consecrated, and ordinations held at Toronto, Woodhouse,

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 209
and Bytown, besides that already mentioned, and another
held on the way down, at Montreal. The episcopal charge
was delivered at Toronto, where upwards of fifty clergy were
present. The number of miles travelled from Quebec and
back again was 2500. From a report which the Bishop
rendered to Lord Durham, it appears that at this time the
number of persons professing adherence to the Church in
Upper Canada was roughly stated at 150,000, the num
ber of clergy exercising their ministry was seventy-three,
and the number of churches built or in progress about ninety.
Between London and Goderich, in a tract of country sixty
miles in length, there was not one clergyman or minister of
any denomination. Between Woodhouse and St. Thomas, a
distance of upwards of fifty miles, which could be travelled
by two roads, there was not one clergyman on either, though
a great body of Church-people was scattered over that part
of the country. In the district of Wellington, which was
everywhere spread over with a Church population, there
was one clergyman ; in the district of Newcastle there were
six. In the words of the Bishop,
" The importunate solicitations which I constantly receive for the supply
of clerical services — the overflowing warmth of feeling with which the
travelling missionaries are greeted in their visits to the destitute settle
ments — the marks of affection and respect towards my own office which I
experienced throughout the province — the exertions made by the people, in
a great number of instances, to erect churches even without any definite
prospect of a minister, and the examples in which this has been done by
individuals at their own private expense, are unequivocal and striking
evidences of the attachment to Church principles which pervades a great
body of the population. I would here beg leave to draw the attention of
your Excellency to the bearing of these facts upon the question of support
ing the clergy by the voluntary contributions of the people. Here is
deep sense of the value of religious services, and a strong manifestation of
attachment to the Church. The moving principle, therefore, is not want
ing ; and if with this advantage the system cannot work successfully in
Canada, it may be inferred that it cannot succeed there at all. And I am
more deeply convinced than ever that such is the fact. In the few exam
ples in which the experiment has been tried, it has rarely been otherwise

210 MEMOIR OF
than a failure, and in most cases it would be hopeless to attempt it. Even
if the country were far more advanced and the people had some command
of money, I am persuaded that a faithful, respectable, and independent
body of clergy, sufficient for the wants even of that part of the population
who already appreciate their labours, much more for that whom it is their
duty to win to a care for religion, can never be provided by the operation
of the voluntary system. * * * The observations which I have sub
mitted are, in great part, of common application to both provinces. * * *
There has been no census of the population of Lower Canada since 1831,
at which time the Church of England population was estimated at 34,620
souls. The clergy are now forty-four in number, with thirty-two or
thirty-three churches or chapels built or in progress. From fifteen to
twenty additional clergymen would, I think, provide for the present
wants of this portion of the diocese. In Upper Canada I believe that
employment would be found for one hundred beyond the existing estab
lishment. Nothing can be less uniform and systematic than the manner in which a
meagre supply of clergy is at present eked out and distributed over the
diocese. One portion is paid from the imperial treasury (the salaries to be
discontinued, one by one, as vacancies occur) another from local resources
at the disposal of Government ; another is composed of missionaries from
home, and there are four different religious bodies (besides an individual
of singular zeal in the cause) to whom the diocese is in this way indebted ;
and another still, though an exceedingly small portion, is dependent, in
whole or in part, upon the people. Thus the establishment of clergy, im
perfect and insufficient as it is, is made up by means of shifts and expedients,
and to a great extent is without any permanent character ; and the task of
the diocesan in procuring supplies, and maintaining communication with
the different parties who afford them, is complicated in a distressing
degree. I am thus led to a subject which I have reserved as the last to
be brought under the notice of your Excellency. The care of this diocese
is altogether too much for one man. Certainly one man cannot do justice
to it, situated as I am. Your Excellency is, I believe, aware that negoci
ations have been for some time on foot for the erection of a separate see in
Upper Canada. It is indeed high time that this measure should be carried
into effect. In executing the duties of the visitation in the two provinces,
I have travelled nearly five thousand miles ; the extreme points which I
visited in the length of the diocese being Sandwich at the head of Lake
Erie, and the Bay of Chaleurs in the gulf of St. Lawrence. Of the state
of the communications in the interior parts of the country and among
the new settlements, your Excellency is not without information. No
provision exists for enabling me to employ a single functionary in con
ducting correspondence with the Government, the clergy, and the
societies at home, keeping in proper order and arrangement the accumu-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 211
lating records of the see, or transacting those ordinary forms of ecclesias
tical business which are proper to the episcopal office ; and in those
departments of labour where the Bishop can receive assistance from the
Archdeacon, I am deprived of the benefit, as far as Lower Canada is
concerned, because, under the existing arrangements, I am compelled to
hold the office of Archdeacon myself."
The object which the Bishop here sets forth as of so great
importance was accomplished, by the divine blessing, in the
following year, when he was relieved of the charge of Upper
Canada by the consecration of the present venerable Bishop
of Toronto, who had been Archdeacon of York since 1825.
In order to expedite this object, the Rev. R. D. Cartwright
had been sent on a mission to England early in 1838.
In writing to the S. P. G. the Bishop describes the result
of this visitation as " very highly satisfactory indeed, and
abounding with matter of thankfulness to God, as it respects
the character and labours of the clergy as a body, the attach
ment of our people to sound Church principles, and the tone
of morals and religion which pervades our congregations."
The clergy of the Midland, Eastern, Johnstown, and Bath
urst districts in Upper Canada presented addresses to the
Bishop of Montreal on their withdrawal from his jurisdiction,
expressive of their respect and affection, and, in one instance,
their " admiration of persevering exertions in the discharge
of duties peculiarly arduous, of the faithfulness and devoted-
ness with which he entered on the work of his Divine Master,
and acknowledging, a't the same time, the kindness of the christ
ian so exemplified in intercourse with the clergy." In another
" brief and simple testimony of filial affection," it is said ;
" Your lordship presided over us with firmness united to urbanity, and
dignity mingled with condescension. During a period of great danger to
the Church, while the enemies of Zion, endlessly divided among themselves,
have yet united in the cry, ' Down with her, down with her, even unto the
ground,' your lordship has pursued a noble and elevated course, superior
to vain ambition and restless policy.
" Your lordship, apparently without designing it, has succeeded in gain
ing the respect of enemies, the devotion of friends, and the admiration of
the Church."

212 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER XIV.
Second triennial circuit — Anxiety for the establishment of a see at
Montreal — Correspondence with clergy at Red River — Severe ill
ness — Formation of Church Society, and steps taken towards the
foundation of Bishop's College — Second visitation of clergy.
The second triennial visitation was begun by the confirma
tion of one hundred and seventy-two persons, among whom
was the first of his own children on whom he laid hands,
in the cathedral at Quebec, on the 13th October 1839. Early
in the following January, the Bishop set out on a journey
through the districts of Montreal, Three Rivers, and St.
Francis, an account of which was afterwards published by
the S. P. G. I shall make, therefore, only a few extracts,
chiefly of passages which serve to shew the manner in which
the services of the Church were appreciated, besides giving
the general results of the visitation, and some particulars
which may help to exhibit the progress of the Church dur
ing the three preceding years.
At St. Andrews several young persons, who had been
prepared for confirmation, but had not received their tickets,
having called for them early on an intensely cold day, on
which the confirmation was to be held, were all frost-bitten in
some part or other of the face. Some candidates who had
been disappointed at Huntingdon followed the Bishop to
Ormstown, and " not being sufficiently protected against the
weather, had suffered greatly from cold in their tedious pro
gress," the roads being nearly blocked up from the effects of

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 213
a snow-storm, and they had to measure their way back after
dark ; " but in commending them," says the Bishop, " for their
exertions, I exhorted them cheerfully to endure this and greater
things, if called upon, for their religion, and reminded them of
the distant journeys which men were prompted to make, under
an inferior dispensation, to keep the ordinances of the Lord's
House at Jerusalem." Three others who had been disap
pointed in the same neighbourhood afterwards went fifteen
miles for confirmation, and the clergyman who brought them
" travelled about forty miles to bring them, and went imme
diately back with them. Two young Irish girls, sisters, came
from Milton to Abbottsford ; but having, in consequence of
misinformation, gone a vast way round, they arrived after the
confirmation was over, and I learned nothing about them till
after they had gone home again. Mr. Johnson, however,
had told them to meet me at Cutler's school-house the next
day. Considering their long journey, their disappointment
aftov nil tlioiv efforts, the continued rain throughout the day,
i ! very bad state of the roads, as well as the distance
between Milton and the school-house, I expected that they
would give it up. They came, however, and as I spoke
a few simple words of exhortation to them after they had
been confirmed, the two standing together (for no confir
mation had been appointed at the place), the tears rolled
down their cheeks. These little incidents serve to shew
what feeling there is to work upon in the bosoms of poor
settlers in the woods, and ' who hath despised the day of
small things ?' "
At Shefford a young man and woman, who had been pre
vented by circumstances from being examined, came into the
vestry room before service " soliciting, with tears, the blessing
of confirmation." At Drummondville, it is mentioned that " a
young lad, who was working in a shanty thirty miles off and
earning high wages, not only came down on foot to be con
firmed, but came to his own family a week beforehand,

214 MEMOIR OF
sacrificing the profits of that week, to spend it in study and
preparation, and this in opposition to the strong remonstrances
of his companions. At Rawdon the church was so thronged
that one man described himself as having been for a quarter
of an hour with his person half in and half out of the door
without being able to move an inch. Ninety-one persons
were confirmed, six of whom, on account of the crowd and
some confusion in the lower end of the church, did not get
forward at the proper time, nor make known their disappoint
ment till after my robes were packed up again, and I was
leaving the church. The little trouble, however, of again
putting on my vestments to administer a separate confirmation
to them was well repaid by their thankfulness, and better
still by the very deep marks of feeling which they evinced
as recipients of the rite." In several other instances the
candidates are spoken of as " deeply and sensibly affected,"
and speaking generally, the Bishop remarks ; "lam indeed
thankful to say that a deep reverence and deliberate self-
dedication to Christ did seem to characterize the candidates
in the different places which I visited ; and I cannot but
hope that, in many instances, their future walk will evince
their sincerity in this important act of their lives."
The Bishop was accompanied through the district of Mon
treal by the Rev. M. Willoughby, agent of the Newfoundland
School Society, whose object was to ascertain the wants of
the district with respect to education, which in many instances
he was enabled to supply. In accepting the office of Vice-
President of this society, a few months before, the Bishop
said :
" The want of good common schools in which a scriptural education is
afforded is grievously felt by a great portion of the protestant inhabitants
of this province, and I do trust in God that the society will have the hap
piness of being instrumental in the prevention of much moral and religious
and, I may add political, evil, as well as in the production of much posi
tive good in the field newly opened. I shall regard the society as aiding
instead of interfering with the ancient protectress of the colonial Churches,

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 215
the venerable society for the Propagation of the Gospel, the department
of labour which the former has assumed being evidently subservient to the
objects of the latter, and still not being identical with them."
In the course of the visitation an ordination was held at
Sherbrooke, when Mr. Willoughby was admitted to Priest's
Orders, together with the Rev. W. Dawes. The names of
both these good men are connected with the increase of the
Church at this period, " and in their deaths they were not
divided," for both were taken away by fever which they
contracted in their attendance on Irish emigrants in 1847.
To Mr. Willoughby, too, belongs the honour of initiating the
operations of the society just mentioned ; while Mr. Dawes
filled the office of secretary of the diocesan Church society,
with remarkable fidelity and earnestness (qualities which
indeed pervaded his character in everything which he under
took), from its formation till the time of his death. Mr.
Willoughby was the first incumbent of the first chapel which
was built in Montreal, where, till the date which we have now
reached, there was no place of worship, besides the parish
church,* belonging to the Church of England. Trinity
Chapel, built at the sole expense of Major W. P. Christie,
was consecrated in May 1840. Mr. Dawes, as travelling
missionary of a local association already mentioned at Mont
real, was the pioneer of the district lying to the south-west
of that city, now for the first time visited by a Bishop.
His labours had been carried on for about fifteen months.
He had established eighteen stations at which he preached
twenty-five times in every four weeks. Four churches were
either in progress or in immediate contemplation, and forty-
one persons were presented for confirmation at Russeltown,
sixty-five at Hemmingford, and forty-one again at Napier-
ville. Fifteen more at Hemmingford and several at Russel-
* An evening service had been established in the parish church, at
which all the pews were thrown open.

216 MEMOIR OF
town were prevented from coming forward owing to the roads
being completely blocked up.
Besides in this tract of country, confirmations were held now
for the first time at the Gore on the Ottawa, Kingsey, Bury,
Compton, and Lake Maskinonge". Most of these places
had been previously visited by the Bishop in his capacity of
Archdeacon, and since his former visitation he had been
enabled to fix missionaries at the three first mentioned, as
well as at Stanbridge. Before the conclusion of this journey,
Compton was erected into a separate charge, and measures
were taken for conferring a similar benefit on Granby, as well
as on Portneuf, and for dividing the labours of Mr. Dawes by
assigning a portion of them to a second missionary within
their range. The association which maintained Mr. Dawes
maintained another missionary in the settlements north of
Montreal, whose head-quarters were at Mascouche, where
the church was consecrated during this visitation. Another
had been consecrated at Upper Durham on the St. Francis.
All the places visited in 1837 were revisited this year with
the exception of Hull, for which a confirmation had been held
at Bytown in 1838. In the district of Montreal twenty-
seven confirmations were held, and eight hundred and ninety-
five persons confirmed, including one hundred and twenty-five
at Montreal. In the districts of St. Francis and Three Rivers
two hundred and sixty persons were confirmed at twelve
places. The Bishop was absent from Quebec two months.
The number of clergy in Lower Canada had been increased
by ten, and about the same number of churches had been
built, or were in progress, or in immediate contemplation.
The Bishop says, " Churches (God be praised for it) are
springing up so fast, that I must beg for more help as soon
as I shall have forwarded the account of money already paid
or promised from the Society's grant of <£500. * * *
At Laprairie I received the refreshing intelligence, (together
with the announcement of aid granted towards the erection

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 217
of churches,) more than I had dared to hope for, that the
Society had undertaken to maintain the eighteen new missions
which I had stated to be required. God only raise up for us
faithful men to fill them up, and to preach among them the
unsearchable riches of Christ."
The visitation of the district of Gaspe" was performed in
the autumn of 1840, in connection with which the first men
tion is found in the records of the diocese of the destitute
settlements on that part of the coast of Labrador which 'lies
within the limits of Canada. The Rev. E. Cusack, mission
ary at Gaspe" Basin, having learnt the wants of the inhabi
tants from whalers belonging to his own flock who frequented
the coast, had gone across, just before the Bishop's visit, to
Gasp6, to pay them a visit. Their number was very inconsi
derable, and for many years the attention which the missionary
resident within the limits of Newfoundland (appointed in 1 849)
was able to bestow upon them was considered, in the existing
condition of the diocese, to suffice. Yet so early as 1841 the
Bishop of Montreal brought their wants, for the second time,
before the S. P. G., and said, " That mission will demand great
activity and great devotedness in the person who will undertake
it ; but God does not deny to His Church, among the servants
of the society, men who are willing to take up their own cross,
and to glory in the Cross of their Master."
There is mention of only one new station in Gaspe, — Port
Daniel. No confirmation, owing to a recent change of mission
aries, could be held in the Bay of Chaleurs. At the unfinished
church of Cape Cove, twenty-one were confirmed, making
twenty-five in that mission. In the mission of Gaspe" Bay,
there were twenty-nine, a much smaller number than in 1837;
but the interval between the visit of that year and the last
which had been paid by the Bishop of Quebec had probably
been greater than usual.
The visitation was completed during the following winter
by a tour in the district of Quebec. On the south of the St.
P

218 MEMOIR OF
Lawrence seven confirmations were held, where three had
sufficed in 1837, and one hundred and sixty-nine persons
were confirmed. One woman came on foot nineteen miles for
the purpose. A missionary had been established at St. Syl
vester, whose labours were carried over a large tract of
country, including the settlements on the Chaudl&re river.
So far, twenty-four confirmations had been held in what is
now the diocese of Quebec, at which six hundred and sixty-
five persons were confirmed, out of one thousand five hundred
and sixty in Lower Canada. Four others appear , to have
been afterwards held in the district of Quebec, but I have
not the means of stating at what particular places. The total
number of confirmations in the diocese had been fifty-two, of
which twenty were at places where the ordinance had not
been administered before.
The journeyings of the Bishop were not confined to those
which came in the course of his regular visitations, for occa
sions constantly arose demanding his personal intervention
for the supply of local wants or the adjustment of particular
difficulties. He was always specially anxious for the spiritual
welfare of the city of Montreal, which he used very fre
quently to visit, and where he was accustomed often to hold
ordinations both in summer and winter. He never lost sight
of the object which he had greatly at heart, of erecting it
. into a separate see ; and it was chiefly on this account that,
though actually administering the diocese of Quebec, he
retained the title of Bishop of Montreal, instead of being
formally appointed to the see of Quebec. He wished, as he
often said, to keep before the public the necessity of making
this title a reality. But his travelling was the least arduous
part of his labours, except perhaps on the occasions of
visiting Montreal, where he would be incessantly occupied
for days together in the same way as at Quebec. The'
increasing wants of the diocese, and the measures neces
sary to be taken for their supply, involved a vast deal of

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 219
correspondence with public and private persons, in addition
to that which grew out of. the ordinary business of its admin
istration, and which in the case of colonial Bishops is much
greater than it would otherwise be in proportion to the num
ber of clergy, from the comparatively unformed and unsettled
state of the Church, and the necessity of the direct reference
to the Bishop of subjects which may be disposed of by inferior
authority where it exists. His journeys, in fact, though some
times attended by more or less of what some men count hard
ship, were a relief, and afforded a break in the ceaseless
course of sedentary and anxious employments which filled his
time at home, and which otherwise must have worn down his
strength. He never suffered his own convenience to interfere
with the claims of business. Rising up early, and late taking
rest, he was ready at all hours to attend to the wants of his
flock. In a letter written from Montreal, in June 1841, (where
he had held an ordination in the preceding February,) he
apologizes for " firing a shot with a nerveless arm," being, as
he was obliged to confess, " rather what is called, ' done up.'
I came last night, in the middle of the night, or rather before
it was light this morning, from Port St. Francis in the
steamer. I was busy about the town till four p.m. ; then I
took a luncheon with F., and immediately afterwards a hot
ride with him of twelve miles to St. Martin, where I had
business to transact with persons engaged in the erection of
a church ; then a cooler one, in the dark, back to Montreal,
where, at ten o'clock, Mr. W  met me by appointment
with a candidate for Orders, after which I wrote to  ,
and now I am writing to yourself."
He was at this time engaged, and continued for three or
four years to be so, in correspondence with the Hudson's Bay
Company, the clergy resident in their territory, the Arch
bishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, and the Church
Missionary Society, respecting the missions in Prince Rupert's
Land, to which he anxiously desired to carry the ministra-

220 MEMOIR OF
tions of his office, with the object of paving the way for a
resident Bishop in the territory. He always felt deeply that
the Canadian Church was debtor to the original proprietors
of the soil.
There were two other objects, nearer home, which were
now occupying much of his time and thoughts, — the founda
tion of the Church Society and that of Bishop's College. He
had mentioned, in his prinfary charge, his hope that a church
society might be organized similar to that which had already
been established in Nova Scotia. In July, 1839, he informed
the S. P. G. that it was projected, and soon after the division
of the diocese in the same year, he engaged in correspondence
with the Bishop of Toronto on the subject of the establishment
of a joint association for the two dioceses. He drew up an
outline of his plan with proposed constitution and by-laws, and
also made, in September, 1841, at the request of his brother
Bishop, the draft of an episcopal address, to proceed from
both, to the churchmen of Canada, with reference to the
undertaking. Both Bishops desired opportunities of full con
sultation with their clergy before finally bringing their plan
before the public, and the Bishop of Toronto finding a feeling
to exist in his own diocese in favour of two separate organiza
tions, it was agreed that each should pursue the plan for
himself. The efforts of the Bishop of Montreal were inter
rupted by a severe illness with which it pleased God to visit
him during the winter of 1841-2, and which for several
months caused deep anxiety to his friends ; and it was not till
the clergy of the diocese were assembled at a visitation held
at Montreal in July 1842, that the Church Society of the
diocese of Quebec was finally formed.
At this visitation fifty-one of the sixty clergy of the diocese
were present. The Bishop, in his charge, especially com
mended the two institutions just mentioned to the prayers
and support of the clergy, and stated that since they had
last assembled in visitation, he had ordained twenty-one

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 221
clergymen to new stations in Lower Canada, and admitted
six others, already in Orders, to new cures, making in all
twenty-seven new missions opened in less than four years,
adding :
" Let none suppose that we have grasped indiscriminately at all oppor
tunities of procuring additional hands ; for the overtures are not few,
whether for ordination or for the employment of ordained ministers, which
I have declined to entertain. * * * The number of additional churches
has fully kept pace with the advancing list of our clergy ; and it is
with feelings of overflowing thankfulness that we must acknowledge our
accumulating obligations under God to the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel, nobly seconded by the sister Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge * * * I pass over all the subordinate supplies afforded for
the greater solemnity and decency of worship, for the better facilities of
religious instruction, for the more enlarged acquaintance with the Word of
Life, — but what shall we say of that provident as well as pious munificence
which has undertaken the perpetuation of all these blessings, by gradually
creating endowments for the Church?"
Reference is here made to the purchase of glebes in Lower
Canada by the S. P. G., which that body was enabled to
accomplish, owing to the increasing demands upon its funds,
in only a few instances ; but this object was specially kept in
view in the formation of the Church Society.
So large a proportion of the clergy came from a great dis
tance, with very imperfect means of communication, that they
could not be detained long from their cures ; and a great deal
of business was therefore necessarily crowded into a few days.
The Bishop himself spent ten days at Montreal, and, writing
from thence, says ;
"I have never, I think, in my life been more incessantly occupied,
morning, noon and night, than since I came to this place. The ordination,
visitation, formation of the Church Society, and laying the first stone of the
new chapel (St. George's), all carried with them, except indeed the last,
a vast deal of business, compared with which each formal occasion was
very little. The work of preparation for the Church Society was immense ;
the whole of my charge to the clergy was written here ; the examination
of the candidates for Orders was conducted by myself; and the forms to
execute, business to transact, conference to hold, and counsel to give

222 MEMOIR OF
among fifty-one clergymen, most of whom I see only once in three years,
amounted to no trifle. Many other persons have wanted me for other
things, and I have preached six times besides delivering my charge."
One of these sermons was preached at St. Thomas' Chapel,
then recently built.
At this visitation a large number of the clergy addressed
the Bishop in favour of the adoption of a more distinctive
clerical dress, which he was known strongly to approve.
He referred the matter to the Archbishop of Canterbury ;
and his grace, though entirely concurring in their feeling on
the subject, did not feel prepared to recommend the practice
in the case of a single diocese, while the general custom
remained unchanged.
In a letter written ,in the following November, the Bishop
says, referring to the Church Society :
" We began well, but it has not pleased God that we should, as yet,
proceed with a very prosperous course. The extreme commercial depres
sion of Quebec and Montreal is against us very much, and we have had
other difficulties too. There are also other objects which I have deeply at
heart for the benefit of the Church, in which I have encountered great
discouragement ; but we must regard these occurrences as trials of faith,
checks to presumption, and incitements to redoubled prayer and diligence-
If it has pleased God to suffer me, in some departments of my charge, to
be an instrument, of good, I have been and am sufficiently schooled, on the
other hand, to humility and watchfulness by mortifications and disappoint
ments, in my career of labour, of no common kind."
One of the objects here referred to was, doubtless, the
foundation of Bishop's College, already mentioned. So long
before as in 1839 he had said to the S. P. G. that it
" had long been his ardent wish and prayer to establish a col
lege," and in December of that year the Society voted .£200
per annum towards the maintenance of divinity students.
In the following autumn he decided on placing all the reci
pients of this bounty at Three Rivers, under the charge of the
Rev. S. S. Wood, M.A., of Corpus College, Cambridge,
rector of that place, whose theological and classical attain-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 223
ments eminently qualified him for the task. In April, 1841,
he informed the society of the completion of this arrange
ment, adding ; " I have thus paved the way, I hope, for the
establishment of that institution, — I shall be thankful if I
can say that college, — the rough project of which I commu
nicated to you in November last."
The rectory-house at Three Rivers, which was originally
a monastery, seemed to offer some peculiar facilities for this
purpose, both from the general character of the building, and
particularly from its connection with the parish church, which
had been the chapel of the monastery. But before these
arrangements were finally completed, the Rev. L. Doolittle
came forward, on behalf of himself and several residents
of Sherbrooke and Lennoxville, with the offer of large contri
butions in money and land if the site of the college were
fixed in the neighbourhood of those places. The situation
of Three Rivers had been considered sufficiently suitable for
a theological institution, but it was proposed now to give the
college a more general character, with the special object of
affording the advantages of a superior education to the Eng
lish families who were daily flocking in to the Eastern town
ships, and of retaining within the province, and so moulding
in English tastes and principles, the young men of American
origin who were in the habit of seeking those advantages in
the United States. The Eastern townships being the head
quarters of the English-speaking population of Lower Canada,
and every day increasing in importance, the Bishop saw at
once the benefit which the successful planting of such an
institution among them would confer, not only upon the
Church, but upon the country at large. There was no diffi
culty in his mind with regard to McGill College, already
established at Montreal, partly because he foresaw that the
day could not be far distant when the wants of the popula
tion would equal the resources of both institutions, and partly
because McGill College had been deprived of the religious

224 MEMOIR OF
character which was a necessary feature of an establishment
designed as a place of theological learning. The consent of
Mr. Wood having been obtained to his removal to Lennox
ville as principal of the institution, measures were at once
put in train for the erection of the necessary buildings on the
site which had been secured ; and while the theological stu
dents, awaiting their completion, remained at Three Rivers,
a preparatory school was opened at Lennoxville, under the
charge of Mr. Edward Chapman, B.A., of Caius College,
Cambridge. In February, 1842, the Bishop furnished the
society with a detailed account of the proposed college at
Lennoxville, of which he said he considered a chapel as a
most essential part, in connection with the formation of the
habits of the -students, and he shortly afterwards published
similar statements in Canada.
The year 1842 was also marked by an event of some
importance to the parish of Quebec, the completion of the
rectory house, under an arrangement with the vestry of the
cathedral by which the Bishop engaged to pay rent during
his incumbency of the parish. A wing of the building was
fitted up as a chapel, which was consecrated on All Saints'
Day, 1842, under the name of All Saints, when the Bishop
of Vermont preached the sermon. This chapel was designed
to be used for week-day services or minor festivals, as well
as the performance of acts of occasional duty. Immediately
after its consecration, the Bishop assembled in it regularly a
class of candidates for confirmation, whom he was himself
preparing, and the first person confirmed in it was his own
son, who, being unexpectedly called to join his regiment on
receiving a commission in the army, and being therefore
unable to wait for the general confirmation, was not allowed
to depart without the blessing of the Church conveyed in the
laying on of his father's hands.*
* The Bishop always looked back on this occasion with feelings of pecu
liar thankfulness. A person who was present described the scene as

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 225

The Bishop also established in All Saints' Chapel, a monthly
service, with a lecture which he dehvered himself, on the
Fridays before the communion. The foundation-stone of St.
Peter's chapel in Quebec, removed to its present site from a
building which had been for some years used partly as a
chapel, and partly as the Male Orphan Asylum, was laid in
July of this same year. The orphans were then transferred
to the National School building, which had been enlarged to
receive them.
unusually striking, from her knowledge of the pains that had been taken
to prepare the candidate, and his appreciation of them, when the Bishop
armed the young soldier for the fight against sin, the world, and the devil.
The son himself, writing to his father very soon afterwards from England,
says : " I hope I shall not forget the day. I have felt much happiness ever
since. I do not say this by way of boasting, but I know that it will be a
comfort to you to know that I do not forget my vows." The Bishop fur
nished him with a most valuable manual of hints, drawn up originally for
his elder son when leaving home to prepare for Oxford. See Appendix.

226 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER XV.
Third triennial circuit.
The year 1843 opened with the first act in the Bishop's third
visitation. On the festival of the Circumcision he confirmed two
hundred and seventeen persons in the cathedral of Quebec, and
the next day set off on a tour which occupied him till the 15th
March. An account of this tour, together with that of some
subsequent journeys to complete the triennial visitation of the
diocese, was published by the S. P. G.* But it contains
such striking proofs of the progress of the Church during the
three preceding years, that this narrative would not be com
plete without longer extracts from it than it might otherwise
be necessary to give. The first that I make describes a
peculiarity of Canadian winter travelhng; the others refer
mainly to places where new ground had been broken for the
Church, or her ministrations multiplied.
"In the tract of country in which we were now travelling, which is
more or less rude and unfrequented, and in which the winter track (as is
often the case in Canada East) was in many places carried through the
fields, away from the summer road, we encountered brooks and ditches
which had broken their confinement, and were so swollen with continued
augmentations from the melting snow as to offer some obstructions to our
passage across them. The driver of the sleigh which followed us would
here go forward with a pole, to sound the depth ; but when it was ascertained
that we could pass, (which we did in every instance but one, when a
circuit of some miles became necessary,) it was a matter of very nice man-
* Church in the Colonies, No. ix.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 227
agement to prevent upsetting, the bottom being very unequal and broken
up. In some places the driver only could go, it being necessary that he
should stand up and balance the vehicle in its passage. Then the rest of
the party crossed on foot upon rails which the country people had laid
together for the purpose, taken from the fences ; or we had recourse to the
fences themselves as a foot-bridge, holding on by the upper rail, and mov
ing our feet along a lower one. In one place the little low-runnered
cariole was floating. These scenes brought forcibly to mind that passage
in the 147th psalm, where, after describing the intensity of frost, the
psalmist says, ' He sendeth out His word and melteth them ; He causeth
His wind to blow, and the waters flow.' The roughnesses which I encoun
tered here or elsewhere in the journey are such as are constantly familiar
to the missionaries, and I could by no means call them severe ; but I had
deep cause for thankfulness to God for being able to go through them,
such as they were, without any sort of injury or improper fatigue, when
I remembered that at the same time last year I was in a, condition
which caused my friends to augur that, if spared, I should be disabled for
life." «

* I cannot forbear from giving an extract from a letter written on the
21st February, 1842, aud exhibiting not only the thankfulness here expres
sed, but cheerfulness. The illness had been very severe, and the sufferings
most acute. " Through the goodness of God I am a great deal better and
stronger, but it does not yet suit me to sit up regularly to write, and I am
now doing so in a lazy, recumbent posture, with a couple of pillows on my
lapfor adesk. I have not been downstairs since the 2nd January, and I have
not used my legs since the 24th ; but on Valentine's day, the anniversary
of my consecration, I ascertained that I could stand alone ; and if my good
doctor had permitted me, I should, I think, have performed much greater
exploits by this time. The mercies by which I am surrounded, and the
alleviations which I have had at command in this illness, while thousands
of my fellow-creatures are suffering tenfold what I have done, with the
aggravations of want, hardship, neglect, and unkindness, are what I never
can acknowledge with sufficient thankfulness. The tender and anxious
watchfulness of your dear mother, the affectionate and assiduous attentions
of your sisters and brother, and the kind sympathy manifested in a variety
of ways, by many friends, have been such as I can never forget; nor have
the inferior members of my household been deficient. Those who have
immediately attended upon me have always seemed to do so with interest
and attachment, and, among other little instances, John, the other night,
in lifting me into bed with the aid of Robert, (a service which I hope very
soon to dispense with) said to me with a sort of pleasurable laugh, ' your
lordship is getting heavier.' "

228 MEMOIR OF
Mascouche, which was mentioned in 1840 as the head
quarters of a travelling missionary, had since been formed
into a fixed mission, the range of which was, however, still
sufficiently extensive. It included Kilkenny, (mentioned at
page 183,) and on this visitation the first episcopal visit
was paid to that place as well as to New Glasgow. From
Mascouche, " we drove to the church at Kilkenny, passing
on our way what is jocosely called the ' cathedral of Kir
kenny,' being a little log school-house, roofed with bark, and
lighted by four panes, in which the missionaries formerly
officiated. The church is a small, wooden, unpainted build
ing, with square-topped windows. But it harmonizes with
the present state of things in the township, and I verily believe
it to be attended by worshippers who worship the Father in
spirit and in truth. I consecrated this humble edifice, which
is regularly fitted up for public service in the interior, and
confirmed twenty-four persons. They asked me to give
the church a name, as I had objected to their proposal
of calling it the ' Mountain Church ' which was partly
intended as a compliment to myself, and I called it after St.
John the Baptist, as being built for preaching in the wilder
ness, with which they were highly pleased. God grant that
the preachers, calling upon men to repent, and at the same
time indicating the Lamb of God Which taketh away the sins
of the world, may prepare the way of Christ among the
people." Nearly a week was spent at Montreal, where two
hundred and ninety-one persons were confirmed and two
adults baptized in the parish church by the Bishop. By this
time there were three chapels in Montreal, making, with the
parish church and a temporary chapel in Griffintown and a
small chapel at the Cross, below the city, six places of worship
in all, and others were in contemplation. A new mission
had been formed under promising auspices at Huntingdon,
in the Chateauguay district ; but if this step could have been
taken earlier, it might have been attended with more effect,
for the village of Huntingdon, the Bishop says,

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 229
"May be taken as one among many examples of the deplorable effects
of schism in a new country. Here, in a spot scarcely reclaimed from the
woods, is a little collection of houses, a good mill, a tavern* or two, some
few tradesmen, and some commencing indications of business. One good
spacious church might contain all the worshippers ; one faithful pastor
might tend them all ; and their resources for the support of religion, if com
bined, might provide for all the decencies of worship in a reverent manner,
and for the comfort of the minister and his family. They might, in laying
their foundations for the future, exhibit in the article of religion, — which
should be their all in all, — the picture of a little christian brotherhood, and
the village not drawing, or drawing comparatively little, upon the bounty
of colonial cities or societies at home, the aid derivable from these sources
might the more largely supply the unprovided tracts of country in the
wilderness. But here are four protestant places of worship, — altar against
altar, — all ill-appointed, all ill-supported, and while discordant preaching
is going on, or unholy leagues are made of two or three irregular sects
against the Church, and violent excitements are resorted to, like the getting
up of the steam, to force on a particular interest at a particular conjunc
ture, many a ruder and more remote settlement is supplied only at wide
intervals by the extraordinary efforts of this or that minister, and these
again marked often by a mutual jealousy, heightened, where the Church is
the object of it, to acrimonious and unscrupulous hostility. In these
instances, the forbearance and dignity of the Church have, I think I may
say without prejudice, stood in most advantageous contrast with the
proceedings of other parties. But what cause have we to imitate the
prayer of the Lord Himself ' that they all may be one', even as He and His
Father are one I, to pray and long for a nearer approach to that happy
consummation, described by the apostle, ' that there be no divisions
among' them; and that they may 'be all perfectly joined together in the same
mind and in the same spirit 1' The Church, whatever opposition she may
encounter, can be the only possible instrument of bringing on these blessed
results ; and the conviction of this truth will surely be a stimulus to all the
friends and supporters of the venerable society to add to its means of plant
ing her standard in the rising settlements of the American colonies."
Notwithstanding difficulties like these, the Church was
everywhere making way and taking root. The field which
had been occupied by the labours of Mr. Dawes had been
divided into two, one of which, though nominally the station
of a fixed missionary, was still so extensive and important,
* The word tavern is commonly applied in Canada to what are properly
inns.

230 MEMOIR OF
that the Bishop decided on a sub-division of it, and immedi
ately after visiting it placed a second clergyman within its
limits. The Rev. R. G. Plees had succeeded Mr. Dawes in
the post of travelling missionary, and " his charge, although
lying within fixed limits, was still wholly of an itinerant char
acter. At St. R£mi, which is his home, (so far as he has
one) he officiates upon one Sunday and one week-day in the
month. Both these are evening services, to which he returns
after labouring elsewhere. He has four other Sunday sta
tions in his mission ; eleven regular stations for appointed
services in all. He officiates twenty-three or twenty-four
times every month, and his monthly circuit is -one of two
hundred and thirty-five miles, besides all extra calls."
Laprairie also now enjoyed the advantage of having a resi
dent minister, and anew church was consecrated at L'Acadie.
At Christieville a church and parsonage had been built, and
an endowment provided by the founder of Trinity Chapel at
Montreal, and a new church was in progress at Henryville.*
Passing from the seigneuries into the townships, the Bishop
visited a new mission at Brome, and took measures for the
immediate settlement of a missionary at Granby and Milton.
At Compton, the first confirmation ever held was on this
visitation, and the Bishop baptized thirteen adults.
" In the conflict of religious teachers and talkers, the confusion of sur
rounding sects, and the array of prejudices drawn up against the Church in
this neighbourhood, it was not without many struggles, and much earnest
and devout search for truth, that a good many of the parties here brought
forward to baptism and to confirmation had arrived at last at the comfort
able conviction of mind with which they sealed and ratified the covenant of
their God in Christ."
At Lennoxville, the Bishop presided, at a meeting of the
local committee for the affairs of the college, who were
* New churches followed, as a matter of course, on the establishment of
new missions. This one was within the limits of an old settled charge.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 231
encouraged by the bounty of the S. P. G. to resume their
suspended labours, and it was resolved to take immediate
steps ''for opening the institution in temporary buildings.
At Danville, another new mission, which the Bishop had
never before visited, nineteen persons were confirmed.
The last confirmations on this tour were at the three stations
in the mission of Portneuf, (in two of them for the first time)
which had been erected into a fixed charge shortly after the
last triennial visit. The whole number on this circuit was
forty-three ; the number of persons confirmed, one thousand
seven hundred and seventy-three ; and four churches were
consecrated. In 1 840, the confirmations on the winter circuit
had been thirty-eight, but this number included four on the
Ottawa, which had not now been visited.
In the conclusion of his journal, the Bishop makes the
following general observations :
" Reviewing this whole journey, and all the evidences which it affords
respecting the existing order of things.in the country, it is impossible not to
be affected by many heavy solicitudes and heart-rending reflections. It
cannot be without feelings of sorrow and shame and fear that we see that a
mighty government like that of Great Britain, which has spent millions in
this country upon fortifications and military works, and which can allow a
sum probably not short of £100,000 to be spent in a few months, (in a par
ticular instance,) for little more than matters of parade, should suffer its own
people, — in broad and reproachful contrast, in every single particular, to
the institutions founded for the old colonists by the crown of France, —
should suffer its own people, members of the Church of the Empire, to starve
and languish with reference to the supply of their spiritual wants ; estab
lishing no institutions for educating and forming the youth of the country ;
making no provision whatever for planting houses of God over the land,
or for creating, training, and supporting an order of ' teaching priests' for
the people ; interfering with and abridging the means which do exist for the
maintenance and perpetuation of religion in the country ; declining to
follow up in any efficient manner the plans laid down when the see of Quebec
, was established ; limiting to the lives of the present incumbents the salaries
which, in half a dozen instances, are enjoyed by ecclesiastics of the
Church establishment ; parcelling out among different religious bodies the
very clergy reserves which had belonged to the Church alone, and keeping
the management of them in its own hands, under a system which impedes

232 MEMOIR OF
their profitableness, and threatens the most alarming sacrifices in the shape
of sales ; leaving its emigrant children to scatter themselves at random here
and there over the country upon their arrival, without any digested plans for
the formation of settlements, or any guide (had it not been for the society
which I am addressing) to lead them rightly in their new trials, tempta
tions and responsibilities. The value of the missions and other boons
received from the society may be well estimated from this melancholy
survey of the subject. The influence which has presided over the proceed
ings of government in relation to the Church in these colonies appears, in
the mysterious counsel of Divine Providence, to have resembled some
enchantment which abuses the mind. I do not believe that there is any
example in history of any public measures based more decidedly upon false
data or distorted facts than those which have affected the interests of the
Canadian Church; and here I allude specially to the information upon
which the report of the committee of the House of Commons was framed
in 1828, and to the materials of which the late Earl of Durham made up
his far-famed report to Her Majesty ten years after that period.
" Yet, on the other hand, when we look at the advances which, through
all these difficulties, and despite all these discouragements, the Church has
been permitted to make, we have cause to lift up our hands in thankfulness,
and our hearts in hope. The Church in Canada has two Bishops and more
than one hundred and sixty clergymen ; and in this diocese alone, which,
in point of Church population, is of secondary magnitude, I have just shewn
that there will be not less than sixty-seven confirmations on the visitation
now in part accomplished. Now, there are persons living, — and yet far
from any indications of decrepitude, — three of them are among my own
acquaintance, — who were confirmed at Quebec by the first Bishop of Nova
Scotia, the first, and then the only Colonial Bishop of the established
Church in the whole empire, towards the close of the last century, at which
time there were, I believe, half a dozen Church clergy in all Canada-
When I contemplate the case of our missionaries, and think of the effects
of their labours, I look upon them as marked examples of men whose
reward is not in this world. Men leading lives of toil, and more or less of
hardship and privation — often with their families in unpainted rooms, and
with uncarpeted floors, — the very consideration which attaches to them as
clergymen of the English Church establishment exposing them to worldly
mortification, from their inability to maintain appearances consistent with
any such pretension, — they are yet, under the hand of God, the dispensers
of present, and the founders of future, blessing in the land. There are many
points of view in which they may be so regarded ; for wherever a Church
clergyman is established, there is, to a certain extent, a focus for improve
ment found. But nothing is more striking than the barrier which the
Church, without any adventitious sources of influence, opposes to the
impetuous flood of fanaticism, rushing at intervals through the newer

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 233
parts of the country, and those especially which lie along the frontier.
Nothing else can stand against it. The irregular sects are frequently seen
either to yield through policy, and mix themselves with a stream which
they cannot turn, or to be forcibly carried along where it leads them, and
finally to lose the stand which they had held."
The journeyings for the accomplishment of the visitation
were resumed in May, 1843, the first confirmation being
held at St. Martin, near Montreal. The Bishop had made
his arrangements for leaving Quebec on the 8th of that month,
but the ice on the St! Lawrence held so firm till within four
days of that date, that he had begun to fear that he should
not be able to adhere to them. From Montreal he went up
the Ottawa, but his progress was a matter of considerable
difficulty, though he reached a higher point than he had ever
before visited. The description of the state of the country
at the time is so characteristic, that a long extract from his
journal (also published as a number in the series of the
" Church in the Colonies ") will not be uninteresting.
"Early on the morning of the 15th, aday of determined rain,I embarked
in a small and ill-appointed steamer, having to ascend the Ottawa upwards
of seventy miles before reaching the next missionary station at Hull. The
waters at this season are extraordinarily high, and the river, like Jordan in
the time of harvest, having for long spaces a margin of no elevation, over-
floweth all its banks, so that the woods both on the shore and also on the
islands (which are level) appear to be continuous masses of forest, or, in
the latter case, detached clumps of trees growing in the water. They
consist, in these tracts, chiefly, if not wholly, of a deciduous growth.
The current in this fulness of the waters was of great power, and there was
also a vehement head-wind, so that on the morning of the 16th I found that
our unhappy little steamer, upon whose disordered machinery the captain
and all his people had been expending labour to no purpose during the whole
night, was absolutely incapable of being urged forward at all ; and to make
the case complete, there was no boat onboard for getting ashore. The shore,
fortunately, was not distant, and the water was shallow ; one of the men,
therefore, fastened a couple of boards together, and standing upon them,
poled himself in with a long stick. A canoe was thus obtained for my
landing, and I managed to procure as rough-looking and roughly-accoutred
a horse as can readily be imagined, to proceed on my way, leaving my
servant and baggage to toil nj>, with such hands as could be mustered, in

234 MEMOIR OF
the canoe, against wind and stream ; but this they soon found impossible,
and actually carried the baggage on their backs. My way for a great part
of the eight miles which I had to go, before reaching the mouth of the river
Gatineau, lay along a low ridge of land next the river, upon which I
followed the footpath, the road in the rear being under water. The whole
scene was eminently characteristic of a newly opened country ; here and
there was a tolerable frame-house ; but I passed many cabins, not five feet
high in the sides, nor six under the highest part of the roof, made of trees
put together with the bark upon them, the rough ends sticking out at the
intersections in each corner, the roof plastered over with mud, and per
haps formed of bark, or else consisting of what are called ' scoops,' i. e.,
hollow halves of trees, generally lime-trees, the convex and concave scoop
being laid alternately all along, from the ridge of the roof to the eaves, and
so keeping each other together by their mere position, and, without any
joinings, keeping out the wet. Out of this roof you might see a rusty stove
pipe to issue, or if there be a chimney, it is of clay and sticks.* The fields
adjacent were full of stumps ; and the woods beyond, in all the desolation
of recent clearing, edged with dead or half-burnt trees. The bridges were
made of trees unshaped by tool, and presented a surface wholly uneven,
from the manner in which they were put together. Yet in such scenes as
these there is already independence and a full sufficiency of the common
necessaries of this life, and there is that impulse given to improvement of
which the effects proceed in an accelerating ratio ; there is the commence
ment made perhaps of a highly prosperous settlement, and still advancing
civilization. The resources which lie in the bosom of the Canadian wilder
ness, prepared by the hand of God and offered to the enterprise of man,
afford subject for deep and thankful reflection ; but it is saddening to think
of the spiritual destitution of many settlements and of the wretched pro
vision which exists for the education of the children. We are not earnest
enough in our prayers that the Lord of the harvest would send forth labour
ers and all requisite helps into such a harvest as this. The particular field
here described will fall within the range of labour to be assigned to the
travelling missionary in the district of Montreal, for the maintenance of
whom, so soon as I find the person, the Church society of the diocese has
provided, as well as of another in the district of Quebec ; but his visits will
necessarily be few and far between. God put it into the heart of those who
are able to help the venerable society at home, to keep up her means and
strengthen her hands, that she may do as she would desire for the many
souls in the colonies, left, after all that she has already done and is
doing, to hunger for the bread of life I
* In some parts of C anada it is not unusual to see an old flour barrel
made available for this object.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 235
" May 17th. My detention from the accident already described, and the
prospect of farther detention from the want of conveyance upward by steam,
the boats not having commenced running for the season, were very vexa
tious and disheartening, because I foresaw that it would be impossible to
keep my appointment at Clarendon ; and a delay there, sufficient to collect
again all the 'scattered population who were to meet me, would oblige me
to break the whole chain of my appointments downward, with much doubt
of having the means at command for sending fresh notifications in time.
But these contretemps will occur; and even when they seem to hinder the
work of the Gospel, we must be patient, and remember that worse hindran
ces have been permitted in greater labours performed by holier hands. I
crossed over with Mr. Strong to Aylmer village, in Hull, the residence of
the Rev. J. Johnston, the society's missionary at that station, and made
arrangements with the agent of one of the principal mercantile houses in
Quebec, engaged in carrying on operations in the lumber trade upon the
Ottawa, who was to proceed up the lake the next day in a canoe, and oblig
ingly undertook to give me a passage. Mr. Johnston and the building
committee submitted to me a plan of the stone church immediately about
to be erected in Aylmer, for which Mr. Charles Symmes, a merchant of the
place, has liberally given a very desirable site.
"May 18th. I rose at half-past four, and drove down to the landing.
The canoe which was in waiting was one of birch bark, with ten paddles.
Mr. Strong accompanied me, so that, with the agent, there were four pas
sengers on board. There is an indescribable charm attaching to this species
of vectitation upon the water, harmonizing so well in its character with the
scenes through which you pass. The rush of the ten paddles, of which the
short, strong, rapid stroke was kept in perfect accordance, was soon united
with the bell-toned voices of the men, who struck up one of the peculiar
old Norman airs (not much resembling, it must be confessed, either in the
words or the music, the voyageur song composed by the poet Moore, of
which the scene is laid in this very river) imported by their forefathers
from France. They are all French Canadians, and there is a stamp about
that race of people, even of the lowest classes, in their manners and deport
ment, all unenlightened as they are, which gains a feeling of good-will,
attributable in a good measure, no doubt, to an inherited national courtesy,
but also, as a long residence in Canada has led me to believe, to one
real and high advantage, which, together with many deep and sore
evils, attaches to the system of the Roman catholic Church. Order, unity,
discipline, habitual and unquestioning conformity to rule, common and
fraternal feeling of identity with the religious institutions of the whole
race, — these, although in connexion with superstitions, abuses and corrup
tions, do of themselves produce a favourable effect upon the character and
demeanour of men. I do not know whether it is worth while to trouble
the society with such passing observations as these, which incorporate

236 MEMOIR OF
themselves in a manner spontaneously with my journal; but I think that
the contemplation of the effects just mentioned carries with it a great
lesson to the protestant world, who might enjoy all the blessings which I
have enumerated, in conjunction with a pure and scriptural religion, and
with all those blessings of a higher order which follow in its train.
" The Lac de Chenes which we ascended, is about thirty miles long ; and
after reaching the Chats, corruptly "called the Shaws, at its upper termina
tion, we made two portages, (the men carrying the inverted canoe and the
baggage,) the former of which was above a quarter of a mile in length,
the latter perhaps a mile and a half. The Chats are a series of low water
falls, nine in number, stretching across the top of the lake, divided from one
another by rooky and wooded islets, between which the foaming and tum
bling waters issue as from so many portals. The effect is singular and
striking. The whole length of the range of falls and islets appears to be
about a mile. Above is a complete labyrinth of wood-clad islets, estimated
by the voyageurs at the number of two hundred, a wilderness of wood and
water, without visible bound or seeming choice of course. Mr. Noel, the
agent, obligingly carried me beyond his own destination, to a house of
entertainment about twelve miles up the second lake, where I was to sleep.
We entered a room in which a group of canoemen and labourers, a dozen
strange-looking and unkempt figures, were crouching over a fire in a rude
chimney made of rough stones, and looking like a natural cave ; they all
most respectfully made way, and we were glad to get over the same fire
ourselves. They afterwards disposed of themselves on the floor for the
night, wrapped in the sails of their rafts or canoes, or whatever other
integument came to hand, and lying close packed, side by side, like bodies
in some crowded cemetery. We passed into an inner room, where we each
got some kind of bed.
" May 19th. I rose again at half-past four, and crossed the lake to Claren
don in my own diocese, a distance of perhaps half a dozen miles, in a
small row-boat, which they call here a. ' bun.' Mr. Strong was obliged to
remain behind, fearful of not getting back for his Sunday duty at home.
Upon landing in Clarendon, at a spot where there were several scattered
settlers along the low margin of the lake, or more or less withdrawn from
it, I walked a mile and a half into the interior, to the house of a Mr. H  ,
a respectable young Englishman to whom Mr. Strong had recommended
that I should address myself. (Neither I nor any other Bishop had ever
been in Clarendon before, the mission having been first established since
my last visitation.) It may be mentioned as a specimen of the state of
things in the new parts of a colony, that Mr. H  went three times to
Bytown, a distance of fifty odd miles, to be married, and was only success
ful on the third, the clergymen, on the two former occasions, having been
absent upon other calls. I found him exceedingly obliging and attentive ;
and the first matter to be arranged was to get information circulated

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 237

along the lake shore, up and down, appointing a time for the people to
meet me at the church in the afternoon, since I was a day after my original
appointment, and to procure the means of conveyance for proceeding to
the church myself, which was six miles farther in the interior. Messengers
were soon found for the first object. The other was not quite so easy of
accomplishment. No part of the neighbourhood afforded a single vehicle
of any kind upon wheels ; the people using ox-sleds for drawing any arti
cles requiring to be moved from place to place, even in summer. Men and
boys were despatched in different directions, to seek for horses to ride.
The first which was brought was taken from the plough, and it was no
small sacrifice for his owner to make, although I believe that it was cheer
fully done, for the season was precious for his labour. He had on the
head:stall of a cart-harness, with its winkers, and .a halter underneath.
The bridle-rein was a piece of rope. The saddle was in a, condition just
to hold together, and no more. I mounted him at once, feeling it import
ant to push on to the church, that notice might be given in good time at
some straggling habitations on the way, and that I might arrive also '
sufficiently early to have all persons within any practicable reach col
lected by notices sent after I should get to my point. Mr. H  accom
panied me upon a mare far gone in foal, whom he was doubtful about
taking ; but he had only the choice between this animal or none. My
servant was left to follow, if a horse should be brought for him, and was,
in that case, to bring my portmanteau, containing my lawn sleeves. I
had put up in a carpet bag, which Mr. H  was good enough to carry,
what might serve to officiate with in case of absolute necessity. Our way
to the church wa3 by a narrow wood-road, between high ragged pines ;
there were many bad places, and there was much corduroy ; but the chief
difficulty arose from the necessity of going round the prostrate giants of
the forest, thrown down by the storm of Monday and Tuesday, and lying
directly across the road, probably in not less than twenty places in the
course of the six miles. This is a sufficiently common occurrence in newly
opened roads in the woods ; the trees in the dense forest, depending upon
each other for support, have no tap-roots, and when the passage of the air
is freely let in to act upon them, they are apt to blow over. In these
places we had nothing for it but to fight through the younger growth and
the bushes, making a circuit, and so regaining the road ; but when I found
the nature of these obstructions, I gave up the idea of their being success
fully combated by my servant with the portmanteau strapped at his back.
The Rev. Daniel Falloon lodges in the neighbourhood of the church,
which stands upon a road where there is something like a continued line
of settlement ; and the expedient resorted to for circulating notice was to
send off the school-children as messengers, who fortunately were at their
lessons in the school-house. The appointment now made for service was
at three in the afternoon, before which time my servant, to my great sur-

238 MEMOIR OF
prise, arrived. It was very saddening to think of the unavoidable disap
pointment of those persons who were beyond all reach of notice, in the
townships of Lichfield and Bristol, and who had come great distances
through bad roads* to meet me the day before, according to my original
appointment. But there was much compensation in the alacrity manifested
by all who were accessible to the information now sent in travelling over
the same ground again, especially when the state of the roads and the
poverty of conveyances are considered. Eighty-six had received tickets
from Mr. Falloon ; fifty-one were confirmed : about forty other persons
were present. Two of the subjects for confirmation arrived after the con
clusion of the service, and were then separately confirmed. One of these,
a lad barely of sufficient age to be passed, had been employed in the morn
ing running in quest of horses for me, and had travelled on foot twenty-
two miles that day. Many of the males were in their shirt-sleeves. I have
detailed all these particulars because they set before the society, in their
aggregate, perhaps as lively a picture of the characteristic features of new
settlements as any of my travels will afford ; and they are interspersed, as
cannot fail to be observed, with many evidences of good feeling, which one
is willing to trace to an appreciation in the minds of the people of those
spiritual privileges which they enjoy through the care of the society and
the Church. The Idbours of Mr. Falloon have been exemplary, and not, I
trust, without a blessing, nor without an intelligent participation among
his people in the ordinances of the Church, as well as a discernment and
practical application of saving truths. It was in part, I doubt not, with
such feelings and such principles, that a knot of people gathered round me,
(after I had mounted my horse to return for the night to Mr. H.'s,) and
poured forth the most earnest remonstrances with the unrestrained vehe
mence of their country (they were Irishmen) against the removal of Mr.
Falloon, who had become engaged to take charge of a chapelry in Mon
treal. f I took a longer but rather better road home, and reached Mr.
H.'s house at nine o'clock, full of thankfulness that, the exertions which
I had been enabled to make to repair the effects of my detention below, and
to get through the duties lying upon me in this quarter within the neces
sary time, had been so amply repaid.
"After this statement, the society may judge what the need was of Church
ministrations before the opening of this mission only a year and a half ago,
at which time the nearest clergyman to it in the diocese was distant fifty
miles or upwards ; and the blessings, present and future, may be estimated,
* Some of them had come from the two extremities of the mission, each
fourteen miles off, on foot.
f I am happy to state that Mr. Neve, who succeeded to the charge, has
fully kept up the credit and influence of the Church. Sept. 1844.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 239
which are procured by the expenditure of the missionary allowance of
£100 a year. There is in Clarendon alone a population of one thousand
and seventeen souls, of whom between eight and nine hundred belong to
the Church of England.
" May 2 Oth. I rose at a quarter past four, and took an early breakfast with
Mr. and Mrs. H  . In surveying the premises and the whole scene round
the house, I was struck with the perfect specimen which they exhibited of
the battle with the wilderness in the early stages of settlement. A gentle
man told me the other day that a friend of his who has settled in the woods
of Canada declared himself never to have understood the full force of the
text, ' replenish the earth, and subdue it,' till he had to create his establish
ment and his farm in the heart of the forest, applying to this labour the
latter of the two verbs. Here was to be seen a decent two-story frame-
house, occupied for some time, but by no means finished, nor likely soon to
be so, — out-buildings and appendages, being added by degrees, were partly
wanting, partly standing incomplete. Nothing could be rougher, more
dreary, more disfigured than the homestead and the scenery in view.
Ragged wooden fences, fields full of stumps, like a grave-yard full of monu
ments ; the whole space irregularly shut in by burnt, half-burnt, or singed
trees, many of them simply enormous poles, with a few blackened branches
near their tops ; all idea of order, neatness, comfort, or finish in any of the
accessories of the picture, all approach to these advantages, utterly out of
the question, for a long, long time to come. Yet Mr. H  is an enter
prising, and, I hope I may say a prosperous, young man, who, besides his
farm, has other undertakings in hand upon the spot, and has the prospect
before him of living in plenty, improving his condition from year to year,
and passing a handsome property to his children ; advantages which,
amidst the smooth and smiling scenes of Old England, might probably
have been shut against him for ever. So it is that the gracious hand of
Divine Providence balances and tempers the lot of men in this lower world ;
and — » • • • 1 jf countries we compare,
And estimate the blessings which they share,
Though patriots flatter, still shall wisdom find
An equal portion dealt to all mankind ;
As different good, by art or nature given
To different nations, makes their blessings even.'
" After breakfast I went down to the Lake, leaving my horse, with many
thanks to the owner, at his house on the way. Close to the water side
there is a half-pay officer of the army settled on a farm, and living in »
low log dwelling, whose wife and daughter, a slight delicate-looking
girl of fourteen or fifteen, have lately joined him from the immediate neigh
bourhood of London. He apologized to me for her not having been up at

240 MEMOIR OF
the church, saying that he was obliged to keep her at home carrying water
to put out the fires which had been kindled in the new clearings, but which
might have spread in a dangerous manner if they had not been checked.
Here was an example not recommendatory of a new country. Where the
means of labour are not at command within the family, or the means of
hiring it at the high prices which prevail are found wanting, it is not wise
to embark in the task of the settler.
"The 'bun' had come over to meet me by appointment, and I crossed
the lake to Sand Point, after which I descended to the Portage. The wind
being fair, the boatmen stuck up one of the oars for a mast, and affixed to
it a bedquilt which they had on board, for a sail. At the head of the lower
Portage I found Mr. Strong, who would have accompanied me to Clarendon
had he foreseen that I could have returned so quickly. I was now pushing
my way to pass the Sunday at Aylmer ; and when I reached the village
of Fitzroy Harbour at the termination of the Portage, close to the Chats,
I found that the steamer from Aylmer had been sent up expressly for me
before her intended time, and that several of the proprietors had made the
opening trip of the season in her. One of the principal among them, Mr
Charles Symmes, already mentioned as having given the church-site at
Aylmer, had despatched a messenger on horseback to Clarenden (fifty odd
miles and back) to apprize me of this arrangement. I had left Clarendon
before he arrived, but my own movements had brought me within benefit
of the thoughtful kindness exerted for me.
"Among the remarkable features of Canadian travelling, the transitions
encountered in the means of accommodation and modes of conveyance are
not the least. Steam navigation, with all the internal economy of steamers,
appears to be associated with the most advanced state of improvement,
the most artificial condition of society, and the most diffusive application
of resources productive of general convenience ; yet, in visiting the newer
parts of this country, you pass at once from steam travelling to such rude
scenes and adventures as I have described. The inventions of a refined
age, and the results of long accumulated experience, are transported at a
stroke from the ancient seat of empire, where they develop themselves, to
remote dependencies, of which many portions are in the very infancy of
their progress. How happy would it be, and what abundant blessings
might it be expected to draw down, if the rulers of affairs at home, and the
country at large, were alive to the duty of communicating, as the foremost
boon to those dependencies, the means of religious light, and the necessary
provisions for the establishment of the Church of God in the land."
The last confirmation on the Ottawa was held, on the
downward journey, at Vaudrueuil, where another new mission
had been opened, and forty-nine persons were presented.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 241
At Sorel a new church was consecrated to replace the first
that had been built in Canada, and there was what the Bishop
calls " a double consecration ; besides that of the material
building, a self-dedication to God, with the Church's benedic
tion, of those who, in the solemn rite established by the apostles,
presented their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable
to God ; lively stones, built up a spiritual house, growing
unto a holy temple to the Lord. Happy auguries ! never
perhaps to be realized without, exception, in surveying the
participants in any religious ordinance, but fairly to be
indulged in behalf of every group of youthful believers who
present themselves for confirmation after having been faith
fully prepared and trained by their pastor."
In the following October, the Bishop paid his third epis
copal visit to Gaspe", where he reached a point upwards
of eight hundred miles from the farthest to which he had
penetrated on the Ottawa. The peculiar circumstances of
this district not admitting of much immigration or agricul
tural settlement, it affords less room for change or progress,
and therefore less occasion for remark, than other parts of
the diocese. One new church (at Sandy Beach) is mentioned.
At St. George's Cove the Bishop preached, at the same
service, both in English and in French, for the benefit of a
mixed congregation. Six confirmations were held, and eighty-
six confirmed.
In the May journey, at eight confirmations, two hundred
and forty persons had received the rite. The Bishop
preached on a great many occasions where there was no
confirmation. Six missions yet remained to complete the circuit of the
diocese, which were visited early in 1844, and in which twelve
confirmations were held, two hundred and nineteen persons
confirmed, and two churches consecrated. Valcartier, New
Ireland, and Riviere" du Loup had become the seats of fixed
missions, and the two former had each three churches.

242 MEMOIR OF
The whole number of confirmations in the diocese had been
sixty-four, and two thousand two hundred and eighteen per
sons were confirmed. The proportion of these belonging to
the present diocese of Quebec was thirty-seven confirmations ,
and nine hundred and twenty-five persons. The contrast be
tween it and the district of Montreal had already begun to
appear, for there thirty-three confirmations had sufficed for
nearly thirteen hundred persons.
The whole number of miles travelled in accomplishing the
circuit of the diocese was three thousand seven hundred
and fifty-two, exclusive of about four hundred on separate
journeys for the consecration of churches in the year 1843.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 243

CHAPTER XVI.
Visit to the Red River — Surplice question — Views on some other points —
Manner of dealing with opposition — Corner-stone of Bishop's College
laid — Visitation of the clergy — Fires at Quebec — Opening of Bishop's
College — Pastoral letter.
The desire which the Bishop had long cherished of visiting
the missions in the Hudson's Bay territory has been already
mentioned, and as soon as this visitation of his own diocese
had been accomplished, he undertook a voyage to Red River.
All necessary arrangements had been made with the Church
Missionary Society, by which the entire expense of the
voyage was cheerfully borne, as well as that of providing the
services of an additional clergyman in the parish of Quebec
during the Bishop's absence, and some remuneration to a
clergyman who discharged, in addition to his own, the duties
of one who accompanied the Bishop as acting chaplain. The
Governor of the territory, Sir George Simpson, afforded
every facility in his power, and though the degree of expo
sure and privation to which he would necessarily be subjected
in a long canoe-voyage had raised some apprehensions on the
part of some of his friends* (which he had effectually quieted
•It was not often that those nearest to him grudged his yielding to
higher claims than their own. One of my sisters writing to me from
Quebec in 1847 (the year of ship fever) said, " My dearest father talks of
going to Grosse Isle again. I cannot think he is called upon to do so,
though, were the danger and labour greater, and it were his duty plainly
to go, I am sure none of us would hesitate a moment."

244 MEMOIR OF
by saying with St. Paul, " What mean ye to weep and to
break mine heart?") the whole undertaking was regarded, in
reality, more as a relaxation than anything else. Although
he could not, of course, forget the cares and anxieties of the
charge which he had left behind, yet the forced leisure, the
constant familiarity with nature, the novelty of many of the
scenes through which he passed, and, above all, the deep and
lasting comfort which the exercise of his ministrations afforded
him, formed a break in his life of continued toil, and presented
opportunities of actual enjoyment which could not fail to
produce a beneficial effect upon himself. He beguiled the
time which he spent in the canoe by the composition of some
small poems, which he afterwards published under the title
of " Songs of the Wilderness," and which sufficiently serve
to shew the spirit by which he was animated in undertaking
the journey. An account of his visit, in letters addressed to
the Church Missionary Society, was also published by that
body.* He acted under a commission from the Bishop of
London, who had a nominal jurisdiction over these extra-
diocesan regions. On the 12th May the Bishop held an
ordination in the cathedral of Quebec, and preached a ser
mon, which was published by desire, from 2 Cor. x. 15, 16.
* The first Bishop of Rupert's Land, writing to him soon after his arrival
in his diocese, said, with reference to this journal, " It was from its simple
and forcible statements that I felt so interested in the condition and pros
pects of the Indian that I at last determined to accept the call" to the
bishopric. " The diocese owes so deep a debt of gratitude to your lord
ship for its formation, and for the interest with which it is regarded by the
Church at large, that one of my first desires, on my arrival, has been to
write to tender my thanks for all that you were enabled to do in 1844, and
for that account of the condition of the people which drew the attention
of the Christian world to the necessity of a resident Bishop." It appears,
also, that it was the Bishop of Quebec who first drew (in 1850) the atten
tion of the S. P. G. to the wants of British Columbia (see summary account
of S. P. G., 1860, p. 13,) so that he lived to see six new dioceses to the
westward of his own, which had either formed part of that of Quebec, or
in the erection of which he had been himself concerned.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 245
The next day he set out for Montreal, and on the 16th
embarked in his canoe at Lachine, on his voyage of 1800
miles. The season during which it was safe to travel
in bark canoes being very short, he was enabled to spend only
eighteen days in the territory after the completion of his
voyage. In these (which included three Sundays) he held
two ordinations after examining the candidates, confirmed
846 persons, preached thirteen sermons, delivered five lec
tures to the candidates for confirmation in the different con
gregations, addressed the Sunday School children, and visited
all the principal inhabitants of the settlement. The " Indian
Settlement" on the Red River was reached by great exer
tions on the morning of Sunday 23rd June, and the Bishop
preached twice to the Indians through an interpreter. One
of the missionaries says :
" The Indians were quite delighted with the sermon, and said it was
not the first time their Chief Praying Father had preached to Indians,
for he appeared to know so well what suited them. The next day his
lordship drew out a plan for the services during his stay. I am sure we
ought to feel that we owe him a debt of gratitude which we can never
discharge. After the hardships of a thirty-nine days' voyage, his lord
ship's plan looks little like one drawn up by a lover of ease. It reminds
us very forcibly of the primitive ages of the Church."
Another writes of the effect of a sermon, into which the
subject of confirmation was introduced, that " many persons
who before had treated the rite with indifference, became
interested in it, and his addresses to the candidates, male and
female, married and unmarried separately, were in a similar
strain." The episcopal visit greatly cheered the hearts and
strengthened the hands of the missionaries, and expressions
of gratitude abound in their communications. Thus Mr.
Cockran writes :
" We feel ourselves under lasting obligations to the Bishop for visiting
us, and for the great effort which he has made, during his short stay, to
make his visit useful to us. His amiable simplicity and fervent piety will
be long remembered by us. Should it please God to raise up such a
Bishop for Rupert's Land, we should then expect, under the Divine
blessing, to establish a permanent Church here."

246 MEMOIR OF
And in the same strain Mr. Cowley observes :
" His lordship was most gratefully received everywhere. He seems to
have captivated the hearts, and called forth on his behalf all the best
feelings and wishes, of our people. The good he has done is, I think, alto
gether incalculable. It may, indeed, be said of the Red River settlement,
as it was of Samaria, when Philip went and preached Christ unto them,
that* there was great joy in that place."
Mr. Smithurst :
" His parting address drew tears from many eyes. He will long have a
place in the affectionate remembrances of both clergy and people, and
many, I trust, will be the prayers offered up at Red River on his behalf."
It was impossible that such feelings, to which a more formal
expression was given in addresses from the clergy, the
heads of British families, and the Indians, could fail to be
mutual; and when to these was added the thankfulness with
which he had witnessed the effect of the Divine blessing on
the work of Christ, particularly as it was contrasted with
the condition of the stray savages whom he had encountered
on the route, the Bishop ever afterwards looked back to this
visit with inexpressible gratification and interest. In a letter
written on his return from Red River, he thus describes his
feelings on first approaching it :
" To come upon such a settlement, and to see the Indian children all
decently clothed, with their books in their hands, and in their deportment
in school or church incomparably more quiet and reverent than I ever saw
in an equal number of whites, after having come freshly from the naked or
ridiculously tricked-out, and often dirty, heathens — the men sitting all day
basking motionless in the sun, with pipes in their mouths — and after
having seen some of their places for sorcery, &c, does indeed fill the mind
with the most thankful emotions of delight and the most earnest longing
for the extension, by God's good band upon the laborers engaged in it, of so
blessed a work."
The Bishop reached Lachine, on his return, in safety on
the 14th August. He closed his letters to the Church Mis
sionary Society with a strong and earnest appeal for the
immediate establishment of a Bishopric in Rupert's Land :
*This was the text of the last sermon ever preached by the Bishop.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 247

" A move should be made at once — an earnest, a determined move — with
the eye of faith tijrned up to God, the heart lifted in the fervency of prayer,
and the hand put to the work without looking back."
The Archbishops and Bishops who constituted the Colonial
Bishoprics' Committee appointed a sub-committee for the pur
pose of promoting this object, who issued a statement in the
following year, consisting mainly of an extract from the
Bishop's letter, than which they said they could not " make
a more forcible appeal." He continued to use every exertion
within his power until the bishopric was finally established in
1849. In the meanwhile he did what he could for the over
sight of the territory by means of correspondence with the
clergy, who seem to have found comfort in seeking his advice,
and reporting their progress and their difficulties as to their
own diocesan. He often said that, but for certain considera
tions, he would willingly resign his see for the charge of Ru
pert's Land.
The Bishop found some trouble awaiting him on his
return, from the indiscreet proceeding of a clergyman who had
undertaken to write anonymously in the newspapers on the
question, then agitated elsewhere, of preaching in the surplice.
Some diversity of practice had begun to prevail on this point,
and the Bishop, early in 1845, addressed a letter to his clergy
on the subject, in which he declared himself, after considerable
research and the citation of various authorities, in favour of
the gown as a general rule, but adopting the recommendation
of the Archbishop of Canterbury, that no change should be
made in places where, either practice had been fairly estab
lished. The Bishop had addressed a circular to the clergy
of his diocese before leaving them for the Red River, com
mending himself and the work to be performed there, as well
as the cause of the Church society, to be cared for in his
absence, to their special prayers, and had taken occasion in
it to refer briefly to this question, reserving his judgment upon
it till his return. He was therefore the more pained that
any " Presbyter " should have undertaken to anticipate his

248 MEMOIR OF
judgment, and to animadvert on its expected character. He
had a good deal of correspondence on the subject with the
present Archdeacon of Maidstone, and Canon Jebb, and his
letter was re-published by some of his friends in England.
A brother bishop on the English bench said of it :
" It will set the disputants an example of the tone and temper in which
controversy ought to be carried on."
Some farther notice of the question was taken in the notes to
his charge in 1848.
It is not to be supposed that this was the only opposition
or discouragement that the Bishop was called upon to en
counter in the discharge of his episcopal functions. He had
to deal, of course, with men of like passions with the rest of
mankind, and offences must needs have come. I prefer to
leave in the oblivion to which he was always thankful to
consign them all personal or local difficulties ; and I allude to
this, as I shall be obliged hereafter to do to some others, only
because they relate to questions of public and general interest,
and form part of the history of the diocese, for which this
imperfect memoir is designed to furnish some materials. The
sensitive tenderness of his nature caused trials of this kind
to sink deeply into his heart, where other good men might
have been able to regard them with comparative unconcern,
or to find relief to their own minds in administering official
censure. The saying of St. Paul was constantly on his lips,
" Who is weak, and I am not weak ? who is offended, and I
burn not ?" And though in the judgment of man a more
prompt and decided exercise of authority might, in some
instances, have seemed at the time to afford a readier escape
from present trouble, yet the meekness and gentleness which
he had learnt from his Divine Master prevailed in the end
over all opposition, and contributed to leave the diocese,
when he was called from his labours, in a much more united
and hopeful state (as has been often publicly acknowledged)
than a different system of administration might have been ex-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 249
pected to produce. Innumerable are the instances in which,
by heaping coals of fire on the head of those who had opposed
themselves, he melted their hearts, and it is but right to say
here that the "Presbyter" to whose indiscretion allusion has
been made, came forward afterwards with an entirely volun-r
tary and unexpected acknowledgment of the authorship of
the letter, and of sorrow for his offence. Often have I seen
occasion to apply to my father's case the words of the
Psalmist, " When a man's ways please the Lord, He maketh
even his enemies to be at peace with him." There is but one
human being now on earth who has witnessed the struggles
and sufferings, for which private prayer (unintentionally over
heard), with many tears, was alone able to strengthen him,
when persistent opposition carried wounds to his very soul.
But while he was tender towards those who took what he con
ceived to be a wrong view of their duty, and even to those
whose sins were open beforehand, he never compromised his
own principles, or shunned to declare them. His charity was
able to distinguish between the judgment to be passed on
opinions and the feehng to be. entertained towards those who
held them ; and he enjoyed, particularly in the later years of
his hfe, the unspeakable comfort of being dealt with himself
by the same rule. Throughout his life, indeed, he lived on
terms of close friendship with persons from whom, in many
points, he differed ; but none were more forward in acts of
personal attention and respect, accompanied by tokens of sin
cere affection, or in doing honor to his memory after his death,
than some who, as he was always willing to believe, from con
scientious motives had taken a leading part in opposition to
his public acts.*
* " In delivering and in publishing, with the notes which have been
appended to it, the foregoing charge to my clergy, I have made a great
effort, ' in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,' to face a variety
of questions more or less difficult, and to dispose, as I am best able, of some
points of a thorny and contentious aspect. Let me hope in God that I
R

250 MEMOIR OF
Having been led to these remarks by the mention of the
surplice question, I am prompted to insert here one or two
extracts from his private letters on other points agitated at
this time, though his charges and published sermons, as well
as the whole history of his ministry, sufficiently exhibit his
principles and opinions. In a letter dated in April, 1842,
he says :
"How lamentable it is to think that a set of men like the Tractarians, who
' did run well,' who, up to a certain point, rendered admirable service to
the Church, corrected many loose and low notions which widely prevailed,
and kept in check many irregular tendencies, should have pushed their
principles so far beyond the line of truth as not only to propagate
mischief, but to undo to a great extent the good which they had themselves
done ; for the avowed dissenters from the Church, and the half-dissenting
party within her, have now the unhappy advantage put into their hands
of being able plausibly to represent all maintenance of ancient order and
discipline, reverence in the solemnities of worship, and adherence to
primitive views of the Christian ministry, as tending towards popery. In
itself, there can be no greater mistake in the world ; for the relaxation
which is seen among protestants of some of these points, and their aban
donment of others, constitute the very strength of the cause of Rome. I
trust, however, that there is a large body of our clergy who are neither
Tractarians nor low Churchmen, and who are equally prepared to make
their stand against the insinuating advances of popery, and the disorgan
izing proceedings of schismatics and their abettors."
Later in the same year, he wrote :
" I regret that you lost the opportunity of seeing the consecration of the
five Bishops in Westminster Abbey. I am truly rejoiced that, among other
improvements in the Church, the unhappy practice has at last been broken
through, of doing in a corner the things which are calculated to excite the
have— in this department of my duty, at least— exhausted the task ; and
that if I am permitted to meet my brethren again in the same way, I may
have the comfort of confining myself to topics of simple edification in the
plain and unquestioned duties of our holy calling. My earnest prayer to
God, with reference to the last as well as to the daily close of my labours,
may be expressed in the familiar words of good Bishop Ken, —
' That with the world, myself, and Thee,
I, ere I sleep, at peace may be I' "
(Concluding note of Appendix to Charge o/1848.)

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 251
interest of our Church-people and strengthen the cause by their publicity.*
It is curious to see that many points which, years and years ago, I made
the subject of thought, and not only so, but committed roughly to paper
with a vague expectation of expanding those rough hints, and preparing
them at some day of leisure (should it ever come) for publication, have
latterly been brought forward by this and that person or party, and
their recommendations are beginning to be acted upon in the Church.
If I could enter into the spirit of the old saying, ' pereant qui ante nos
nostra dixerunt,' I should have abundant ground for uttering the maledic
tion. But I rejoice that, without my mighty help, the world is opening
its eyes to the importance of recovering discipline in the Church, preserving
the reverence of public worship in matters of exterior, distinguishing the
clergy as men of God by their proper ecclesiastical habit, throwing open
to the members of the Church at large the high and solemn occasions
which are connected with the investiture of her ministers in their sacred
office, &c, &c."
One or two of the rough memoranda here mentioned have
been preserved, the date of which is apparently about fifteen
or twenty years earlier than that of this letter. They are as
follows : — " 1. Disused, or made to deviate from their original
intention, which ought to be restored. Deacons. Church
clerk. Fasting. Saints' days. Clerical habit (Canon).
Religious office for circuit of parish bounds (Homily).
Sidesmen and questmen. Excommunication, &c. Daily
service. Separate offices for different hours, containing
repetition if blended together, and lengthening forenoon
service too much (Collect, ' beginning of this day'). Rubric
before communion-service. Manner of women's attendance
for churching, making it necessary to prefix a sentence for
which there is no rubric. Marriage and baptism not per
formed in the congregation. Inconsistencies and bad effects
of this deviation. 2. Corrigenda. Enclosed desks. Desks
in body of church. Pews. Manner of kneeling and making
* In a letter written at this time, one of his younger brothers says : " I
am so glad that the new Bishops for the colonies are to be consecrated in
Westminster Abbey. When did the Abbey exhibit so interesting aj spec
tacle as the setting apart of five, I trust faithful, servants of Christ, for the
episcopal office at one time?"

252 MEMOIR OF
responses. Private not public worship. Should face the
minister (i.e., the east end of the church), and visibly and
audibly send up one voice. Anthems should be reserved for
particular and rare occasions, except in particular congrega
tions. A non-sequitur in the second prayer ior the king at
the altar. 3. Works wanted. History of religious delusion.
Familiar ecclesiastical history. Series of psalms and hymns
adapted to the Sundays and Holy days. Series of sermons
on Church government, ordinances, doctrines, lectures on the
festivals, to be read (out of the book,) brief and plain ; style
more famihar than in MS. Lectures or homilies to be read
on Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent, or on Sunday evening by
the deacon, &c, &c, taken in part from the old homilies.
The constitution and ordinances of the Church to be distinctly
explained in the course of these. The Creed and Command
ments also may be used after catechising, and taken in part
from MS."
Soon after his return from the Red River, the Bishop had
the satisfaction of laying the corner-stone of Bishop's College
at Lennoxville. This ceremony took place on the 18th Sep
tember, 1844. Mr, Wood had, before this time, seen reason,
to the Bishop's great disappointment, to relinquish the idea of
taking the charge of the institution, and another clergyman in
the diocese, a graduate of Oxford, having declined the offer of it,
the Bishop entered into communication with his friends in Eng
land in the hope of procuring the services of a competent person
from home. The funds at his command were, however, at this
time so small that he could offer no higher salary than .£100
a year, and1 the matter was, therefore, one of great difficulty.
A connection of the Bishop's, being a Michel fellow of
Queen's College, Oxford, was found willing to accept the
post on these terms ; but before the arrangement with him
was finally completed, the liberality of the Bishop's aged
friend, who, upon his attention being particularly drawn
to the wants of the diocese of Quebec, sent him £6,000 stg.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 253
to be applied at his discretion to their relief (a sum which he
thought should be appropriated unbroken to some one per
manent object) , enabled him to raise his offer for the services
of a principal and professor of divinity to £300 currency.
He applied this donation to the endowment Of the college,
reserving, however, £400 towards the chapel, which he con
sidered " an essential feature of the institution."
The Bishop closed his third triennial visitation by assem
bling the clergy of the diocese in the cathedral of Quebec to
receive the episcopal charge, on the 2nd July, 1845. An
ordination had been held on the preceding Sunday, while the
flames of the second great fire of that year (in which St.
Matthew's chapel had been burnt, as St. Peter's had been
in the first, exactly a month before) were still unextinguished.
The Rev. J. Reid, one of the senior clergymen of the diocese,
was to have preached at the ordination, but the Bishop dis
missed the congregation with a few words from the altar
instead of a sermon, that they might go to aid in the work of
providing shelter for those who had been rendered homeless.
In his charge delivered on the following Wednesday, the
Bishop referred to the fact of his still bearing the title of
Bishop of Montreal, as furnishing " a standing testimony to
those wants and claims on the part of the Church which ought
never to be lost sight of." He had, a few months previously,
declined a proposal for the annexation of the district of Gaspe
to the new diocese of Fredericton, chiefly on the ground of
looking to the erection of a see at Montreal.
ToAvards the autumn of this year, Bishop's College was
opened, though the building itself was not completed. The
new principal, with the students who had been removed from
Three Rivers, occupied part of a building at Lennoxville,
another part of which served as a store, though not without
being called upon to submit to some inconvenience and pri
vation, which they were taught to regard as part of their
training for missionary work. There the Bishop paid them

254 MEMOIR OF
a visit in October. In the beginning of the winter he had
occasion to address a pastoral letter to the clergy and
laity of the diocese in explanation of a direction given for
withdrawing the offer which had been made, in a particular
parish, of the use of a , chapel belonging to the Church of
England to the Wesleyans, that body having been de
prived of their own building by fire. This letter contains a
clear and powerful exhibition of the principles which, with all
charity to those who differ from the Church, render such
proceedings inadmissible, and this was freely acknowledged
by the clergyman whose kind feeling had prompted the act
without, perhaps, sufficient consideration. It often happened,
in the course of his visitations, that meeting-houses were
placed at the Bishop's disposal for holding confirmations or
other services, and he was always fully ready to acknowledge
the kindness which prompted such offers. Yet he was never
able to accept them without difficulty, from the fear of pro
ducing an unpleasant feeling when it was known that such
accommodation could not be reciprocated.

G, J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 255

CHAPTER XVII.
Fourth circuit of the diocese — Ship fever — Visitation of clergy.
The next circuit of visitation was begun early in 1846, in
which year 325 persons were confirmed at Montreal on the
22nd January, and 218 exactly a month later at Quebec. The
settlements on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, between
the two cities, were visited on this journey, or soon afterwards,
the number of miles travelled being just 500. On the 23rd
June, the Bishop again left Quebec on a tour through the
districts of Montreal and St. Francis, which occupied him till
the 1st September. His journal of this tour, with a preface con
taining some interesting statistical information, was published
by the S. P. G. as No. xviii of the " Church in the Colonies."
On Sunday, 5th July, which was one of the hottest days he
ever remembered to have felt in his life, the Bishop held an
ordination at nine a.m. at Montreal, when his own son was
admitted to the diaconate, for which he had not been of age
on Trinity Sunday, and his services were immediately re
quired at the quarantine station, where the Bishop always
regarded it as " very important, independently of concern
for the sick, dying, and bereaved, that the Church should
greet settlers belonging to her on their first arrival, and con
nect their first impressions with religious faith and duty." On
the same day, the Bishop afterwards attended four other
services, preaching four times, and administering the Lord's
Supper once (besides at the ordination), "leaving off at very
nearly the distance of twelve hours from the time at which he

256 MEMOIR OF
had begun, and with hardly more interruption than was
necessary for passing from church to church,"* and he says,
" I had great cause to be thankful at the close of the day
for an additional proof of the physical fitness for the labours
devolving upon me, with which it has pleased God to bless
one of His servants, very sincerely and keenly conscious of
much less aptitude for them in other and higher points of
view. I felt no fatigue in the least degree hurtful or dis
tressing." While engaged in this visitation, the Bishop received the
intelligence of the death of a brother, whom he describes as
" younger than myself, but far before me in the Christian
race." On a letter which he had received from him some
time previously, he has written : " The last ! 0 might I hope
to be ready like thee when I am called!"
The visitation of the district of Quebec was completed in
the spring and summer of 1847, and that of the whole diocese
by a voyage to Gaspe" late in the autumn of the same year.
It is a year much to be remembered in the history of the
Canadian Church, as having tested the energy and devoted-
ness of her clergy, and their willingness to expose themselves
to danger and death for the sake of their brethren for whom
Christ died. The fever which had been produced in Ireland
by famine was imported to Canada, and though it did not
spread to any great extent through the country, its ravages
among the immigrants in the hospitals and sheds at Quebec
and Montreal, and other points where they were collected in
any considerable numbers, but, above all, at the quarantine
station, were fearful. The Church Society of the diocese
had always provided for the spiritual wants of the quarantine
station by the services of a travelhng missionary, who made
his head-quarters there in summer ; but this was an excep-
* In his memoranda of sermons, I find that in Christmas week, 1844, he
preached eight times.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 257
tional year, and even if the strength of the missionary
appointed for the season had not given way early, it would have
been necessary to make some provision for duties which
far overtasked the continuous labours of any one man. The
hospitals at Grosse Isle contained accommodation for about 120
or 150 patients, but the season had scarcely opened before ten
times that number were landed on its shores. All the sheds
designed for the accommodation of healthy emigrants were
converted into hospitals ; the churches and every available
building were soon turned to the same use ; tents were j>ro-
cured, and every possible means used to provide for the sick,
who came pouring in by hundreds, and still there was not
room enough. The Bishop suggested it to such of the clergy
of the diocese as seemed to be most able for the work, to
offer themselves for the service, each taking a week. He
took the first in the turn himself,* and though everything had
been done that the most strained efforts and unwearied energy
of the chief authority at the island could possibly effect, there
were still hundreds of sick whom it was impossible to remove
from the ships. There were about 800 sick afloat, and up
wards of twice that number on shore. From early morning
till late at night he devoted himself to the ships and hospitals,
leaving those in the tents to the care of the chaplain who had
not yet retired from the scene, and passing from ship to ship
without allowing himself time for refreshment or repose. He
often said that he found refreshment enough in the comfort
which the faith and patience, in repeated instances, of the
* The same spirit of self-sacrifice prompted him, some years later, when
he heard that the delay in the appointment of a Bishop of Sierra Leone arose
from the difficulty of finding any one willing to run the risk of labouring
in a climate which had already proved fatal to more than one occupant of
the see, to write to the secretary of the S. P. G. to enquire whether that
difficulty had been surmounted. If this had proved not to have been the
case, he told me (what no one else ever knew during his life) that he
intended to offer himself for the post, that he might "wipe away that
reproach from the Church of England."

258 MEMOIR OF
poor sufferers afforded him, though the scenes in which he
passed his days were such as, perhaps, no human being would
naturally have recoiled from more. In a letter written from
Grosse Isle at this time', he says ; " If it were not for the
sense of one's utter inability to do all that is wanted, I would
cheerfully give myself up to this kind of work."
The wretched condition of the sick in the crowded holds
of the vessels, without care or attendance of any kind, may
be more easily imagined than described. The state of some
of the ships was such that no one else could endure to go below,
much less to remain there, and the Bishop was obliged to des
troy the clothes which he wore while engaged among them.
He made some very rough notes of the work in which he was
engaged, in which he records the —
" General thankfulness in receiving ministrations, occasional examples
of faith, resignation, patience, and humble devotion, most pleasing. No
murmur, no bewailing of condition, but tears in listening to prayers and
exhortation. Sunday — System now begun of landing passengers
in health. Mr. S — and police collected seventy-five a little before noon.
Chose spot in corner of field, under birch trees, affording shade to all.
Having put on surplice, , began regular service of day ; whole body of
worshippers knelt upon green grass. First time of officiating in open air :
mill, barn, school-house, prison, private house, borrowed meeting-housei
deck of ships of war, packets, merchant vessels, steamers, schooners:
(officiated in before.) Extreme beauty of day, preached on former part of
Ps. cvii., its peculiar appropriateness. . . 14th. Administered H. C.
to Mrs. C. before breakfast; three other communicants in ward partook.
She died shortly afterwards. Usual rounds. Sailor visiting shipmates in
church informed me of sick on board Lady Gordon. Went on board with
him. Found eighteen protestant sick, all presbyterians, thankful to receive
my services. Returned and completed rounds, except one or two unim
portant visits. Mr. Torrance's arrival. My joy thereat."
Besides the churches, and eighty-nine tents, there were
seventeen large wards in the hospital proper and sheds, and
three large buildings in course of construction, one of which,
capable of holding about 125 patients, was just ready when
the Bishop left the island on the 15th June. By this time the
arrangements had begun to improve, and the number of immi-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 259
grants to diminish. Yet there was work enough to be done,
and misery enough to be witnessed, and the clergy of the
diocese were not backward in responding to the call, and
following the example, of their Bishop. The majority of those
who took their turn caught the fever, but by God's mercy
they all recovered except two, who, at the very close of the
season, when all expectation of extraordinary danger had
passed, voluntarily outstaid their time, neither being willing
to leave the other to serve alone. The whole number of
clergy who served at Grosse Isle in 1847, including the
Bishop, was seventeen, of whom nine took the fever. Of
these last, the Rev. J. Torrance, who succeeded the Bishop
in June, was one. He was relieved by the Rev. Official
Mackie, from one of whose letters, dated 29th June, I make
the following extracts :
" All the sick had been received on the island, and had been accommo
dated, after a fashion, on Saturday evening last. Since then several ships
have arrived, but for the most part, in far different trim from that which
your lordship was called upon to witness. It was a perfect treat to
inspect the Solway. There are upwards of 300 protestants* in the
hospitals, tents, sheds, &c. I visited 185 yesterday, administering to each
such consolation as I was enabled to offer. . . I have been pleased,
on the whole, with the hospitals, but the sheds, how shall I describe them ?
Conceive the improvement which the intense heat of the last few days was
likely to effect in these buildings, such as you recollect them to have been,
and you may form some idea of what they are. . . . Some of the
nurses, especially the protestant nurses, appear to behave in an exemplary
manner, but some of them have become patients themselves within the last
few days. The nurse — the only nurse — in one of the new buildings, con
taining ninety-three sick, seems desirous to- leave her post. I induced her
to remain a little longer, on the ground of Christian duty. One nurse and
two orderlies for a hospital of ninety-three patients does seem to be small
allowance, and yet these hospitals, by contrast, appear to be well kept. I
was agreeably disappointed on visiting them for the first time, and am still
of opinion that wonders have been done by Dr. Douglas. . . The
* The Roman catholic and protestant patients were all intermixed,
which greatly increased the labours of the clergy of the Church of
England.

260 MEMOIR OF
cry for wine and milk is very general — painfully so ; and yet yesterday's
supply of milk was 158 gallons, and the steward informs me that a pint of
milk and half a pound of meat a day is the average allowance for each
adult, and that about twelve dozen of wine are consumed in a week. . . .
I am thankful to say that I am in good health. I do not very well see how
I can remain longer than the time which your lordship fixed in your last
letter, but, of course, should God spare me in life, I will again share in the
duty of the mission."
One clergyman died of fever at Quebec, another at Mon
treal, and a third at St. John's. The whole summer was a
most anxious one for the Bishop, and in a letter written on a
short tour for confirmations, undertaken in July, he says :
" It is most painful to me to be away from Quebec when there is such a
time of trial for the clergy, and such an extraordinary demand for clerical
service ; and I cannot help feeling very anxious still about Mr. Torrance,
though I cling to the hope that God will spare him to us, lest we ' should
have sorrow upon sorrow.' I feel uneasy, too, lest anything should have
' kept Mr. Rollit from coming down, but as I believe that I am doing my
duty in coming into this part of the country, I must endeavour to be
reconciled." The Bishop took a second week at Grosse Isle in August,
and though the state of things had greatly improved, there
was enough still to move his pity, as may be gathered from
the following " specimens of familiar scenes " then witnessed,
and roughly noted down :
" We have neither father nor mother, and none to take care of us (two
little orphans sitting on ground). People brought ashore opposite church
cry for water. Old man crawling, in his filthy shirt, out of bed on hands
and knees, with his pot to get water out of a dirty ditch. Bedless persons
in tents ; saw two lying on wet ground in rain, one a woman very ill,
with head covered up in her cloak, on a bed of rank wet weeds. Bundle
of rags lying on floor of tent ; orphan . covered up within, dying, and
covered with vermin from head to foot, unowned, and no connection to be
traced (this the case with other orphans' also) ; gave his name in sharper
voice than could have been looked for from the little exhausted object,
without uncovering himself; voice came out of the rags. Inmates of one
tent, three widows and one widower, with remnants of their families, all
bereft of their partners on the passage. Filth of person, accumulated in
cases of diarrhoea. Three orphans in one little bed in corner of tent full

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 261
of baggage and boxes, one of the three dead, lying by his sick sister.
Dead boy under the tree, who passed on foot, in a division of sick, from
east end, and sat clown to die on his road. . . . Difference in state of
religious knowledge among lower orders since time of my entering the
ministry. General acquaintance with grand articles, &c, and often happy
dependence, without presumption or fanaticism. Sailors. Visited three
ships. Protestant sick, extremely few on board. Upwards of 2,000 sick, of
whom perhaps, not much more than one-tenth are protestants." *
The triennial visitation, which was in some degree inter
rupted by these events, was closed, as already mentioned, by
a voyage to Gaspe", a passage having been procured in a
steamer belonging to the Trinity House. One hundred and
thirty-eight persons were confirmed in the district, making a
total of eighteen hundred and ninety-seven in the triennial
circuit, of whom one thousand one hundred and sixty-two
were confirmed at thirty-eight confirmations in the district of
Montreal, and the remainder at forty confirmations in what is
now the diocese of Quebec. Ten churches and five burial-
grounds were consecrated. The number of places at which
confirmations were held, was considerably greater than in
the previous visitation, as the number of stations occupied by
* Since this was written, the following passage has been pointed out to
me in an account of a speech delivered by the late Lord Elgin, in 1856, on
behalf of the Memorial Church at Constantinople : " It was not intended,
by erecting this building, to encroach on any other Church. There is one
kind of proselytism which it may promote — the influence which is exercised
over the mind of strangers by the spectacle of Christian worship in a pure
and simple form, and by good examples of Christian practice. His Lord
ship concluded by paying a touching compliment to the Bishop of Quebec,
and related an instance of the effect produced on eye-witnesses by the
Bishop's unwearied and fearless attention to those patients who were sick
with the plague in the quarantine station at Grosse Isle." — Mission Field,
June, 1856. I may, perhaps, be pardoned for mentioning here the effect
produced by the Bishop's character on another nobleman who also filled
the office of Governor General of Canada, and who said that before he
knew him, he had not thought it possible that so strong a feeling could be
entertained for any one with whom bis opportunities of intercouse had been
so slight.

262 MEMOIR OF
resident missionaries increased, though no new missions had
been opened, with the exception of Granby and Sherrington.
Confirmations were held at seven places for the first time,
two of which had never before been visited by a Bishop. At
two places visited in 1844, in the heart of the French popula
tion, no confirmation was now held. At the beginning of
1847, the number of clergy in the diocese was seventy-eight,
of whom fifty-two were missionaries of the S. P. G. They
served two hundred and twenty stations, exclusive of those
visited by travelling missionaries.
It was on his return from Gaspe", in this year, vi& New
Brunswick, — the season being so far advanced as to make it a
matter of difficulty to reach Quebec by any other route, — that
the Bishop paid his first visit, mentioned in an earlier chapter,
to his old flock at Fredericton. On his way thence to Quebec,
he also paid his first visit to Bishop's College, after the
building had been completed and occupied, where he had the
comfort, also for the first time, of being received under the
roof of one of his own children. He reached home in time
to hold an ordination on All Saints' Day, when one bearing
his own name was admitted to the diaconate, and another
advanced to the priesthood.
The fourth triennial visitation of the clergy was held at
Montreal, in July, 1848, at which sixty-one clergymen were
present, one of whom, having come from Gaspe" by land, had
travelled 700 miles for the purpose, nearly all the way on
horseback. Their numbers had just been reinforced by the
ordination, on Trinity Sunday, of seven deacons and three
priests. Speaking of this visitation, the Bishop said, " I felt
very strongly the arduousness and responsibility of my posi
tion, at the head of so widely scattered a body, with so many
difficulties to contend with, but comforted and encouraged, at
the same time, to see so goodly an assembly of my brethren
around me, from many of whom I might learn lessons of duty,
and to reflect that our number in Lower Canada has consider-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 263
ably more than doubled since I dehvered my primary charge
ten years ago."
The Bishop thus alluded, in his charge, to the events of
the preceding year : —
" My Reverend Brethren,
" The last occasion upon which we were permitted to meet in visitation,
was marked, as most among you will remember, by an exceedingly awful
public calamity, upon the spot where we were assembled. We stood in the
midst of yet smoking ruins, — the second conflagration, which within a
month after the first devastated the ancient metropolis of the province,
having just freshly occurred. Alas I there is a deeper gloom now thrown
over our meeting : we meet under the effects brought home to our own
body, of a far sadder scourge from the hand of our God. We look for the
familiar faces of some of our brethren in the ministry of the Church, who,
according to all human calculation, would have been among us to-day —
but gaps have been made in the circle : — they are gone, and their place is
nowhere found upon earth. A recent stroke has added one to the mournful
list of the victims of the past year — a stroke the more felt because unex
pected ; for circumstances, which are of public notoriety, have diminished
the extent and altered the character of emigration from Ireland, and the
amount of sickness and the number of deaths at the quarantine station,
during the attendance of our lately deceased brother, so far from resem
bling the state of things which marked the summer of 1847, was, beyond
all precedent, small — (in fact, only one death among the protestant patients
had occurred at the station when he left it) — added to which, the ample
provisions which, in consequence of the severe lesson of a former season,
have been made by public authority to meet the demands of the case, and'
the admirable regulations which have been established in the hospitals, have
sensibly lessened the danger of infection, which I believe to be less at this
moment than in any former year.* Yet, so it has been ordered by the wis
dom of God that, although with the exception of the memorable afflictions
of last year, it had never happened that we lost a clergyman in this service,
the very first of our faithful volunteers who now undertook it, has already
fallen. ' Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.' Honoured
be the names among men, and dear be the memories of those devoted ser
vants of God who counted not their lives dear unto them, while ministering
* This opinion has been since justified by events. No other clergyman,
no medical gentleman, nor any of the subordinate functionaries and attend
ants at the island, have contracted fever up to this date (the middle of
September). The number of protestant interments during the whole sum
mer has been eighteen.

264 MEMOIR OF
to their humbler brethren in scenes of death and horror, and who, melan
choly and grievous as has been the loss to their families and friends, have
themselves finished their course vith joy and gone to their reward in
Christ. To me, I hardly need point out that as I was to a certain extent
concerned in causing this exposure to danger of such among our martyr-
clergymen (in this sense) as contracted the disease at the Quarantine
Island (being one-half of the whole number who have died), there is here
an aggravation of poignancy in the sorrowful sense of our loss. Yet suffer
me to mention some comfort which I have derived from the thought not
only that our clergy, with no suggestion from their Bishop, were found at
the post of danger in every other spot where the fever prevailed, and that
the case, therefore, was not peculiar of those to whom I proposed last year
(of course without enjoining it), a share of the quarantine duty ; but also
that even including those who served at that station, there was not one vic
tim who fell simply in the execution of the duty which I had indicated. The
established term of duty was only for a week — the two who were taken
from us last autumn, both voluntarily out-staid their time, — one of them by
his own express and earnest desire had remained six weeks at the Island,
— and, in human probability they might, but for their spontaneous exten
sion of their term of service, have been here among us this day. With
reference to the present season, you are aware, my brethren, that I made no
suggestion whatever to individuals upon the subject, — the occurrences to
which I am here adverting having caused me to shrink from assuming such
a responsibility. " Deeply as we must deplore the loss of so many valuable lives, and se
verely as it must tell upon the interests committed to us, there can, I think,
be but one sentiment, when the case is fairly and fully considered, respect
ing the plain duty lying upon the Church to supply the service in question.
•It would have been monstrous, it would have been outrageous, to leave the
protestant sufferers at Grosse Isle, after our chaplain became disabled,
untended by the ministry of the Gospel ; and no means existed to supply
this want, but in the succession of visits from clergymen at a distance.
Upwards of five thousand four hundred bodies were buried in the Island
during the single summer of 1847. In such a scene of death and human
wretchedness, dreadful beyond conception in some of its details, and unsur
passed in the annals of history, it was not the part of the Church of Eng
land to leave her people to die like dogs, or to deny to the bereaved and
desolate survivors, to the helpless orphans and the heartbroken widows,
who multiplied from day to day upon the Island, the soothing ministrations
and the seasonable care and counsel of her faithful pastors. Among the
sick and dying themselves, there were, no doubt, many examples of a con
dition in which, from the operation of different causes, the ministrations of
the Church can be of little avail — but even in these it was a satisfaction
to be at hand and to do all of which the case might admit — while in a vast

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 265
multitude of other instances, the clergy, I well know, and I may appeal
to brethren who are here present — I might appeal to the testimony of
those who are gone, and the assurances of the last of whom, to this
very effect, are, as it were, still sounding in my ears, — the clergy, I well
know, are prepared to say that they found their labours most affection
ately appreciated, and, as they had reason to hope, profitably applied
— that their presence was hailed and the return of their visits was longed
for by the languishing sufferers among whom, from building to building
and from tent to tent and from ship to ship, they made their unceasing
rounds, — and that a gleam of joy, — yes, and not seldom of holy joy, — would
light up the sunken or all but closing eye, at seeing, charged perhaps with
the sacred memorials of the sacrifice upon the Cross, the messenger and
representative of Him Who, in the days of His flesh, < Himself took our infir
mities and bore our sicknesses '; ' Who went about doing good and healing all
that were oppressed of the devil ' ; and Who, in laying down His life for us. all,
bequeathed to us the lesson, as we are expressly taught, although our deaths
cannot make the purchase of souls, that we ' ought to lay down our lives for
the brethren.' The case here in our contemplation has been practically
recognized by the clergy of this diocese as constituting such a call : they
have not all taken a share in the task — it was not needed, it was not pos
sible, that they should, — nor is any inference to be made on this account
in the way of unfavourable comparison — but in every place where the call
existed, clergymen of the Church have been found to respond to it — and
may God give us all grace, more and more, to appropriate the language of
the holy Apostle, in this or in any other case, should it ever arise, seeming
to involve a risk of life in the cause of Christ, ' Yea, and if I be
offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy and rejoice with
you all.'
" I have been prompted to make these observations, because among the
laity of the diocese, who lament the loss of their clergy, and who have not
personally witnessed the exigencies which called them into scenes of
danger, there have been questions raised, here and there, respecting the
expediency or even justifiableness of their being so employed ; and refer
ence, as I suspect, has in some instances been made to a Canon (the 67th)
which exempts a clergyman from any compulsory attendance upon persons
in his parish labouring under maladies which are known or probably sus
pected to be infectious. The rubrics, however, in the Office of the Visita
tion of the Sick, which I conceive to be decidedly the preferable authority
of the two, plainly suppose the attendance of the clergy, even in the dead
liest prevalence of plague. Would it not have been a reproach — a disgrace
would be the more appropriate term — to the Church of England, to have
left all the sick and dying protestants at the Quarantine Island to the care
and instruction of priests of the Church of Rome, never slackening in their
labours, never shrinking from their task, never abating in their zeal for
S

266 MEMOIR OF
proselytism, and, in the case which we are supposing, having all the advan
tage accruing from a discouraged or exasperated feeling of the protestant
patients on account of the neglect with which they were treated by their
own Church? Would it not have been a reproach, would it not have been
a disgrace, would it not have been an indelible, an everlasting stain in the
pages of our history in the colony, if, while physicians and magistrates
and nurses and policemen and grave-diggers were found capable of braving
the danger, and while mere secular motives prevailed to engage some of
these parties in their respective service at the Island, or in other places
within the province where fever-hospitals were established, the clergy
of the Church of England had turned their backs upon the scene of death
and sorrow, and had shut their ears against the cry of the sick for their
ministry, and the wail of the widow, needing to hear the words of life and
peace ?
" The clergy who served at the Island had a sufficiently hard service to
perform ; and in the confusion of last summer, from the overwhelming flood
poured in of misery and disease, and the imperfect provisions which were
at command for meeting the emergency, — the sick dying at one time by
wholesale from the mere want of attendance, and the entire establishment,
notwithstanding an incessant watchfulness, and a wonderful degree of
energy and administrative skill exhibited by the chief authority upon the
spot itself, being carried on for a long time by strained expedients and
inadequate shifts, — it was not easy to provide for the comfort and accom
modation of the clergy, in such a manner as might have been desired. But
if any idea has been suffered to go abroad that the illness of the clergy was
liable to aggravation from any oversight in these points, the means are not
wanting emphatically to contradict it. The diocesan Church Society and
other authorities concerned did their utmost to provide all that was need
ful in this behalf. The society charged itself unhesitatingly with the
expenses to be incurred for the object, as well as with all the expenses to
which the clergy were subjected by their visits to the Island ; including,
in the case of those in whom the fever appeared after their return home, the
charges of their medical advisers ; but the Government ultimately took the
whole upon itself, and the society was reimbursed.
" It may be proper for the clergy to know that, a public fast having been
observed at home in consequence of the calamities of Ireland, and com
munication of the form adopted having been made to the Bishops of these
colonies, (in some of which it was followed out in practice), I did not fail
strongly to urge the issue of a proclamation for the same purpose, during
the prevalence of the fever among ourselves ; but objections were found to
exist which I did not succeed in my endeavours to overrule.
" In parting with this subject, I cannot forbear to express the thank
fulness which we all ought to feel in seeing now among us some of our
brethren who were, in consequence of their share in these labours of love

G. J. MOUNTAIN^ D.D. 267
' sick nigh unto death,' but who have been spared to us, lest, in their cases,
we ' should have sorrow upon sorrow,' — and spared, as we hope, for years of
usefulness in the husbandry of God."
After the visitation at Montreal, the Bishop paid a visit to
a rude and secluded settlement, in reaching which an hour
and a quarter were occupied in making a distance of three
miles. The clergyman lived in " two little unpainted rooms :
his dinner consisted of a plate of fried salt pork, and another
of potatoes, with bread and butter, both very good, a jug of
milk, and another of water ; such fare he was content to live
upon." In one of his letters to the S. P. G., at this date, the Bishop
says, with reference to the general condition of the diocese,
" There are some pleasing incidents and promising appear
ances, but it is not all a sunny or smiling landscape. There
are difficulties, perplexities and discouragements enough, and
something more than enough, for powers such as mine, but I
still hold on by the hope that while it is the will of God to
keep me at the post I shall not be wholly deserted or left to
myself."

268 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER XVIII.
Re-appearance of cholera at Quebec — Preparations for synodical action —
Meeting with the Bishop of Toronto — Erection of a see at Montreal, and
arrival of the new Bishop — Triennial circuit continued — Visit to the
Magdalen Islands — Statistics.
In 1849, the cholera re-appeared at Quebec, and the Bishop
thought it a fitting time to establish a daily early morning
service, although the mortality did not at all approach the
number which it had reached even in 1834. The community
sustained some very severe losses. Among these the Bishop
had to deplore his faithful friend and counsellor, before men
tioned, the Hon. A. W. Cochran. In all matters relating
to legal affairs, and in many other points, the Bishop found
another sincere friend and adviser after this loss, and this he
always regarded as a special cause for thankfulness. The
best legal advice that could be obtained in Lower and in
Upper Canada was always ready in the cause of the Church,
and afforded in the most disinterested manner. Towards the
close of 1849, the Bishop, who very rarely indeed took any
part in political affairs, felt it his duty to print, for private cir
culation among members of the Church, some " Thoughts on
Annexation," which he had originally drawn up in the shape
of a pastoral letter. The necessity, however, for sending it
forth in this form had happily passed away before it could
be issued, but he was anxious, as far as possible, to exhibit
the duty of churchmen towards the Church and Realm of
England, to which he was himself thoroughly and devotedly

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 269
attached, and to dissuade them from being carried away by
any passing excitement of discontent. The two great institu
tions, for the establishment of which he had laboured so
long, were both now fairly estabhshed, and, by God's bless
ing, prospering. But they still demanded a large share of
his time and thought, as well as frequent journeyings to
Lennoxville and Montreal, the former not being, for several
years after the date we have now reached, accessible by
railroad. The college, indeed, was at this time in temporary
difficulty of a financial kind, but this was met, partly by a
subscription of £250 a year for three years, raised in a few
days at Quebec, and partly by the voluntary sacrifice, by all
the professors, of a portion of their salaries. In reference to
this, the Bishop wrote to the S. P. G. : "The college has
received a check, but it has been met by a spirit of faith and
resolution on the part of those whose private interests are
immediately affected : they are willing to do all they can to
recover, by prudence and exertion, what the institution has
temporarily lost, and are prepared, if they must suffer, to
suffer cheerfully, and still to do their duty as heretofore."
But there was another object, and one of wider" interest, an
other need which had been long felt, to provide for which
matters began now to be put in train. In his charge delivered in
1848, the Bishop referred to " the grievous detriment done
in many ways to the Church, by the denial to her of her
inherent privilege to meet, by her accredited representatives,
in stated and solemn deliberation, whether in general or
diocesan synods, upon her -own affairs, and some peculiar
consequences of this anomaly affecting the colonial branches
of the Church," in which " a weight of labour and responsi
bility, often very oppressive and very disheartening, is thrown,
as things now are, upon individual Bishops, of which they
ought to be relieved, as well by opportunities of reference to
the great council of the Church at home, as by the collective
wisdom of both prelates and clerical deputies within the

270 MEMOIR OF
colonies, assembled in the same formal manner, and seeking,
in united supplication, the guidance of the Spirit of truth
and love." In the hope of maturing some plan for the accom
plishment of this great object, he was engaged in corres
pondence with the other North American Bishops, now five
in all, that a preliminary conference might be held on the
subject. This took place two years later, as we shall
presently see. Since the departure of Bishop Stewart,
a few days after his own arrival at Quebec in 1836, he
had not seen the face of a brother Bishop of the Anglican
Church, until he visited Fredericton in 1847. It was in 1849
that he met the Bishop of Toronto, for the first time after his
consecration ten years previously : they met when each was
engaged in administering confirmation on the Ottawa, where
it is spanned by a bridge. " Their opportunities of conversa
tion were brief, but the mutual greeting was cordial, and no
inconsiderable interest attached to their interview." It was
in this year, too, that the efforts he had used for the establish
ment of a bishopric in Prince Rupert's Land, were brought
to a happy issue,* and he began more earnestly than ever to
labour for the farther division of his own diocese. The S.P.G.
resolved, in April, " in compliance with his urgent and fre
quently-repeated recommendations" to do its part towards the
establishment of a see at Montreal. The Clergy Reserves,
of which the administration had been confided to the Crown
Lands Department of the provincial Government (the Clergy
Reserve Corporation having been dissolved), had become
available, to a very small extent, in Lower Canada. An
accumulated sum of about £9000, in addition to the an
nual revenue, had been placed at the disposal of the S. P. G.,
* In his letters to the S. P. G., on hearing of this, he says, " I bless God
to learn that my prayers have been heard, (though better prayers than mine
have been given for the attainment of the object) on behalf of Red River.
* * * It is a measure of special interest to me, and I am full of thankful
ness that it has been accomplished."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 271

the legal trustee of the fund, and the Bishop proposed that
this block sum should form the nucleus of an endowment fund
for two bishoprics in Lower Canada. The urgency of the case
seemed now, however, so great that it was proposed to pro
vide at once for the new see. But the Secretary of State
for the Colonies objected to its appropriation for this object,
while no provision existed for the endowment of the see of
Quebec itself, and it was accordingly arranged that it should be
so applied instead, and allowed to accumulate during the con
tinuance of the parliamentary grant. The Society, however,
took immediate measures for raising, by private subscription,
a sum for the endowment of the proposed new see, on behalf
of which a special appeal was issued by the Council for colo
nial bishoprics, on the 12th March, 1850. This appeal was
so successful, that on St. James' Day, in the same year, the
present Metropolitan of Canada was consecrated at West
minster abbey, to the great joy* and relief of him who
surrendered to him the title of Bishop of Montreal, receiving
himself fresh letters patent appointing him to the see of
Quebec, which he had administered for fourteen years. The
new Bishop arrived in Canada on the 11th September, and
was met, on first setting foot in his diocese, by the Bishop of
Quebec and a large number of clergy at St. John's, where
* In a letter to the secretary S. P. G., dated 10th August, 1850, he says :
" With deep and unfeigned thankfulness have I received this morning your
letter of the 26th July, announcing the consecration of Bishop Fulford, and
I am gratified to learn that the ceremony in the abbey was performed with
so much solemn and impressive effect. My prayers are with him, and I
shall gladly give him the hand of a brother, and pass to him a portion of
my charge, in the firm hope that his supervision of it will be to the glory
of God and the benefit of His church." And again, on the 26th October, 1850,
" Nothing can be greater matter of thankfulness on behalf of the interests
of the Church of England in Canada, than to witness the passing of the
new diocese, with the important city of Montreal as the see, into hands
such as those of Dr. Fulford, and to observe the general appreciation of his
eminent qualifications for his charge, on which I pray and trust that the
blessing of Almighty God will be seen to rest."

272 MEMOIR OF
it had been arranged that, before proceeding farther, they
should go together to the house of God, and administer
together the Holy Communion. After this they went on
to Montreal, where numerous addresses of welcome were
presented to the new prelate, and of congratulation on the
attainment of an object which all knew to be near his heart,
mixed with affectionate regret at the necessity of separation
from him, to his predecessor. The Bishop of Quebec was
formally enthroned in his cathedral on St. Matthew's Day.
The last visitation made by Bishop Mountain of the undi
vided diocese had been completed a month before the arrival
of Bishop Fulford, by a voyage to the settlements in the
Gulf of St. Lawrence. It had been begun early in 1849,
when the district of St. Francis was visited, and confirmation
was held, .for the first time, at Waterville, two other new
churches and two burial-grounds being consecrated, and one
other new church used for the first time for episcopal acts.
In two instances, a Sunday was given to places where new
ground had been broken for the Church, and where missions
were afterwards established ; and in the same way, soon after
his return to Quebec, a Sunday was spent at Cranbourne,
which is still the ultima thule of settlement south of that city,
a place almost inaccessible in summer, and inhabited by set
tlers of the very poorest kind. They are people, nevertheless,
who have always shewn their appreciation of what has been
done for them, both by their readiness to contribute, " to their
power, yea and beyond their power," to the maintenance of
their religious privileges, and the efforts of a different kind
which they have made to secure the enjoyment of them. On
a subsequent occasion, when confirmation was administered
there, and the cold was indescribably severe, a poor paralytic
girl was brought several miles, stretched upon straw in a
sleigh with very insufficient protection, to be confirmed, and
carried by her brothers into the church to receive the impo
sition of hands. Not expecting this, the Bishop had proposed

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 273
to go to her house to confirm her. The Bishop mentions a
similar instance in his journal of 1849, which occurred in the
district of St. Francis. " I got into conversation with some
women and children who were gathered round the stove, the
weather being most intensely cold, and I observed one little
girl barefooted. I asked the mother how she had protected the
child's feet, in bringing her to the church. She told me that
she had wrapped a quilt round them. I afterwards saw the
father bringing up the vehicle to the church door in which his
family were conveyed. It was drawn by oxen, with a yoke
only, and was a sleigh of that description which is called an
ox-sled, consisting simply of the runners and a bottom, with
out sides, back, or front. Upon this was spread a bundle of
hay in which the wife and all the children nestled as best
they might. The family were from Suffolk."
Referring to Bishop's College, in writing to the S. P. G.,
the Bishop says, " I have so often mentioned the grounds of
thankfulness to God, the Giver of all good, which exist in rela
tion to this institution, that, although my soul overflows more
and more with a sense of these blessings, I must put some
restraint upon the repeated expression of it."
The visitation was continued through the districts of
Quebec, Three Rivers, and Montreal, in June, July, Sep
tember, and October. During part of it the Bishop was
accompanied by the Rev. Ernest Hawkins, secretary of the
S. P. G., who was then on a visit to Canada, and who took
part in the services at the consecration of two churches on
the Ottawa. Three churghes and four burial-grounds were
consecrated, in addition to those already mentioned. ' Early
in 1850 another journey was undertaken, involving an absence
from Quebec of a month, for the purpose of holding confir
mations on the river Chaudiere and in the county of Megantic,
as well as an ordination of five deacons and a priest at Len
noxville, when an appointment was made to the new mission
of Dudswell, in preparation for which the Bishop had again

274 MEMOIR OF
passed a Sunday at that place. Shortly after his return to
Quebec, the churches immediately ¦ north of Quebec were
visited, and in one of them (Lake Beauport) confirmation was
held for the first time. In these journeys thirteen confirma
tions were required for 171 persons.
The most remarkable feature, however, of this triennial
circuit was the Bishop's visit, in 1850, to the Magdalen
Islands, lying about 600 miles from Quebec. These islands
had originally been annexed to the colony of Newfoundland,
and since their connection with Canada there had been
so little direct communication with them, their trade being
carried on almost exclusively with Nova Scotia and Prince
Edward's Island, that scarcely anything had been known of
them at Quebec. They lie nearer to Cape Breton, Prince
Edward's Island, and Newfoundland,* than to any part of
Canada. The Bishop had made enquiries at different times
respecting them, but had never been able to learn that there
were any other inhabitants than the Acadians, who are all
Romanists. In the year 1847, however) Mr. Bowen, a resi
dent judge in the district of Gasp6, having visited the islands
on circuit, discovered a small number (125 in all, including
children) of protestants, wholly destitute of the public means
of grace, and though a very few belonged to the Church of
England, he immediately reported the matter to the Bishop.
It is only in summer that the islands are accessible, and
the next summer a clergyman was sent over with the judge
from Gaspe" , to ascertain the wants of the population. His visit,
however, was unfortunately cut short by the illness of the
judge, which necessitated his return to Gaspe". No other cler
gyman was disposable in 1849, and the Bishop himself was
engaged in visiting other portions of his diocese. In 1850,
however, he determined to see these few sheep in the wilder-
* One part of the Islands is a few miles nearer to a point in Anticosti
than to Newfoundland, but Anticosti is uninhabited except by lighthouse-
keepers.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 275
ness with his own eyes, and after great difficulty in finding
the means of conveyance, he at last embarked, on the 25th
June, in a small brigantine bound for Halifax, the captain
undertaking to land him at the islands, which lay in his course.
Towards evening on the 3rd July, they approached the islands,
but as the coast was unknown to the captain, he could not
venture very near, except in daylight. The wind was favour
able for the prosecution of his voyage to Halifax, and the
Bishop, with his usual consideration and self-forgetfulness,
proposed to the captain to transfer him and his baggage to a
small fishing-schooner which happened to be in the neighbour
hood. It was an unpainted, roughly-finished craft of thirty
tons, " abundantly redolent of cod, and manned by six Aca
dian fishermen, as unkempt and as dirty a set of beings as
could well be pictured to the fancy." In a letter describing
this voyage, the Bishop says, " The wind was damp and
chilly : but not relishing the idea of what was considered to
be the cabin, I wrapped mine auld cloak about me, and sitting
down upon the little' hatchway, remained conversing with the
man at the helm. I could not help thinking, as he sat
bestriding the tiller, with gleams of light thrown partially
upon his figure from the mouth of the hatchway to which
he was opposite (there being a small fire, and a miserable,
greasy, blackened lamp burning below), especially when
Placide, a young lad belonging to the crew, brought him, at
his command, a coal in the tongs to rekindle his pipe, which
helped to discover his beard of about a week's growth ; — I
could not help thinking what a subject I had before me for the
pencil. I felt myself, altogether, in rather a strange situation.
I had come upon this occasion without a single companion or
attendant, and here I was, now a grey-headed Bishop of the
Church of England, having tumbled, as it were, into this
rude little French fishing-vessel which crossed my way by
chance, driving along, in a dark night, upon the waters of the
gulf, and seeking to effect a landing, where I knew not, but

276 MEMOIR OF
anywhere upon the islands, which I had never visited before,
upon which I did not know a living soul, and after setting my
foot upon which I should be at a loss how to proceed or what
direction to take, in order to find the persons who could put
things in train for me to accomplish the objects of my visit.
I do not mean, and it must be needless to disclaim the idea,
that I was in an improper situation for a Bishop ; for I was
pushing my way to do part of a Bishop's proper work,
through some difficulties without encountering which I could
not, from particular circumstances, have accomplished my
object ; and if a thought of hardship or Icesai dignitatis had
come across me, it could not have failed to be instantly
repressed by the recollection of passages (and, as it happened,
I had been freshly perusing them) occurring in the iv.
chapter of the first, and iv. and v. chapters of the second,
epistle to the Corinthians, but more pointedly in the xi. of
the latter, verses 24-28. We must blush indeed, when
we remember our Master and the holy Apostles, if we shrink
from any of the passing disagremens or exposure to the
roughnesses of travelling to which we may be occasionally
called ; and I go on in my narrative with a sort of undefined
apprehension that that which admits of what may be called
picturesque touches, with possibly even a shade of something
approaching to a romantic interest, in the description, may
' seem, when so described, to jar against the train of thought
which is inspired by the high and sacred contemplation of the
labours and the sufferings recorded in the Gospel. * * *
When it approached eleven o'clock, I went below, and saw, to
my surprise, a rude stone chimney built into the vessel, and a
fire of faggots upon the hearth, which I was glad to approach.
I sat before it upon a chest occupying the little central space
between a couple of berths looking most utterly repulsive,
into which some of the crew managed to squeeze themselves,
who could be spared from above for their turn of sleep.
Others sat by me, ready for any caU. I sat up the whole

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 277
night over the fire, which I took care to keep in activity.
At daybreak we ran into the shore and anchored, and the
men below were called up to assist in getting me ashore in
the little boat. Placide, however, was enjoying a slumber,
not only so placid, but so deep that he did not at all notice
the appeal. Another poor fellow had gone fast asleep at
his morning prayers, which were of some length, having
knelt down upon the cabin floor with his head in the berth.
It is a great reproach that men having inferior advantages,
and clinging to a system which is loaded with error, should
be far more exact and unfailing in their devotions than the
majority of those who profess our own faith. I thought, as
I have done upon many similar occasions, of a remark made
by Bishop HebeT respecting the too great sensitiveness which
we often manifest in a principle right in itself, but one which
he thinks that we strain too far in the literal observance, at
all hazards, of the charge of Christ to seek privacy in our
prayers, so that our desire to shun observation produces,
under certain circumstances, an impression in the minds of
others, prejudicial in its effect upon them, that we do not
pray at all. It was nearly half-past four a.m. when I landed,
in the rain, at South- West Point. I had seen from the vessel
a couple of little log-huts or hovels, and the first living object
which I descried from the boat was a black pig, which led me
to hope that men were close at hand, but the huts were con
structed only for objects connected with the preparation of
cod-fish, whose heads were strewed about the beach. * * *
The men went off to the nearest houses to seek the means of
conveyance for me to some quarter which might be considered
a point of reference in the islands ; my baggage was stowed
away for shelter under an inverted flat or small boat, which
lay upon the beach. I took my post under my umbrella
against one of the boats, but presently espying, across a
diminutive brook, a little cavity which would just fit me,
sitting, in a low-browed cliff of red sand-stone, I proceeded to

278 MEMOIR OF
occupy it, coming out in the intervals between the showers.
In an hour and a half the men returned, bringing with them
two or three people, and alow cart of the rudest possible con
struction, drawn by a wretched-looking little rat. of a horse,
whose harness, home-made, was formed of strips of seal-skin
with the fur left upon it, the saddle, however, being worked
into a sort of parchment, and supported by a parcel of rags.
The head-stall was a piece of old rope, and the reins were of
the same material. Such a cart, it may be understood, had
no springs, but there was a board across the middle of it for
a seat. My baggage, however, quite filled it up. The cart
was driven by a French lad. Thus, then, I set out, having
fifteen or sixteen miles to go, in the first nine or ten of which
there is not a single house ; an old Frenchman who had come
down with the cart prophesying, as we parted from him, that
the horse would not carry us through ; and when I intimated
my intention of going on foot, he said that the horse would stick
fast in the fords, where both I and the driver must be in the
cart. This augury, however, was not verified. Our road
lay for the greater part of the way along one of those remark- '
able sand-beaches which so connect this cluster of islands,
that, with the exception of some more detached, not one of
the elevations is properly a separate island, although they all
appear so at no great distance. * * * On reaching
L'Etang du Nord, nine or ten miles from our starting point,
I went to the best-looking house to enquire for ahorse, either
to ride or to take me in a light cart for the remaining six
miles of my way, the other cart still carrying my baggage.
I succeeded in engaging a vehicle, and while it was getting
ready, went to dry myself at the stove as well as I could, for it
had rained hard almost all the way. The mistress of the house,
a decent, well-mannered French-Acadian matron, prepared for
me a cleanly breakfast, of which, having walked about nine
miles after being up in the schooner all night, I was thankful
to partake. With all gratitude I profess my conviction,

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 279
especially as my duties often subject me to some fatigue and
exposure, that forty years ago I should have been more
exhausted by the privations and exertions (though I do not
mean to call them severe) which I have here detailed, than
I was upon the present occasion, and I felt that, if necessary,
I could have undertaken, without any sort of distressing effort,
to walk the remaining six miles, perhaps having been con
siderably invigorated by the sea-air upon my voyage."
The Bishop proceeded to the residence of Mr. Muncey,
agent of the proprietor of the islands, Captain Coffin, R.N.,
at House Harbour, to obtain information which should guide
him as to the course to be pursued in visiting the different
settlements. Mr. Muncey was away from home, and the
Bishop experienced great delay in prosecuting the objects of
his visit, from the difficulty of obtaining a boat to go from
island to island. He was detained three or four days at
House Harbour, where he held services and baptized children
among the few residents, but he was anxious to reach Grosse
Isle and Entry Island, where the largest settlements are to
be found. But " there was nothing left but submission and
patience." At length, after many disappointments, a good
Swede, who had been accustomed in his youth to episcopal
ministrations, and had been confirmed by the Archbishop of
Upsal, and who rejoiced at an opportunity of being of service
to a Bishop, procured a boat and two men, with whom he
conveyed the Bishop to Grosse Isle, a distance of about
twenty-five miles. This man's father was a clergyman of the
Church of Sweden, and he had been himself designed for the
ministry, and had received a classical education at Upsal, but
" owing to an inveterate habit of stammering, he had been
obliged to abandon this prospect, and with his father's consent
had gone to sea, and finally, after a variety of adventures,
had settled in these islands as a boat-builder. He declared
that he was cured of stammering by practising the new
articulation required in learning the English language."

280 MEMOIR OF
Grosse Isle was reached in safety, and " my friend Isaac,"
the Bishop says —
" Conducted me to a house where I was to take up my quarters. The
master was away for the summer, fishing on the Labrador coast, but his
wife did her best to lodge and entertain me. The poor woman had four
young children, and the whole house consisted of only one room ; there was,
however, a partition across nearly half of it, which served to screen each
of the beds from the view of the persons occupying the other. Every thing
bespoke poverty, with a total absence of all approach to comfort or attempt
at orderly arrangement. My hostess, however, soon busied herself in heap
ing upon the embers of the hearth some fragments of dry fir trees with the
branches left upon them, of which there was a deposit on one side of the
room ; and having first kneaded her flour, proceeded to bake a large flat
loaf, which she gave me hot, with pretty good butter and a cup of tea,
apologizing for having neither sugar or molasses to sweeten it. * * *
Means were soon found of inviting the attendance of the whole settlement
at divine service at seven o'clock the next morning. By about half-past
seven the people were all assembled, and numbered, children included,
upwards of fifty. The first who came in had made arrangements for seating
the congregation upon boards resting upon boxes or other articles in the
house. If there were two prayer-books in the settlement, I do not think
there was a third, and nobody was prepared to make the responses. All
seemed well-affected and thankful to see me. After the prayers I preached
to them. * * * I felt a great and anxious desire to set the seal of the
covenant upon the children, but the cases of those who were upon the verge
of being youths I directed to be reserved for the future opportunity of adult
baptism by another hand, explaining that they would be previously sub
jected to a course of instruction and examination. One woman would
gladly have brought me some subjects for the rite, but in despair of our
ministrations, she had taken her three children, born since her removal to
the islands, to be baptized by the Romish priest at House Harbour. Seven
children were presented to me, of whom four were infants in arms. I then
proceeded to distribute the books and tracts which I had selected and
arranged for the purpose. There was only one family in the settlement
without a Bible, and I supplied, besides this, two others whose Bibles were
worn out ; so far a pleasing fact, as it was an evidence of their having been
used. I distributed five prayer-books, being half of what I had left from
the supply brought from Quebec. I could not be otherwise than full of
thankfulness, for it was a happy and interesting day to me and to these
poor people. Never since their first establishment in this rude, sequestered,
and isolated corner, — never once in the twenty-two years which had
elapsed, had any religious service been performed among them, — never had
the children seen a protestant minister, or witnessed any form of publis

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 281
worship, or even any kind of religious ministrations, unless those of a
Romish priest who came up from House Harbour to bury the dead from a
wreck which occurred at East Cape. It has been my lot, in not a few
instances, to visit places where no Bishop had ever been before, but I re
member only one or two instances in which it was permitted to me to be
the first herald of the Gospel of any kind who had appeared in a settlement ;
and here was one where years had rolled away and infants had grown up
to legal years of discretion, and not only the sound of the church-going
bell, but the sound of the preacher's voice, had never been heard among
the people. The wreck to which I have adverted took place in 1847, the
same sadly memorable year in which such scenes of horror were to be
witnessed at the quarantine station below Quebec, from the raging fever
which was the consequence of the Irish famine. In the vessel wrecked at
East Cape there were four hundred Irish emigrants, and disease and death
were doing their work among them before the catastrophe occurred. Many
bodies which had been thrown overboard were washed ashore in the storm,
and many survivors landed only to die. A man who is a sort of patriarch
in the settlement received into his house, barns, and out-buildings as many
as they could possibly contain. He fed them, as far as his means would
go, with his seed-potatoes and his stock of herring. He and his family
caught the fever, and his wife fell a victim to it. About one hundred of the
emigrants were drowned in attempting to land."
It was the 11th July before the Bishop was able to reach
Entry Island. Immediately on his landing, he sent round
notice of service to be held at seven o'clock, p.m., but it was
eight o'clock before all the people could be assembled.
"There was a little question about lights. There was in the house
neither candle nor oil for the kind of lamp which is in more common use
than candles. Three candles, however, were procured from neighbours,
not all from the same house. One was set in a candlestick, one forced into
the lamp, and one stuck in the neck of a bottle. By means of these lights
Mr. Muncey," (who had accompanied the Bishop from his own house, to
which he had returned from Grosse Isle) " and one of the settlers who
undertook to assist him in singing, were accommodated as well as myself.
The arrangements for the congregation were the same as those at Grosse
Isle. Forty-two persons were present, children included. Mr. Muncey
made the responses. The people all knelt in prayer, and the twenty-third
psalm was sung. Five infants were baptized. Mr. Short had baptized
nineteen children, of different ages, in 1848. I had laid out eleven packets
of tracts, corresponding to the number of families in the island, and I gave
them out after the sermon. A separate packet of ' address to godfathers and
godmothers ' I divided among those who had acted in that capacity, and
T

282 MEMOIR OF
also distributed the remainder of my stock of Bibles and prayer-books.
There was only one house, I believe, without a Bible. It was within an
hour, or less, of midnight when all was closed. It was past midnight when,
having retired to my little apartment, I heard through the partition a
young child whom the parents had taken over with them to the service,
answering a string of short, plain, elementary questions upon scriptural
truths, and then saying the Lord's prayer. Friday, 12th July. I breakfasted
with the family at whose house I had slept, and had morning prayers with
them, with some exposition of part of a chapter, which I rather lengthened
for the sake of an aged woman, the great-grandmother of the children,
who had not been over to the service of the night before, and who was
extremely deaf. I placed her close to myself, and raised my voice so that
she distinctly heard me. An infant child was brought to me here for
baptism by its parents, who had been unable to attend the public service."
From Entry Island the Bishop went to Amherst Harbour,
to make arrangements for crossing to the main land of Gaspe".
This was no easy matter, but he at last succeeded in charter
ing a schooner, in which, on Sunday morning, 14th July,
he sailed back to Entry Island, where he held service and
preached twice, and baptized one child, being the sixteenth
whom he had baptized in the islands. The mothers were all
churched, after receiving an explanation of the meaning and
object of the observance. He completed here an exact list
of all the protestant families in the islands.
Not having foreseen his detention in the islands, the Bishop
had made appointments on the Gaspe" coast which made it
necessary for him to endeavour to reach it without loss of time,
and he embarked therefore in his schooner after the second
service. The owner of the vessel had laid in his sea-stock,
but some of the women -of Entry Island insisted on contribu
ting loaves, home-made cheese, etc., and the farmer at whose
house the services were held could hardly be prevented,
though he avowed a scruple himself on account of the Sun
day which he could only overcome for the special occasion,
from killing a lamb to add to the store. Nothing could
possibly exceed the civility and attention of the master of the
schooner, but nothing certainly could have been more miser-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 283
able than the voyage. The vessel was an old one, just about
to be replaced by another which was on the stocks. It
rained the whole night, and the Bishop was soaked through
as he lay sick in his berth. The voyage, however, was not
of long duration, for the mainland was reached on the fore
noon of Tuesday, the 16th.
I have given many little details of this visit, as exhibiting,
not only some characteristic features of the work of a Bishop
in a diocese like that of Quebec, but also some incidental
proofs of the manner in which that work was performed, —
the carefulness in attending to little points which might serve
to make his ministrations effectual, and the considerate kind
ness shewn towards those with whom he came in contact, and
which would not suffer him to overlook the wants or infirmities
of any.
Having visited all the missions on the Gaspe" coast, and
held confirmations in them (at one station for the first time)
the Bishop returned to Quebec by land, travelhng up the
Bay of Chaleurs, and by the Kempt road to Metis, and
thence along the shore of the St. Lawrence to Quebec. It
was six hard days', and a good part of six nights', work to
accomplish this journey, which is performed by the mail in
nine. The Kempt road was scarcely ever used, and the
trees had so much grown up on its borders that a horseman
was wet through to his hips by the dew which he brushed
from them in passing between them in the early morning.
There were no houses on this part of the route, except one
or two where men were paid by the Government for remain
ing to afford shelter to travellers at the end of a day's jour
ney. One night the Bishop and his companions slept on
straw in a ruined log hut by the road-side.
Three weeks after his return to Quebec, the triennial
circuit was completed by a visit to the missions of East and
West Frampton, where fifty-seven persons were confirmed.
One hundred and eleven had received the ordinance in Gaspe",

284 MEMOIR OF
and the whole number in the diocese was one thousand eight
hundred and thirty-eight, of whom eight hundred and ninety-
three were confirmed at forty confirmations in the diocese
of Quebec, and nine hundred and forty-five at thirty-seven
in that of Montreal.*
At this marked period in the history of the diocese of
Quebec, which from this date comprised only the districts of
Quebec, Three Rivers, St. Francis and Gaspe", it may be
interesting to give a summary of the increase of the Church
in Lower Canada, during the fourteen years which had
elapsed since the Bishop's consecration. It is taken from
the Canadian Ecclesiastical Gazette, which was first pub
lished in this year at Quebec, having been prepared for that
paper by the Bishop himself.
1836-1850. Clergymen ordained for Lower Canada, seventy-
seven.
Clergymen adopted or introduced, ten.
Number of clergy in new diocese of Montreal : Seventeen
in 1836 ; forty-eight in 1850.
Number of clergy in new diocese of Quebec : Seventeen in
1836 ; thirty-eight in 1850.
Increase in Lower Canada, fifty-two.
Number of churches in new diocese of Quebec : 1836,
twenty-one ; 1850, fifty-six.
Number of churches in new diocese of Montreal : 1836,
twenty-one ; 1850, sixty.
Increase, eighty-three, of which nine were built to replace
old ones.
Number of places at which confirmations were held in 1836,
thirty-six, of which nineteen were in the new diocese of
Quebec : In 1850, ninety-five, of which forty-seven were
in the new diocese of Quebec. Increase, fifty-nine.

* The numbers confirmed at two different places are omitted, but were
probably rather more than thirty, making the total about nine hundred and
eighty.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 285

Thirty-four students had been admitted to Bishop's College
since its opening in September, 1845, of whom eighteen
had been ordained.
Two new sees had been erected in Canada since 1836, and
one in Rupert's Land, to which Bishop Mountain carried
the first episcopal ministrations.
In transmitting a statement of this increase to the S. P. G.,
he said : " The praise be to God above, whatever is done ;
and may His grace and blessing go with us, and the light of
His countenance be manifested to us in all the difficult work
which is before us still, and amidst all the discouragements
by which, for the trial of our faith, we are beset. Amen."

286 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER XIX.
Fifth visitation of the Clergy— Meeting of Clergy and Lay delegates-
Conference of Bishops at Quebec.
In the summer of 1851 the Bishop had the happiness of
opening a mission at the Magdalen Islands, and in July of
the same year the triennial visitation of the clergy was held
at the cathedral. Thirty-six were present, out of forty then
serving in the diocese. After the visitation, a meeting of
clergy and of lay delegates, whom the Bishop had invited
the different congregations of the diocese to send, was held
to consider the steps necessary to be taken with reference to
the threatened spoliation of the Clergy Reserves. All the
parishes and missions of the diocese had elected delegates,
except the distant places in the district of Gasp6, and three
others ; and forty-one delegates were present out of fifty-
seven who had been chosen, many of whom attended at
great inconvenience to themselves. The proceedings were
unanimous and conducted with great spirit, and it was
resolved that petitions should he presented to the Imperial
and local legislatures, which were afterwards most numer
ously signed throughout the diocese.
In his charge delivered on this occasion, the Bishop again
adverted to the injustice done to the Church by —
" The State still pertinaciously refusing, after nearly a century and a
half for which this grievance has galled the neck of the Church, to permit
to her the exercise of her inherent privilege, indulged to every other religi
ous body under the whole circle of the heavens, of holding her own formal

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. ' 287
and deliberative conventions for the regulation of her internal affairs ; and
this the more signalized to view, because the General Assembly of the
neighbouring religious establishment of North Britain sits, year by year, in
solemn and dignified deliberations, under the sanction of the Crown, while
again, the Romish hierarchy in Ireland has been permitted, without moles
tation, to hold, with all pomp and ceremony, a, conclave in which the
presiding influences are those of a foreign power radically and essentially
antagonistic to the constitution of England in Church and State. * * *
A remarkable exemplification of the manner in which the Church is ham
pered when she is called upon to make provision for any exigency which
may arise, or to devise any adaptation of her existing regulations which
unforeseen circumstances may require, is found in the case of the arrange
ments put in train for facilitating the attendance of foreign protestants
upon her worship, during the great exhibition in London of the present
year. Here is an occasion on which it is eminently desirable, for the
credit of the British name, for the interests of religion upon earth, for the
benefit of souls, and for the honour of God, that the national Church at the
seat of empire should sustain the glory of the country in religion, the first
concern of man, and should conspicuously sanctify the whole scene, by
throwing wide open her stately sanctuaries, with every ample opportunity
afforded to the men of other tongues who throng the proud metropolis for
uniting, each in his own tongue wherein he was born, in her pure and
beautiful services, and receiving edification from her appointed teachers.
Even to create a favourable impression of the national system of religion,
in so unprecedented a gathering of strangers, and one which may be
regarded as pregnant with consequences to the human family, is a point
of much importance. But there are laws of the Church, framed without
the contemplation of any such conjuncture as this, which forbid the perform
ance of the liturgy in a foreign language within any consecrated edifice.
And the Church, not being suffered to meet in convocation, has no power,
no opportunity granted, to make so small an alteration as would be requisite
for effecting the object in question, as the consequence of which inability
on her part recourse is unavoidably had to the shift of opening service for
foreigners within certain proprietary chapels and unconsecrated buildings
alone. " An incidental effect such as this upon the estimation and efficiency of
the Church is certainly to be lamented. Worse, however, far worse than
this is the want at which I have glanced, not of any infallible tribunal,
which, we well know, does not exist, and is .not to be looked for, upon
earth, but of some tribunal which can inspire confidence and comfort in the
bosom of the Church, when questions of a spiritual character and points of
ecclesiastical obligation are to be decided. Waiving here the attempt,
which might be obnoxious to the charge of presumption, to examine, as to
its own proper and legal correctness or incorrectness, the verdict rendered

288 MEMOIR OF
by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in the celebrated Gorham
case, and forbearing to speak otherwise than with all due respect of a body
comprehending some of the highest functionaries in Church and State, we
cannot fail to see that in its mixed and anomalous composition (anomalous
with regard to the purposes which are here in question) it is liable to be
such as can never command the reverence and loving acquiescence of devout
and consistent churchmen. And one very undesirable consequence which
has followed from the recent memorable decision is that there are many
parties willing to embrace and eager to propagate the wholly false idea of
its having been a decision favourable to the particular opinions, the mainte
nance of which had originally caused the appellant in the case to be
excluded from institution to his benefice, and, in a manner, a triumph of
those opinions ; whereas it was, in point of fact, — and this distinction
ought on no account to be lost sight of — simply a decision that the mainte
nance of such opinions by a minister of the Church of England was legally
permissible, was capable, in the eye of the law, of a construction suffering
it to pass according to the latitude which, more or less largely in different
quarters, is considered to be indulged to the clergy of that Church, upon
some nicer points of controverted doctrine.
The Bishop entered, at some length, into the question
which gave rise to this judgment, as well as into some others
respecting the claims and constitution of the Church which
were stirred at the time, and referring to the hope which was
then expressed in many quarters, and to which he had again
and again himself given utterance, of a comprehension which
might bring into the unity of the Church many who were
separated from her by very small differences, he says, —
" There would be an evident necessity, in limine, of providing for the
revival of convocation, in order to deliberate upon the question ; and it
must be quite needless to say, that the Imperial parliament, as now consti
tuted, could never be recognized as the authority to deal with the subject.
* * * It is plain that it must be taken as an indispensable basis of the
whole negociation to retain intact the three Orders of the ministry, and to
restrict the conveyance of title to the ministry to the channel through
which it has passed to ourselves, and by which we shall continue to pass
it on. * * * It is true, I speak as an Hebrew of the Hebrews ;
trained from infancy by one who held and eminently adorned the office
which I have been called to hold myself, and linked in many associations
of life, and by many powerful and endearing ties, with our own venerable
Church, whose whole constitution, system and ritual, as well as her peculiar
influence in the formation of the Christian character, as seen in her true-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 289
hearted sons and daughters, I regard with an attachment and an admira
tion, and a feeling of gratitude to God for the special blessing which I
believe that He has vouchsafed to her, still deepening as I advance in life.
Yet if any man could really convince me that I am wrong in all this, and
that these feelings and sentiments are mere prejudices of inheritance, or
mere fruits of education and habit which stand in the way of a consum
mation so devoutly to be wished as that here in question, and might bear
to be sacrificed without sacrifice of principle, then I would cheerfully
abandon them, and what things were'gain to me, those I would count loss
for Christ."
Having given expression, in the opening of his charge, to
his feelings of thankfulness for the division of the diocese,
and the appointment of Bishop Fulford to Montreal, the
Bishop added :
" The vine which the right hand of the Lord hath planted, we may well
hope, is deepening her roots from day to day, while she is stretching out
her branches and will bear fruit upwards, more and more, to the glory of
that Lord and the good of His people. Yet in the worldly aspect of the
case, we have little to lift us up in heart, and much to abase us. Reserving
here the consideration of some special circumstances which painfully affect
the Church of the empire at large, or which affect it in the same manner
within the province of Canada in particular, we see eurselves here, in this
diocese, a straggling, and in many points of view, a feeble band. We may
fix, in one instance, upon a missionary, with a handful of followers and
some little detached outposts of duty to be occupied upon occasion, who
has to look more than a hundred miles in one direction, and something
approaching to three times that distance in another, for the nearest fellow-
labourers of his own faith ; and although this is a peculiar case, we know
that it may be described, not indeed as the invariable condition, but yet
as a characteristic condition, of our clergy, to be scattered, often at wide
intervals, over a vast extent of country, and to minister to flocks of slender
resources. The people, content, or, if not content, compelled, to worship in
wooden churches, perhaps standing, for years together, unfinished, unfur
nished, and unconsecrated, although in use ; with no adequate provision for
the education of their children, who are filling up the settlements, and to
whom we must look as the hope of the Church ; the means of communica
tion and the accommodations of life all miserably backward, and the oppor
tunities of intercourse with more favoured portions of the population
infrequent or impeded. We stand, at best, in disparaging contrast with
the splendid endowments, the substantial provisions, the imposing institu
tions and the multiplied engines both of religious and political influence,
which distinguish the hierarchy of the Church of Rome. And yet we

290 MEMOIR OF
believe that all that proudly and wonderfully constructed fabric and all its
peculiar apparatus, either of power or of fascination, are but (in an allowable
variation from the original meaning and connection of the words*) ' res
Romans perituraque regna.' And we know the utter fallacy, as we cannot
fail to see the secular character, of that test of the true Church which has
been put forward by a celebrated Romish champion, that amplitude, dura
tion, and worldly prosperity should be found to concur as its characteristics.
Let us, then, take courage, whatever be our comparative local insignificance,
in the recollection of the question, ' Who hath despised the day of small
things ?' ' Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give
you the kingdom.' The advances which we have been permitted to make
are pledges to us that if we keep our holy faith unimpaired and our lamp
burning in the brightness of unalloyed scriptural truth, our God has pur
poses of mercy to us, and to His people by our ministry. Our dioceses, we
see, are multiplying ; our own number of missions has increased consider
ably since we last met in visitation ; and our college, poorly as it is
endowed, and destitute up to this day, among other wants, of the append
age of a chapel, is most fortunate in its establishment of professors, and
has proved itself an efficient nursery for the Church, having sent forth since
it was opened, not six years ago, twenty-one young men, who went through
their course of preparation for the ministry, in whole or in part, within
its walls, and who, collectively regarded, are labouring in the field of the
Gospel with decided fidelity and effect."
The year lSSl1 was made memorable by the meeting of
the North American Bishops held at Quebec in the autumn,
for the purpose of consulting together on the steps which it
might be possible to take with a view to the removal of the
difficulties, so far at least as they affected the colonial
Church, which the Bishop of Quebec had recently des
cribed in his charge. The Bishops of Toronto, Newfound
land, Fredericton and Montreal, arrived at Quebec on the
23rd September. Until the last-mentioned prelate had
visited Quebec a few months earlier, no Bishop of the Angli
can communion of any other diocese than Quebec had ever
been seen there since the erection of the diocese, with the
exception of Bishop J. Inglis, of Nova Scotia, who had spent
a few days there in 1827, and whose father, then the only
* It will be remembered that the " res Romanas" are set by Virgil in the
original passage in opposition to the " peritura regna."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 291
colonial Bishop, had paid an episcopal visit to Canada in
1789. The meeting of five prelates was therefore a matter
of universal interest to the members of the Church, as well
as of deep thankfulness and the highest enjoyment to them
selves. One of their number was personally a stranger to
the Bishop of Quebec, but he had not been long in his house
before he said of him : " That man is a real saint." Noth
ing could be more delightful than to witness the comfort and
hearty refreshment which this opportunity of mutual inter
course and consultation afforded to them all, or the entire
unity and sympathy that prevailed among them. Referring
to this visit, the Bishop of Fredericton afterwards wrote : " I
never left a house with more regret." The Bishop of Nova
Scotia was unable to leave his diocese on account of his very
recent arrival in it ; and the Bishop of Rupert's Land was
separated from his brethren by too great a distance to make
it possible to communicate with him in time. Both after
wards signified their general concurrence in the views put
forth by their brethren. The Bishops remained at Quebec
for a week, closely engaged in conference, the result of which -
was subsequently communicated to the clergy of the diocese
of Quebec, in the following circular : Quebec, 1st March, 1852.
Rev. and Dear Sib,
I send herewith, for your information, a copy of the Minutes of the Con
ference of Bishops held in this city in September last. It was agreed
among the Bishops not to divulge in other quarters the results of the
Conference, till they should have been submitted to the Archbishop of
Canterbury and time should have been given for his Grace's reply. This
reply I received while upon my recent visit to the Eastern townships.
His Grace, who expresses himself with much kindness upon the subject,
is of opinion that, as matters now stand in England, very great difficulties
would be found to lie in the way of our attaining the objects of convoca
tion or synodical action ; but that the appointment of a Metropolitan
would be more readily practicable.
Upon this point, I have ventured to intimate to his Grace, in acknow
ledging his communication, my own opinion that there would be no

292 MEMOIR OF
advantage worth pressing upon Her Majesty's Government in the appoint
ment of a Metropolitan at all, apart from the object of his presiding in the
councils of this branch of the colonial Church ; and that, till there is a
hope of effecting this latter object, it is quite as well for us to remain, as
at present, simply under his own arohiepiscopal jurisdiction or that of his
successors. The opinions and recommendations contained in the Minutes, although
comprehending points which individual Bishops may, in their respective
dioceses, make matter of official injunction, will not of course, as emanat
ing from the assembled body, be understood, under existing circumstances,
as having any legal or properly authoritative force.
I am, Dear Sir, Your affectionate brother,
G. J. Quebec.

MINUTES OF A CONFERENCE
OP THE
BISHOPS OF QUEBEC, TORONTO, NEWFOUNDLAND, FREDERICTON
AND MONTREAL,
HOLDEN AT QUEBEC, FROM SEPTEMBER 23RD TO OCTOBER 1ST, 1851.
ORDER OF SUBJECTS.

1.

General Declaration.

]0. Marriages.

2.

Convocation. '

11. Registers.

3.

Church-membership.

12. Inter-communion with other re

4.

Canons.

formed Churches.

5.

Articles and Formularies.

13. Education.

6.

Division of Services.

14. Deacons.

1.

Psalms and Hymns.

15. Maintenance of the Clergy.

8.

Offertory.

16. Conclusion.

9.

Holy Communion.

I. GENERAL

DECLARATION.

We, the undersigned Bishops of the North American colonies, in the
Province of Canterbury, having had opportunity granted to us of meeting
together, have thereupon conferred with each other respecting the trust
and charge committed to our hands and certain peculiar difficulties of a
local nature which attach to the same.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 293
We desire, therefore, in the first place, to record our thankfulness that we
have been so permitted to assemble, and our sense of the responsibility lying
upon us, before God and the world, to promote the glory of His great name,
to advance the kingdom of His Son, to seek the salvation of immortal souls,
and, what we feel to be inseparably united with those objects, to establish
and extend, wherever there is a demand for her services, the system, the
teaching, the worship and the ordinances of the United Church of England
and Ireland.
We feel that, in the prosecution of this great work, we are surrounded by
many discouragements,-embarrassments and hindrances which, by the grace
of God, we are prepared patiently to encounter, and, while they may be
appointed to continue, to endure — but for which, nevertheless, it is our duty
to seek all lawful remedy, if such remedy is to be found.
We have, therefore, prepared the statement which follows, of our views
in relation to these subjects of our care and solicitude, and we desire to
commend it to the favourable consideration of our Metropolitan, his Grace
¦the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, in the hope that he may be moved to
assist us in obtaining relief from those evils of which we have to com
plain, as well as to counsel us in the disposal of questions which come
before us in the exercise of our episcopal duties.
II. CONVOCATION.
In consequence of the anomalous state of the Church of England in these
colonies, with reference to its general government, and the doubts enter
tained as to the validity of any code of ecclesiastical law, the Bishops of
these dioceses experience great difficulty in acting in accordance with their
episcopal commission and prerogatives, and their decisions are liable to
misconstruction, as if emanating from their individual will, and not from
the general body of the Church. We .therefore consider it desirable, in the
first place, that the Bishop, Clergy and Laity of the Church of England in
each diocese should meet together in synod, at such times and in such
manner as may be agreed on. Secondly, that the Laity in such synod
should meet by representation, and that their representatives should be
communicants. Thirdly, it is our opinion that as questions will arise, from
time to time, which will affect the welfare of the Church in these colonies,
it is desirable that the Bishops, Clergy and Laity should meet in council
under a Provincial Metropolitan, with power to frame such rules and regu
lations for the better conduct of our ecclesiastical affairs as by the said
council may be deemed expedient. Fourthly, that the said council should
be divided into two houses ; the one consisting of the Bishops of these
several dioceses, under their Metropolitan, and the other of the' Presbyters
and Lay members of the Church, assembled as before-mentioned by repre
sentation. Upon these grounds it appears to us necessary that a Metropolitan should
be appointed for the North American dioceses.

294 MEMOIR OF
III. CHURCH-MEMBERSHIP.
Doubts being entertained who are to be regarded as members of the
Church of England in these colonies, and as such, what are their special
duties and rights ; we are of opinion that Church-membership requires (1)
admission into the Christian covenant by holy baptism, as our Lord com
manded, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(2) That all Church-members are bound, according to their knowledge and
opportunities, to consent and conform to the rules and ordinances of the
Church; and, (3) according to their ability, and as God hath blessed
them, to contribute to the support of the Church, and specially of those who
minister to them in holy things. Upon the fulfilment of these duties, they
may, as Church-members, claim at our hands, and at the hands of our
clergy generally, all customary services and ministrations. We cheerfully
recognize the duty and privilege of preaching the Gospel to the poor, and
of allowing to those who can make us no worldly recompense, the same
claim upon our services, in public and in private, which we grant to the
more wealthy members of our flocks.
We are farther of opinion that the Church-members in full communion
are those only who receive, with their brethren, the sacrament of the Lord's
Supper at the hands of their lawful ministers, as directed and enjoined by
the canons and the rubrics of our prayer-book. Persons chosen as repre
sentatives of any parish or mission to attend any synod or convocation
should, in every case, be members of the Church in full communion.
IV. CANONS OF 1603-4.
Although it is confessedly impossible, under existing circumstances, to
observe all these canons, yet we are of opinion that they should be complied
with so far as is lawful and practicable. But inasmuch as the retention of
rules which cannot be obeyed is manifestly inexpedient and tends to lessen
the respect due to all laws, we hold that a revision of the canons is highly
desirable, provided it be done by competent authority.
V. ARTICLES AND FORMULARIES.
Whereas the multiplication of sects among those who profess and call
themselves Christians, appealing to the same Scriptures in support of divers
and conflicting doctrines, renders a fixed and uniform standard and inter
pretation of Scripture more than ever necessary, we desire to express our
thankfulness to Almighty God for the preservation of the book of common
prayer ; our entire and cordial agreement with the articles and formularies
of our Church, taken in their literal sense, and our earnest wish, as far as in
us lies, faithfully to teach the doctrines, and to use the offices of our Church
in the manner prescribed in the said book. And we desire that all the
members of our Church should accept the teaching of the prayer-book, as,

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 295
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, their best help in the understanding
of holy Scripture, and as the groundwork of the religious education of their
children. VI. DIVISION OF SERVICES.
We are of opinion that the Bishop, as ordinary, may authorize the divi
sion of the morning service, by the use of the morning prayer, litany, or
communion-service separately, as may be required, but that no private
clergyman has authority, at his own discretion, to abridge or alter the
services or offices, or to change the lessons of the Church.
VII. PSALMS AND HYMNS.
Whereas the multiplication in churches of different hymn-books, pub
lished without authority, is irregular in itself, and has a tendency to promote
division among us, we are of opinion that a judicious selection of psalms
and hymns, by competent authority, would tend much to the furtherance
of devotion and to the edification of pious churchmen.
VIIL OFFERTORY.
We are of opinion that it is desirable and seemly, and would tend to a
uniformity of practice among us, that whenever a collection is made after
sermon, in time of morning prayer, the Offertory sentences should be
read, and the prayer for the Church militant should be used.
IX. HOLY COMMUNION.
We hold it to be of great importance that the clergy should attend to the
directions of the rubric which precede the administration of the holy com
munion, respecting " open and notorious evil livers, and those who have
done wrong to their neighbours, by word or deed, and those also betwixt -
whom they perceive malice and hatred to reign ;" and that the members of
the Church should signify to the minister their intention to present them
selves at the holy table, — especially when they arrive in any place as
strangers, — or when, being residents in such place, they are purposing to
communicate for the first time. We conceive that it would greatly promote
the welfare of the Church, if all our members, who may be travelling from
one place to another, were furnished with a certificate of their membership,
and of their standing in the Church.
X. MARRIAGES.
We hold that a clergyman, knowingly celebrating marriage between
persons who are related to each other within the prohibited degrees set
forth in a table of degrees published by our Church in the year of our Lord
God 1563, is acting in violation of the laws of God and of the Church, and
is liable to censure and punishment ; and that persons who contract such

296 MEMOIR OF
marriages should not be admitted to the holy Communion, except upon
repentance and putting away their sin. And we recommend that the
aforesaid " Table of prohibited degrees" should be put up in every church
in our dioceses. We are farther of opinion that injustice is done to our Church,
in withholding from our Bishops the power of granting marriage licenses,
which is exercised by the Bishops of the Roman catholic Church ; and that
in several dioceses great irregularities and grievous evils prevail, in conse
quence of the defective state of the marriage law. We also hold that the
clergy of our Church should abstain from celebrating a marriage between
persons, both of whom professedly belong to another communion, except
in cases where the services of no other minister can be procured.
XI. REGISTERS.
We would earnestly recommend to the clergy of our dioceses (even though
it should not be required by the civil law) to keep accurate registers of
marriages, baptisms, and burials in their several parishes or missions.
XII. INTER-COMMUNION WITH OTHER REFORMED CHURCHES.
We are of opinion that it is much to be desired that there should be
no let or hindrance to a full and free' communion between ourselves and
other reformed episcopal Churches ; and therefore that where we derive our
Orders from the same source, hold the same doctrines, and are virtually
united as members of the same body of Christ, those impediments, which
(as we are advised) are now in force, through the operation of the civil law,
ought to be removed. XIII. EDUCATION.
(a) General.
Whereas systems of education are very generally introduced and sup
ported in these colonies, either (1) excluding religious instruction alto
gether from the schools, or (2) recognizing no distinction except between
Roman catholics and protestants ; whereby no opportunity is afforded us
of bringing up the children of our communion in the special doctrines and
duties of our faith, to the manifest depravation of their religious principles,
and with crying injustice to the Church of England, we desire to express
our decided conviction,
(1) That all education for the members of our Church should be distinctly
based on the revealed religion of the Old and New Testaments, with special
reference to their duties and privileges as by baptism regenerate and made
God's children by adoption and grace.
(2) That all lawful and honourable methods should be adopted, to move
the colonial legislatures to make grants to the Church of England, as well

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 297
as to the Roman catholics, and other religious bodies as they require it,
and according to their numbers respectively, for the education of the
members of their own communion. (i) Sunday Schools.
(1) We desire to express our sense of the importance, in the existing state
of the Church, of Sunday-schools, especially in large towns ; and we thank
fully acknowledge the benefits which have resulted from the labours of
pious teachers, both to themselves and their scholars, under proper direc
tion and superintendence. In every possible case the Sunday-schools should
be under the personal direction and superintendence of the minister of the
parish or district ; or otherwise, the minister should appoint the teachers,
choose the books, and regulate the course of instruction, that there be no
contradiction between the teaching of the school and the Church. All Sun
day-scholars should be instructed in the Church catechism, and regularly
taken to church.
(2) We would carefully guard against the assumption that instruction
in the Sunday-school, even by the minister of the parish, may be allowed
to supersede the directions of the rubrics and canons on the duty of cate
chising in church; for we distinctly recognize and affirm as well the
great importance as the sacred obligation of those directions.
(c) Schools for the higher classes.
Schools for the higher classes of both sexes are much required, with
particular reference to assisting the clergy in the education of their own
children. (d) Collegiate Institutions.
Although we consider it of great importance that each Bishop should
connect with his diocese some college or a like institution for the special train
ing and preparation of young men for the ministry of the C hurch, we believe
that an University for the North American provinces, with foundations for
each diocese, on the model of the two great universities, will be required to
complete an educational system, as well for lay students in every depart
ment of literature and science, as for the students in theology, and candi
dates for the sacred ministry. (e) Training for the Ministry.
In addition to the general studies pursued in the college or university,
we deem it highly desirable that candidates for the ministry should apply
themselves, under competent direction, to a systematic course of reading in
theology, for at least one whole year, or longer if possible, previous to their
taking holy Orders ; and that they should likewise be instructed in the
duties of the pastoral office, in correct reading and delivery of sermons, in
Church music, architecture, etc. U

298 MEMOIR OF
(/) Diocesan and parochial Libraries.
We deem it very desirable also, that libraries should be formed in every
diocese under the direction of the clergy, both for the clergy themselves
and for their parishioners. XIV. THE ORDER OF DEACONS.
We would wish to discontinue the practice which the necessities of the
Church have sometimes forced upon us of entrusting large independent
spheres of duty to young and inexperienced men in deacons' Orders, deeming
it desirable that every deacon should, if possible, be placed under the direc
tion of an experienced priest.
XV. MAINTENANCE OF THE CLERGY.
While we hold it to be the duty of Christian Governments to maintain
inviolate whatever endowments have been lawfully and religiously made
for the establishment, support or extension of the C hristian religion ; and
while we acknowledge with heartfelt gratitude the aid given to our mis
sions by the venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign
parts to whose fostering care and bounty the Church in these colonies owes
under God its existence and means of usefulness, we desire to record our
conviction, that the ordinances of the Church will never be rightly valued,
nor its strength fully developed, until the people for whose benefit the
clergy minister in holy things furnish a more adequate support to the insti
tutions and to the clergy of their Church.
Farther, as the society, in consequence of numerous and increasing claims
in all parts of the world, is compelled gradually to withdraw its aid, we
desire to impress on all our flocks the duty of fulfilling their obligations in
respect of the payment of their ministers, and with a view to this object,
we recommend that the churchwardens in each parish or mission should
furnish every year to the Bishop a written return, duly certified by them
selves and by the clergyman, of the sums paid towards his support for the
current year. XVI. CONCLUSION.
Lastly, while we acknowledge it to be the bounden duty of ourselves and
our clergy, by God's grace assisting us, in our several stations, to do the
work of good evangelists, yet we desire to remember that we hav« most
solemnly pledged ourselves to fulfil this work of our ministry according
to the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England, and as faithful
subjects of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria — " unto whom the
chief government of all estates of this realm, whether they be ecclesiastical
or civil, in all causes doth appertain, and is not, nor ought to be, subject to
any foreign jurisdiction." And we. cannot forbear expressing our unfeigned
thankfulness to Almighty God, that He has preserved to us, in this branch

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 299
of Christ's holy Church, the assurance of an apostolic commission for our
ministerial calling ; and, together with it, a confession of pure and catholic
truth, and the fulness of sacramental grace. May He graciously be pleased
to direct and guide us all in the use of these precious gifts, enable us to
serve Him " in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of
life," and finally bring us to His heavenly kingdom, through Jesus Christ
our Lord. G. J. QUEBEC,
JOHN TORONTO,
EDWARD NEWFOUNDLAND,
JOHN FREDERICTON,
F. MONTREAL.
Quebec, 1st October, 1851.

300 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER XX.
S. P. G. Jubilee— Sixth triennial circuit — Visit to England to meet the
Bishop of Sydney.
Immediately after the conclusion of the episcopal confer
ence, the Bishop of Quebec addressed a circular to his
clergy on another subject affecting the Church at large, in
order to recommend the participation of the diocese in the
observance of the jubilee of the S. P. Q. In accordance
with a request made to him by the central board of the
diocesan Church Society, it was now suggested to the clergy
that sermons should be preached and collections made on
Advent Sunday throughout the diocese on behalf of one or
more of the objects specially indicated 'by the S. P.' G., in
order to shew the sense entertained of the blessings which
that body had been the instrument of affording to the diocese. .
A good example was set at Quebec, where the Bishop
preached in the cathedral ; the holy communion was adminis
tered, and £51 2s. 6d. were collected at the offertory. A
collection was afterwards made from house to house, in every '
part of Quebec, by clergymen and laymen appointed for that
purpose at a public meeting held in aid of the objects of the
jubilee and presided over by the Bishop. The meeting was
most numerously attended, and an excellent spirit was dis
played, which exhibited itself in very large contributions.
The Bishop headed the list with a donation of £50, to be
given to St. Augustine's College, Canterbury. The whole
sum raised in the diocese amounted to £500 sterling, which

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 301

was remitted to the S. P. Gr., and was more than one-fifth
of the whole amount contributed out of the British Isles.
The Bishop began the year 1852 by preaching in the
cathedral on the festival of the Circumcision on behalf of the
Canada Military Asylum, and on the following Sunday con
firmed two hundred and twenty-four persons in the same
church.* The collections for charitable purposes made
within its .walls from Advent Sunday to the second Sunday
after Christmas (both included) amounted to £141 17s.
lOd. On the 19th January the Bishop left Quebec on a con
firmation-tour through the district of St. Francis, confirming
one hundred and eighty-six persons, at fourteen places. In
one instance, a candidate, who had come twenty-four miles
for the purpose, was baptized by the Bishop before being con
firmed, and " his father, who stood by him, was greatly moved,
and melted into tears, when the Bishop took his son by
the hand and poured the sacramental water on his head."
Besides holding confirmations, the Bishop visited and preached
at several places more or less destitute of the ministrations
of the Church. In one place the service was held in an
unfinished house, where, though three different rooms and
the staircase besides were occupied by the congregation,
the Bishop was audible to all, and visible to most of them.
His time was also engaged with meetings at Bishop's College,
and in many places with visiting aged or infirm Church-
people at their houses. A confirmation was held for the first
time at Dudswell, and this ordinance, as well as the Lord's
* Supper, was also administered for the first time in the diminu
tive .school-house of the township of Ham. " Some of the
recipients of both were touched in their feelings in a manner
* At a supplementary confirmation held in St. Matthew's chapel, on the
following Whit-Sunday, twenty-nine persons were confirmed, making the
whole number fAr Quebec, including three confirmed elsewhere, two hun
dred and fifty-six.

302 MEMOIR OF
which they could not conceal." It was the 23rd February
before the Bishop reached Quebec, and in the following month
he was again travelling and confirming south of the St. Law
rence, as well as attending district meetings of the Church
society. In June, July and August, he was similarly engaged
on the north shore ; held two .ordinations, consecrated two
churches and three burial-grounds, and twice visited Bishop's
college, after the last of which visits he made a short tour
among some destitute settlements in the St. Francis district.
On the 1st September he held a confirmation and consecrated
the little church at Rivi&re du Loup en haut, and a week
later confirmed at Riviere du Loup en has, to which place
" some of the candidates had come a distance of forty miles,
and had to make a journey of three days to reach the place
and return." These two missions, lying among the Roman
catholic parishes on the St. Lawrence, are two hundred and
twenty-six miles apart, and between the latter and Point
Levi, opposite Quebec, a distance of one hundred and four
teen miles, there is no protestant place of worship. From
Riviere du Loup en has the Bishop crossed to Murray Bay
to spend Sunday with the few church-people there, and
returned to Quebec by land. At the eight scattered confir
mations held during the summer, the number of persons
confirmed was eighty-four. During part of his August jour
neyings the Bishop had the happiness of being accompanied
by his nephew, the Rev. J. G. Mountain, who had obtained
a short leave of absence from his self-denying labours in New
foundland, for the first time since he had entered on them in
1847. One more visit, late in the autumn, to the Eastern
townships for the settlement of a local difficulty, completed
the journeyings of 1852 within the diocese.
In November, the Bishop addressed a circular to the
missionaries of the S. P. G. and their church-wardens in his
diocese, urging the necessity of sustained and increasing
exertions on the part of their congregations in order to relieve

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 303
that body, as far as possible, from the support of the Canadian
Church. In the following month, another circular announced
that he had been summoned to England to meet the Bishop
of Sydney, who had undertaken a voyage from Australia in
the hope of procuring at the hands of the Imperial Govern
ment some relief from the disabilities which imperial statutes
were conceived to place in the way of synodical action in the
colonies. Neither of these Bishops had visited England since
they left it after their consecration, together, in 1836, and it
was felt that the senior prelates of Australia and British
North America were the fitting persons to represent the
wants which had been acknowledged by the councils of
Bishops held in both countries. The Bishop of Quebec, how
ever, shrank from the task, and hoped to the very last that
he might be spared the necessity of leaving his diocese. But
when it appeared that neither of the other Canadian Bishops
could go at that particular time, and that the presence of one
of their number was urgently desired, the Bishop of Quebec
left his home, within about an hour after receiving the letter
which fixed his decision, on the 30th December, and a few
days afterwards, having paid a brief visit to Bishop's College,
embarked at Boston for Liverpool. At Halifax he had the
great and unexpected happiness of being joined by the Bishop
of Newfoundland, who was his fellow-passenger across the
Atlantic. A few days only were allowed for a very hasty greeting
of his nearest relatives before the Bishop was. fairly engaged
in the work which had called him from his diocese. He lost
no time in putting himself into communication with the Bishop
of Sydney and such other colonial prelates as happened to be
in England, as well as with other persons in authority and
friends of the Church, respecting the measures to be taken
for facilitating the administration of colonial dioceses and
procuring the cooperation of clergy and laity in Church
affairs. Arrangements were made for holding conferences of

304 MEMOIR OF
the colonial Bishops in London, the first of which met on the
28th January, and was presided over by the Bishop of Sydney,
who was never able to attend again. The Bishops of Sydney
and Quebec met on this occasion for the first time since their
consecration, and before they could do so again, one of them
was called upon to act as a pall-bearer at the funeral of his
brother. The presidency of the conferences, which were
attended, at different times, by the Bishops of Newfoundland,
Antigua, Capetown, and Nova Scotia, then devolved on the
Bishop of Quebec. The Archbishop of Canterbury entered
warmly into the question, and summoned meetings of the
English Bishops at Lambeth, over which his grace presided,
to confer with their colonial brethren on the steps which it
was proposed to take in relation to it. Eighteen English
prelates took part in these deliberations, and it was agreed
that a bill, in its main features resembling that which had
already been passed in the legislature of Victoria, (Australia,)
should be introduced into 'the House of Lords by the Arch
bishop, for the removal of the disabilities which were supposed
to hinder the free action of the colonial Church in the matter
of synodical action. The Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone
took charge of the bill in the House of Commons. The bill,
however, did not pass, and it was reserved for the Canadian
legislature to perform this act of simple justice, so far as the
Canadian Church was concerned.
In order to exhibit the anomaly of their position as Bishops
of the Church of England within the Province of Canterbury,
and the necessity for the application of some remedy for the
existing state of things, the Bishops of Quebec, Antigua, and
Capetown addressed a memorial to the Upper House of Con
vocation praying to have that position defined. A question
had been raised whether they had not a right to seats in that
house, and though they did not for a moment affect to claim
them, they believed that the consideration of it would tend to
the advancement of their general object.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 305
The labours of correspondence and of interviews with differ
ent persons in authority, ecclesiastical as well as civil, which
the promotion of this measure involved was by no means
slight. But there was another which added very seriously
to the weight of care and the toil which already pressed upon
the Bishop, particularly as he had left Canada unprepared
for it. The petition of the Canadian legislature to be
entrusted with the control of the Clergy Reserves had been
sent home some time before ; but when the Bishop left Quebec
no danger was apprehended to the Church on that score,
the ministry then in power being known to be unfriendly
to its prayer. When he reached England, however, he
found that a change of. ministry had taken place, involving
a corresponding change in the aspect of this question. It
became his duty, therefore, (in conjunction with Archdeacon
Bethune, of the diocese- of Toronto, who was in England at
the time) to use his utmost efforts to prevent what he regarded
as a spoliation of the Church. He addressed strong and
earnest remonstrances to the Duke of Newcastle, Secretary
of State for the colonies, as well as a circular to the Bishops
having seats in the House of Lords, of which a copy was sent
' also to several lay peers and other influential persons. The
task of preparing and circulating this letter (which is here
subjoined, having never been before published) together with
that of communicating with no fewer than five hundred local
secretaries of the S. P. G., and supplying them with a form
of petition against the bill, demanded an amount of labour
which almost left him " no leisure, so much as to eat." He
was obliged, not only, as in 1825, to forego the pleasure
of seeing many of his friends, and visiting other objects of
interest, but even to decline meeting them on many occa
sions at the house which was his home during the greater
part of his stay in England, the rectory of St. George's,
Hanover Square. In his hurried letters to Quebec, he used
to say that he had never been so driven for time, or so unable

306 MEMOIR OF
to meet engagements, which it was an object, for the sake of
the Church, that he should not have given up.
*
Blumham Rectory, Beds,
21st March, 1853.
My Lord Bishop,
It has pleased God that I should occupy in His Church, although in a
remote colony, and in a poor diocese struggling with multiplied discour
agements and difficulties, the same office which is held by yourself in the
Church establishment at home; and that poor diocese forms part and
parcel of the Church of England, and is within the metropolitan jurisdic
tion of the see of Canterbury. I am, therefore (being accidentally in
England,) impelled, in a crisis which threatens our religion throughout all
the three dioceses of Canada, to invoke the protection of your Lordship,
in that place, which, as becomes a Christian country, is assigned in the
great council of the realm to the fathers of the Church. (I address in the
same manner all the Bishops of the Bench in England.)
Your Lordship will very readily have apprehended that I refer to the
measure now in progress in the Imperial parliament, for enabling the
Canadian legislature to dispose, at its will, of the clergy reserves in the
colony. I am only discharging what, according to my unalterable con
victions, is my plain duty before God and the world, in denouncing this
measure. Nor could I ever, holding the charge which I do, stand acquitted
to my own conscience, if, let the result be what it may, I should have
failed to use to the utmost any poor efforts of mine, to avert what I regard
as so disastrous, and, at the same time, so utterly unjustifiable a pro
ceeding. I have been permitted, by the mercy of God, to go through Some
lengthened labour, — perhaps to render some small service, — within my
sphere, in the cause of His Church ; but my memory would pass down
dishonoured to those who will come after me, were I to lift no voice
against this meditated wrong.
My Lord, with all the high respect which is due to some of the supporters
of this measure, who have every advantage of superiority over me, except
that which is founded in the merits of the case, or that which results from
immediate local experience, I am constrained to profess that I have not
heard one argument in favour of the measure, or in answer to the reasons
urged against it, which is capable of being sustained, or does not involve
some fallacy or some mistake.
I proceed, then, in the endeavour to maintain the following points : —
1. That the proposed measure is an interference with property which
ought to be held inviolably sacred.
2 . That it involves a compromise of public faith.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 307
3. That for these reasons it cannot be justifiable to put the issue to
risk. 4. That, even if the risk could be justified, the arguments for hoping well
of the issue are fallacious.
5. That the voluntary system would not provide for the deficiency to be
created by the confiscation of the reserves.
6. That the clause which is relied upon, in the Act 31 Geo. III. cap 31
in justification of the measure, is misunderstood when so applied.
1. I advert, first, then, to what I have already declared to Her Majesty's
Secretary of State for the colonies, that I do not see how this measure can
be regarded otherwise than as partaking of a sacrilegious character. The
clergy reserves have been set apart for the maintenance of the faith and
worship of God." They have, in fact, been given to Him. And there has
been no religious crisis or convulsion, no change of masters in the land, no
extinction or failure of the object itself to which they were devoted, to give
any sort of fair colour to the proceeding ; the reserves are wanted, and far
more is wanted than they yield, for the maintenance and perpetuation of
the same faith among the same people as at first contemplated. " It is
well worthy of remembrance," to quote the words which I have used in
addressing his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, " that in republican America
the endowments of the Church of England have been held sacred ; they
were preserved to her, in one noted instance, through the very convulsions
of that revolution which separated the colonies from the mother country
(and the circumstance was the more marked because the Church was
exposed to particular odium, on account of the characteristic loyalty of her
members) ; they were restored to her in another instance, by the decision
, of the courts of the United States, after a long space of years, in which
they had been taken possession of, and held as town lands, in the absence
at the time of any episcopalian claimants of the property." And although
there may have been instances in which a tax or rate has been removed in
that country, which had been imposed upon the population at large for the
maintenance of a particular system of religion, there is none, I believe, to
be produced in which the alienation has been permitted of endowments in
land for religious uses. These endowments have been regarded as invio
lable. 2. I must also recur again to the ground which I have taken, in writing
to his Grace, respecting the engagement to the Church of the public faith.
The settlement of 3 and 4 Vict. cap. 78,*respecting the clergy reserves,
was proposed and accepted as a final settlement : it was under that
pledge that consent to the act in high quarters in England was obtained :
it is in that character that it has been recognised in formal documents
printed under the sanction and for the use of the colonial legislature ;
and even if these were considerations which could be made to yield to the
claims of " responsible government," it would in itself be unfair in the

308 MEMOIR OF
extreme, as well as untenable in principle, that the effect of this new
system of Government should be carried back to a point anterior to
its introduction into the colony, and thence take injurious effect upon
interests for which a definitive arrangement had been provided by law.
And, in writing to your Lordship, I must feel quite safe in saying that
the pledge which is held out to our expectations to maintain " existing
interests," must never silence the remonstrances of parties whose personal
interests would be so assured to them, against any scheme which endangers
the patrimony of the Church. No, my Lord, — to strip the clergy now
living in Canada of their slender compensation for labours sufficiently
severe in their holy calling would, beyond doubt, be an unjust and cruel
thing ; but it would be a trifle compared with the confiscation of the
Church endowments. The case of a poor clergy made still poorer, and
with actual starvation, in many instances, before them, might be expected
to appeal with advantage to the compassion of the Church in England :
and they might thus rely at least upon some sensible palliation of their
condition : but the alienation in perpetuity of the means for supporting
and extending the ministry of the Church, abstractedly from any present
hardship inflicted upon individuals, would threaten almost the extinction,
in many places, of the lamp of -the Gospel, and the denial to the children
of the Church of the bread of life.
3. If, then, in such a case as that which is here in question, the religious
endowments given to a body of" people ought, as a general principle, to be
held sacred, it never can be right to put them in jeopardy. It never can
. be right, for an object of seeming political expediency, or under a plea of
carrying out a new system of government, to throw the disposal of those
endowments into the hands of another party, and to rely upon supposed pro
babilities for their being safe in those hands against any diversion from their
original and legitimate object. A guardian in charge of the estate of a
minor might, according to this reasoning, be justified in risking the interests
of his ward, by a transaction which, according to his own calculation of
probabilities, would afford a fair promise or a reasonable chance of leaving
those interests undamaged.
4. But even if it could be granted that such a risk could be warrantably
taken, and the property set apart for the Church be made the stakes for a
game of chance, suffer me, my Lord, to put before you the real value, in the
present case, of these arguments from probability, in themselves.
And, in the first place, let us examine the grounds of anticipating favour
from the provincial legislature. Give up the principle, it is said-
surrender the control — and that is all which is wanted on the part of
colonial politicians. What favour, my Lord, what friendship, what pro
tection, has the Church of England been taught by experience to look for,
at the hands of the local authorities in Canada ? Look at the demands of
the louder and more restless parties in that country, and the concessions

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 309
made to them by the policy of the Government.* Look at the University
which" had been planted under Church auspices (but with open benefit, in
the departments of secular education, to the whole population, and with
the most promising auguries) in Toronto, violently wrested from the
Church, and despoiled of all religious character whatever. Look at the
refusal to grant the issue of marriage licences for our own people (beyond
this the privilege was never asked,) to the Bishops of the Church of Eng
land, and licences issued by the civil power, stamped, be it observed, with
the episcopal mitre ; while the corresponding privilege is freely enjoyed
by the Romish prelates. My Lord, I should be carried to a length which
would be here quite out of place, if I were to accumulate the instances of
what I do conceive to be the hardships and grievances of the Church of
England in Canada. The history of the Church in that country (and it
will all one day come out) is, in a manner, made up of them ; but if we
look only at the management of the clergy reserves themselves, it would
be easy to shew that, in repeated instances, the interests of religion have
been sacrificed to some passing political object, and the property has been
made subservient, in its administration, to secular ends. I forbear from
going here into the details ; but, although I came home to England unpre
pared for this question (the news of the designation of the late ministry,
whose dispositions upon the subject are well known, not having been
received at the time of my departure from Quebec,) and I have scarcely
any of the documents at command which would arm me for my purpose, I
am able to sustain what I say. And what regard was paid in the colony
to the expression of Lord Grey's " regret," when he was Secretary for the
colonies, that the question of the clergy reserves should be re-opened ?
My Lord, we are told to rely upon the generosity of the Canadian people ;
and truly we have claim upon it; for the country whose national Church
we represent among them has been most largely, and in many ways,
generous towards them ; and in the day of public calamity of the province,
when it pleased God that the city of Quebec should be devastated, eight
years ago, by dreadful conflagrations, the relief freely rendered under the
Queen's letter, from within the very walls of the churches in England was
* It ought not to be forgotten that, if concession to parties who make
strong demonstration of feeling upon this or that subject is held to be a
necessary feature of colonial policy, there is a large body, commanding no
mean influence, of the Churchmen of Canada, who most keenly and deeply
feel the wrong which would be done to them in the confiscation of their
Church patrimony ; and among whom the sentiment has been even known
to be uttered, in the vexation of their hearts, notwithstanding their attach
ment to British rule, that it would be better for them to be annexed to the
United States, for that then their patrimony would be safe.

310 MEMOIR OF
beyond all expectation. And it was mainly for those of another tongue
and another faith that it was bestowed.
But these things are not remembered by politicians and partizans,
although they may be men by no means incapable of generous feeling.
There is an eager party at this moment in the colony, who are vehemently
opposed to the whole principle of religious endowments ;¦ and there are
elections to certain seats in the provincial parliament, which turn greatly
upon the favour of this party. Jealousies and alarms, of which the Church
is the object, utterly unfounded in any reality, are studiously kindled, and
the flame is sedulously kept up. Some men are afraid of facing this
excitement ; others find it convenient to adapt themselves to the changes
of the times ; others still are carried away by sounding and plausible, but
empty, theories respecting the benefits of the voluntary system ; very many
are hurried on, without knowing the depths of the question to which they
commit themselves. In all this turmoil and agitation, the sentiment of
generosity towards the Church of England is too faint and feeble a breath
to produce any effect ; and, avoiding all personal allusions, I may venture
to say generally that, in the incipient stages of the working of responsible
government, it is not anywhere, I believe, a nicely measured policy, or a
scrupulous recourse to the means of influence, which particularly character
izes the exercise of these new powers in the hands of new men. It is
unnecessary, perhaps, to specify examples ; but, apart from all considera
tions of this nature, the simple fact presents itself at once, when we are
counting upon local probabilities to save the patrimony of the Church, that
the Canadian ministry stand actually pledged to its secularization ; and the
subjoined extract from a paper which is considered the organ of the Gov
ernment, of the 16th February last, may suffice to shew the justice of
expectations which are built upon the dispositions, in Canada, of the party
now in power : —
" The next great question now will be, What is to be done with the
reserves ? This question must be answered by reformers. Never before
have they had the cup so near their lips : let them take care that, by quarrels
among themselves, by miserable bickerings resulting in a great measure from
personal spleen, it be not rudely dashed away. Let reformers be united
among themselves, and they have nothing to fear. Let them count their
strength in the present House ; and if they should deem it inexpedient to
risk a vote on the question of secularization, let them then push through
the representation bill, increase and equalize the representation, and then
let them go to the country as one man on this question, and success will
be theirs. We sincerely trust that nothing will be done in this matter
without careful forethought : one false step would furnish subject for years
of regret."
It is important here to observe that, whereas many of the arguments in
this question are based upon the assumption of an analogy between the

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 311
Imperial executive and legislature on the one hand, and the executive and
legislature of the colony on the other, the analogy, as it does not hold in a
single point, so does it especially fail when it is attempted to apply it to the
Ministry. There are very obvious causes, which inspire an . incomparably
stronger tenacity of place in the minds of gentlemen composing the
administration in the colony, than in the case of such parties as fill the
corresponding posts at home ; and proportionable weight is to be attached
to the fact just stated, respecting the pledges of the existing ministry in
Canada. My Lord, in these remarks upon the working of the system, whether in
theory or in fact, I am neither pointing at individuals, nor passing whole
sale reflections upon the Canadian people. I believe that there are
prominent individuals known to take part against us in Canada, who, in
their hearts, wish well to the cause of the Church ; and, having spent all
my ecclesiastical life in that country, I have found no difficulty in pre
serving a peaceable, friendly, and agreeable intercourse throughout, with
men of other race and other creed than my own. I have never, in the most
distant manner, been mixed up with the politics of the country or its party
irritations ;* and if it be true, in this behalf, that Principibus placuisse viris
non ultima laus est, I could shew that I have had some pretensions of such
a nature. I think it hard, then, — very hard, and most signally unfair, —
that odium should be thrown upon us of the Church of England for not
surrendering our claim at once, and trusting the issue, under the circum
stances which I have indicated, to the' mere good feeling of the Canadian
parliament and people. The parties to whom we are to look as actively
engaged in the question upon the spot, and having the power in their
hands, and the influences acting upon those parties, I have in some measure
described. These, then, are the parties with reference to whose dealings
with our Church property we are told by British statesmen that we, the
sworn guardians of the Church of God, ought to sit quiet and let them
handle us as they please. We are charged with provoking the dispositions
of which we stand in dread, and with bringing upon ourselves the very
danger which we seek to avert. If the reserves should be lost to us, the
loss is to lie at our own door. My Lord, by you, at least, it will be felt,
and by the Right Rev. Bench in England at large, that we could not
possibly be discharging our duty in passively letting this question take its
course ; and that it is not kind nor just to suggest it to the mind of the
local legislature, that they may confiscate the patrimony of the Church,
* Unless the publication of a pamphlet against the Annexation Movement,
treating the question calmly upon religious grounds, can be called an
exception ; or the fact of petitioning against the alienation of Church
property can be so classed.

312 MEMOIR OF
and then tell us that, because we expostulated beforehand, we are the
authors of the mischief ourselves.
The real cause of the mischief, in the meantime, if we go to the original
root of the matter, is to be found purely and simply in the management of
the question by the Government from the first. It was at last thought to
be closed by the 3 and 4 Vict. cap. 78 :— it might have been closed long
before : it ought to be closed, without a compromise of Church interests,
once and for ever, now.
We should, in point of fact, be in a far worse^ position by a seeming
acquiescence in the proceedings of those who are known to be hostile to
our endowments, than by our earnest, although not disrespectful remon
strance, and, pro virili, our vigorous, although not intemperate, opposition.
There will be very much the less scruple in disturbing our rights, if it is
left to be supposed that we have nothing to say in support of them ; and in
my own humble judgment, utterly averse as I am to public noise and
excitement, we ought to make England itself ring with our complaints,
before we submit to the irrecoverable loss of this endowment.
But again, my Lord, we are told, under this head of probabilities to be
counted upon in our favour, that we may rely upon the fears of the Roman
catholic hierarchy and their supporters in the colony, respecting the
precedent of confiscation. It might be a sufficient answer to this argument,
that the facts stand as they are known to stand, respecting the action taken
by the ministry and the majority of the provincial parliament in Canada,
in the matter of the reserves — a ministry and a parliament composed of
mixed religious elements, with so large an infusion of Romanism, as, at the
very least, to balance the protestant interest ; and whether we look at
parties individually or collectively, the answer would hold good. It may
be conceded, however, that, in certain quarters, and to a certain extent,
these apprehensions do actually operate. But the wealth, the varied
resources, the numerical strength, the political ascendancy of the Romish
Church in Canada — above all, the system of policy pursued by the British
Government, by which that ascendancy has been nursed, can hardly have
failed to inspire the breasts of the Romish hierarchy and their followers with
a feeling of lofty and confident security, some evidences of which have very
unequivocally been manifested ; and if the sympathy of the Church of Rome,
upon grounds such as are here supposed, is to be indicated to us as our pro
tection, and to furnish a reason to the Home Government for our being
abandoned to our fate, it is a strange, and will be likely to prove a hollow,
reliance. 5. But, farther, it is argued that if the Church were stripped of her State
endowment, the development of the voluntary principle within her bosom
might be calculated upon for enabling her to do her sacred work. In all
the compass of the question, I do not know, on the side of our opponents,
a, weaker point than this. That it is the duty of the members of the Church

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 313
to contribute voluntarily and freely to the support of religion, is an
acknowledged and prominent principle of the Christian faith, which your
lordship will not suspect me of any disposition to impugn ; and that
among our own people in Canada their duty in this behalf will always be
recognized, is what I have the comfort to believe. But that the voluntary
system (passing wholly by the question of its liability to envelope certain
vicious influences in its operation, as the received and settled system of a
Church,) can possibly, in such a country as Canada, and specially in such
a diocese as my own, provide for all the wants of all the people, or effectu
ally minister the means of carrying out the Gospel principle that " to the
poor the Gospel is preached," this is what I emphatically deny. An
appeal is made to the case of the Church in the United States of America.
Unfortunately for the authors of that appeal, it is where the endowments
of the Church have been held sacred, and have become, in the progress of
things, exceedingly ample, that the Church in that country is seen most to
flourish and advance ; and thence, eminently, that an impulse has been
given to the Church throughout the Union. In general, it is for the paying
classes that the voluntary system is found to provide : the classes who
cannot pay, and the people who do not sufficiently value religion to be
prompted to pay for it, and who can only be brought to a sense of its value
by the actual ministrations of the Gospel, — these parties must shift as they
can without such ministrations, or be left to the precarious efforts of
casual charity and zeal.
Nothing can be more fallacious than the statistical exhibition, in this
behalf, of the provisions for public worship in the United States, the number
of places of worship furnishing there no sort of correct criterion of the
number of stated services performed. Buildings are run up here and there,
where services afterwards prove exceedingly scanty, or perhaps drop
altogether. And it appears in a striking manner, from recent annual
reports of the American Tract society, that in that rapidly advancing and
wonderfully prosperous country, there are districts after districts, visited
by the colporteurs of the society, of which the spiritual destitution is
perfectly appalling. In the portions of Canada occupied by settlers of the
Church of England, it is by extraneous help — the help of the great Church
societies at home, specially the society for the Propagation of the Gospel,
which cannot, of course, be a permanent provision — that the worship of
God has been maintained; and if the Church of England has, in many
instances, carried her ministrations for the benefit of emigrants in the
forest, and of fishermen along the rude shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
to places where no other protestant ministry has penetrated ; if she has,
alone among protestant bodies, met the call of the forlorn and suffering
strangers poured out by thousands, and literally dying by thousands in one
summer, at the quarantine station below Quebec, and has sacrified the lives
of her clergy in the cause ; if she has been ever ready with the succours
V

314 MEMOIR OF
of religion in prisons and pest-houses, and among the hovels of the poor
(all which could be easily shewn in a detail of facts), it is not by the
voluntary system that all this has been, or could have been done ; it has
been done, as I have said, in consequence of extraneous help, partly in the
shape of bounty from the society above mentioned, and partly in that of
certain limited allowances from Government which are fast dying out. In
my own diocese, there is no wealth anywhere in the hands of the Church
of England, except in Quebec itself, and nothing there which would be
called wealth in England ; in very many of the settlements occupied by
our people there is extreme poverty and a total absence of cash. At
this moment there are calls for clergymen which cannot be answered.
The supplies once withdrawn which come from a distance, the help which
the city can give abroad in the diocese, after providing for its own wants,
will scarcely produce even an alleviation of the spiritual exigencies of
helpless flocks. The country will, no doubt, advance ; but new settlements
will also spread themselves ; and if the small revenue derivable from the
reserves should be turned into other channels, the settlers who thirst in
vain for the waters of life will have to charge their privations upon the
authors and abettors of such a measure. It is with an ill grace, in my
humble apprehension, that the Home Government would become a party to
this alienation of our endowments, while the British Isles, year after year,
are still emptying upon our shores a distressed population, for whom we
are called upon to build churches and maintain ministers. Poor churches
enough ! and in a worldly sense, poor ministers they necessarily are.
6. I now come, in the last place, to the act 31 George III. cap. 31,
known by the name of the Quebec act, and the notice which I have to
take of it will be found, in one point of view, closely connected with the
observations last made. What was the real intention of the clause which
leaves it open, under certain guarding conditions, to the local legislature,
to vary or repeal the provisions of the act affecting the Church ? Simply,
in all fair and reasonable construction, that everything being then new in
the British establishment of the country, and it being impossible to foresee
with what population it might be filled up, or what might be the wants of
the Church within its limits, a margin was left for adaptation to unforeseen
contingencies. And what is the state of things now ? A quarter of a
million of souls of the Church of England in the country, the germ of an
enormous future population of the same faith, and now receiving its cease
less augmentation from the influx of emigrants, many of whom bring hands
to work with, and nothing more ; few, very few indeed, of whom are
persons of any substance in the world ; and this in a climate of which the
rigours create many additional wants, and abridge, at the same time, the
season open to the toils of husbandry.
It is a mistake, therefore, unless I am grievously mistaken in saying so,
to argue in favour of the contemplated spoliation from the clauses in

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 315
question of the act of 1 791 . And if we aue thrown back upon the wisdom
of our fathers in framing, at that day, the constitutions which were to
govern the ecclesiastical affairs of Canada, it would be well to consider, at
least, to what we should stand committed by this retrospective proceeding.
The Church of Rome would be declared not to possess the character of
establishment, that being, by royal declaration, a privilege reserved only to
our protestant Church of England. The clergy of this same protestant
Church would, under the act here in view (31 Geo. III. cap 31), in which
act the royal instructions, containing the declaration just mentioned, are
referred to and in part recited, be sufficiently indicated as the protestant
clergy contemplated in the said act, by having rectories, all over the land,
endowed out of the clergy reserves, according to the establishment of the
Church of England. The Bishops of the Church of Rome would, with all
tolerance of their functions among their own people, be officially recognized
simply as Superintendents of the Roman catholic Church in Canada.*
The convents would be subject to stated inspection by officers of the
protestant Government: the male Orders of monastics would be sup
pressed.! It cannot be supposed, for one moment, that I am invoking the
revival now of this order of things ; — that idea, if there were nothing else
to forbid it, would present a plain and glaring impossibility ; but if we
have recourse to the intentions of our fathers to guide us in the arrange
ments affecting ecclesiastical bodies in Canada, we ought, as I have said,
to see all to which we stand committed.
My Lord, I will not say that I have trespassed npon you too long, for
they are great and sacred interests which are at stake. And I might say
much more. I might shew, in opposition to remarks which are still heard
in different quarters, that the reserves present no obstruction to settlement,
and entail no inconvenience upon any portion of the population. I might
repel the statement, erroneous alike in principle and in fact, and repugnant "
to the spirit in which foreign America has acted towards the Church, that
the present value of the reserves has been created by the labour of the
Canadian people, and that, therefore, they have become a sort of popular
property. But I will now close these poor observations, which I commend
to your best indulgence, as I commend, in full confidence, the cause for
which I plead to your protection, and I close them by a remark which
must not expose me to a charge of meddling- with political questions, for I
• The head of the Roman catholic Church in Canada is now acknow
ledged by the Government as His Grace the Lord Archbishop of Quebec;
and his coadjutor assumes the style, in a public document — being- a formal
ratification by a court of law in a transaction of business, published in the
Government Gazette — of His Highness the Most Illustrious.
t By the terms of capitulation they were to die out.

316 MEMOIR OF
make it with a much higher import : If the introduction of the system of
responsible government into our colonial dependencies is to be understood
as establishing the principle that this great Christian empire abandons,
without exception or reservation, all check and control whatever over the
internal proceedings of those dependencies, then what, in the first place, is
the meaning of its being called an Empire ? — an empire within which those
dependencies are comprehended ? And if parties aggrieved by colonial
legislation, or other acts of colonial authority, can have no recourse, no
redress, under any circumstances whatever, by means of an appeal to the
mother country, then what, to suppose a ease, is to be done, if, as matters
proceed step by step, it should be judged proper in any colony to establish
the Inquisition ? I am, My Lord Bishop,
Your lordship's faithful humble servant,
and brother in the Gospel, G. J. Quebec.
The efforts of the Bishop and his friends were unavailing.*
A great number of persons, who were quite ready to admit
the justice of his cause and the force of his arguments, felt
themselves, nevertheless, obliged to vote for the bill on the
ground that it was unconstitutional for the Imperial Govern
ment to retain any control over colonial property in a country
which had received responsible government. They expressed,
at the same time, their conviction that it was only a question
of principle on the part of the Canadian Legislature, and that
if this principle were conceded, there could be no doubt of
their " deahng generously by the Church." The Bishop
however (as appears from the foregoing letter,) was unable
to see that the principle could be held to reach a question
which- had received a "final" settlement before the intro-
* I have abstained from any thing like a history of the Clergy Reserve
question, which had for many years been a fruitful source of occupation
and anxiety, because it may be gathered from public documents, and my
object has been chiefly to preserve what might otherwise be lost. Again
and again had the Bishop issued circulars, and drawn up petitions to the
legislature on the subject. With reference to one of these, he says, in 1852,
" Our voice is feebly heard in the tumult, but it does not become us to be
silent, and we must leave the issue to Him in Whose hands are the hearts
of men and the course of events."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 317
duction of responsible government into the colony; and
though the Executive Government of Canada proved to be
fully disposed to meet the claims which the act reserved of
life interests in the most liberal manner, the action of the
legislature very speedily verified the Bishop's anticipations
by secularizing the reserves.
With all the occupation that these two great subjects en
tailed, the Bishop made time to advocate the cause of the
S. P. G. and also that of the National Society at a great
many places in England, both by preaching and addressing
public meetings. The first meeting which he attended was at
Bath, where he was the guest of Mr. Markland, who had
been for many years one of the treasurers of the S. P. G.
In a note written soon afterwards, Mr. Markland speaks of
his " too short visit as a bright gleam" in his life. He was
particularly interested by another short visit to St. Au
gustine's College, when he went to Canterbury to attend
the funeral of Bishop Broughton. He delivered an address
to the students, and " gave to each of them the right hand of
fellowship, and, among them, to a negro from the West Indies,
a copper-coloured Hindoo, and an Esquimaux from the North
Pole." On another occasion, he assisted the Bishop of Oxford
at the consecration of a church and preached at his ordina
tion. The evening before, he had been requested to address
the candidates on the subject of the Canadian Church ; and
they all, " without the most distant hint on his part," offered
a sovereign each towards the completion of the chapel of
Bishop's College, Lennoxville. On one of his journeys he had
a most merciful escape ; the express train in which he was
travelling having been completely overturned, and the car
riage in which he sat so crushed in that the only space
left for the passengers was between the seats. Several
persons were killed on the spot. As soon as he reached his
journey's end, he went to the house of God to offer up public
thanks for his deliverance, which was also done in his behalf

318 MEMOIR OF
in the cathedral and St. Matthew's Chapel at Quebec, when
the news reached that city. Among the letters from Quebec
which he preserved at this time, is one which conveyed an
assurance which he deeply valued, that " many of the poor
people " prayed for him constantly. He had them ever in
his heart, and this feeling was thoroughly reciprocated. Refer
ring to his taking part, for the first time in his life, in the
consecration of a Bishop (the Bishop of Lincoln), although
no one rejoiced more to see a decent solemnity attaching to
such ceremonials, or was more alive to the real interest which
belongs to them, he says that he had rather have been at St.
Matthew's, or the Magdalen Islands, for " they are the kind
of work for me." He frequently attended committee meet
ings of different religious societies, and it may be easily con
ceived that, altogether, he had not much time upon his hands.
After the decision of the two great questions which had chiefly
occupied him, he was ready to return at once to his diocese,
but the principal of Bishop's College having been deputed to
visit England for the purpose 'of making an appeal on behalf
of that institution, he was requested to await his arrival, that,
together with the Bishop of Montreal who had also come to
England, they might concert such measures as seemed to be
necessary for the furtherance of this object. He took the
opportunity of this enforced leisure to pay some very flying
visits to some of his oldest friends, whom he was never more
to meet on earth, and even then he was continually preach
ing. Just before leaving England he attended an annual
gathering at Windsor of the friends of the Bishop of New
Zealand, and went to Oxford by invitation, on the occasion of
the installation of the Earl of Derby, to receive the honorary
degree of D. C. L. He was there the guest of the Master of
University College, to whose kindness to his son, who was a
member of the college, 8a well as to himself and other mem
bers of his family, he felt deeply indebted. Wherever he went
he was surrounded by the " excellent of the earth," by per-

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 319
sons of tastes and feelings entirely congenial to his own, and by
relatives and friends overflowing with kindness, who seemed to
desire no greater happiness than the enjoyment of his society.
The different scenes, too, and ceremonies in which he took
part, were all occasions of deep interest. His early associa
tions were revived with wonderful freshness. " Even the red
cloaks of the old women" in country villages gave him an
indescribable pleasure as something peculiarly English. It
was a special happiness to him to visit, among others, his
old tutor, Mr. Miller. The similarity of their tastes was as
great as ever, though the part of the country where his lot
was cast did not afford so great scope for their exercise as
mig'ht have been found elsewhere ; yet though (as Mr. Miller
had written long before, for during all that time he never had
changed, nor wished to change, his place) " this scenery will
not compensate perhaps, for that which we have seen and
rejoiced in together, I trust there is a disposition in us both
rather to make tastes and beauties where other and higher
duties fix our lot, than to run daintily after a lot which shall
minister to preconceived tastes. I trust I shall always love
old houses, moats, walnut trees, and rookeries and avenues
with peculiar feeling. But while we retain these sympathies
inviolate, we shall, I am persuaded, prove the identity of our
minds by more imperishable attachments which neither time
nor the axe can reach. And, indeed, it is in confidence of this
spiritual community that I look to the preservation of our
affections in their freshness, with all the Atlantic between
us." The lapse of upwards of thirty years from the date of
this letter (it was more than forty since they had met),
proved that their mutual affection had been built on a lasting
foundation, for the Bishop was received with a love and
veneration by Mr. Miller and all his family which were truly
refreshing to his spirit.

320 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER XXI.
Return home — Visitation of Gaspe' — Consecration of Fredericton cathe
dral — Opposition to measures for procuring synodical action — Pastoral
letter — Diocesan assembly — Visitation of the clergy.
The last meeting of colonial Bishops which the Bishop of Que
bec attended was held on the 20th June, and on the 25th he
embarked at Liverpool for Boston, en route to Quebec. Not
withstanding the happiness that he could not fail to derive from
his visit to England, he was impatient to be again at his own
proper work. His home was reached on the morning of Sunday,
10th July, and he preached the same day in his cathedral, as
well as at St. Matthew's chapel. In a brief notice of his visit
which was added to his sermon in the cathedral, he gave
hearty expression to the feelings of thankfulness which had
been stirred within him by the manifold improvements which
he had been permitted to witness in the condition and pros
pects of the Church in his native land. As soon as he had
been able to set in order the things that were wanting
by reason of his absence in the general administration of the
diocese, he began to make arrangements for completing the
visitation which his voyage had interrupted. His first mark
was the district of Gasp6, including the Magdalen Islands
to which his first visit after the establishment of a resident
missionary was now to be paid. He embarked at Quebec on
the 8th August in a small trading schooner, and after visiting
all the churches (of which three were consecrated as well as
four burial-grounds), and confirming one hundred and thirty-
two persons, crossed over to the islands in Her Majesty's

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 321
steamsloop Basilisk, which had been ordered by the admiral
of the station (Sir G. Seymour) to afford him every facility
in his movements consistent with the duty of protecting the
fisheries. The Admiral's orders were most effectually and
obligingly carried out by the commander of the Basilisk,
(Captain the Hon. Francis Egerton), who, though per
sonally a stranger to the Bishop, shewed him " no little
kindness," and every way " courteously entreated him."
The Bishop was glad to be able to render some return for
this kindness by repeatedly performing service on board the
Basilisk, as well as in a smaller vessel in which he spent one
night. The contrast between the vessel, as well as the society,
in which he now reached the islands, and those in which he
had approached them for the first time three years before
was sufficiently marked, and a similar contrast was presented
when he proceeded directly to the lonely dwellings of the
islanders to celebrate in them the offices of the Church, from
taking his part in the consecration of the cathedral at Frede
ricton, for which purpose he interposed a short visit to New
Brunswick between the visitation of the mainland of Gaspe-
and that of the islands. His visit to Fredericton was a source
of high and varied enjoyment, and his sermon preached on
the day of consecration evinced the lively interest with which
he had witnessed the wonderful advantages bestowed upon
his own early flock. He was greeted with no less warmth
and affection by his new-found friends at the Magdalen
Islands than by his old ones at Fredericton. Three confirma
tions were held, and sixty-one persons confirmed ; and one
church was found sufficiently advanced to admit of its use,
where three years before no protestant minister had ever
trodden. His heart was full of thankfulness and joy, and he
was enabled to sustain some considerable degree of bodily
exertion and exposure. For though the Basilisk conveyed
him to and from the islands, he shared, in his progress from
island to island, the accommodation of the boat of the intrepid

322 MEMOIR OF
missionary upon the spot, in whose company he spent one
night upon a sand-bank, on which they were cast by the
violence of a squall, sleeping peacefully on the sand, pro
tected from the falling rain by an umbrella held over him.
He was obliged to return to New Brunswick in order to reach
Quebec, which he did after an absence of seven weeks. It
was a subject of great regret that his absence had deprived
him of the pleasure of welcoming the deputation sent out by
the S. P. G. to attend the triennial convention of the Church
in the United States ; Bishop Spencer (late of Madras),
Archdeacon Sinclair, and the Rev. Ernest Hawkins. But
some compensation for this disappointment was afforded by a
brief visit paid to him soon after his return by his brother of
Fredericton. The happiness which such intercourse as he
then enjoyed and that which had refreshed his spirit in
England, and the thankful remembrance of his visit to the
Magdalen Islands, served as means to strengthen him to bear
what nevertheless was a bitter trial to his sensitive nature,
the malignant attacks which were at this time anonymously
poured upon him in the columns of a local paper by parties
hostile to the inauguration of synodical action within the
Church. This opposition, which was by no means confined
to Canada, but was fostered by so-called religious periodicals
at home, increased more and more, and was a source of con
tinual perplexity and distress, till it was quelled by the final
triumph of the cause of synodical action in the diocese in
1859. It pleased God, in His mercy, to carry His servant
through it all, though he suffered deeply in spirit from the
strife : yet, conscious of the singleness of his aim, he never
shrank for one moment, so far as his public acts were concerned,
from maintaining with all boldness the principles which he
believed to be those of the Church of England, and the
justice of the measures to which he had been a party for the
restoration of her synodical powers. While still engaged on
his visitation in the gulf, he found time to begin a pastoral

G, J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 323
letter to the clergy and laity of the diocese giving an account
of the object of his visit to England, and inviting them to meet
him for the purpose of conferring on the steps to be taken
in consequence of the failure of the Colonial Churches bill
in the imperial parliament. The pastoral was put forth soon
after his return to Quebec, and towards its close he thus
alludes to local difficulties :
" If I apprehended that the anti-church spirit which, to whatever con
fined extent among ourselves, has manifested itself in the agitation of these
questions would be infused, in any prevailing degree, into our delibera
tions, I should feel satisfied that it would be happier for us not to meet at
all ; as, again, if I anticipated that the same effect would be largely devel
oped by our being authorized to engage formally and legally in synodical
action, I should feel that it would be more advantageous for us to go without
it till we can be better taught in the school of Jesus Christ. But I bless God
that I think I know the temper of my diocese at large, of which, among
many other proofs, one eminently conspicuous was afforded in the earnest
and cordial dispositions of the meeting of our clergy and lay delegates
upon the subject of the clergy reserves in 1851 ; and as I am conscious
to myself that I shall meet these two bodies in no magisterial spirit, and
with the fullest sense of needing help and counsel at their hands, I am not
without an encouraging hope that some persons who have made a griev
ance of the course taken in this matter, only because they have misunder
stood it, may be brought, by the character and the result of our approaching
proceedings, to a different estimate of that course, and that others may
learn from us a new and happier spirit than that which before reigned
within their bosoms.
" A great many misapprehensions of our local church matters, a
great many false, and some most injurious, constructions of my own
proceedings have latterly been anonymously put about in this com
munity, of which I have not seen, I suppose, » tenth, perhaps not a
twentieth, part, and of which I should have seen none if they had not, in
some special instances, been brought under my eye by friends. I pray God
to forgive the authors of them, and to turn their hearts ; but I shall take
no other notice of them here than by applying to the case between these
masked assailants and myself, the words of an ancient Roman, which came
lately in my way : ' Varius ait Marcum, rv.gid pecunid corruplum, rempubli-
cam tradere* voluisse. M. Scaurus hinc culpce affinem esse negat ; utri
magis credendum putatis V
* One of the anonymous charges brought against the Bishop was that of
"betraying his diocese."

324 MEMOIR OF
" To those, however, who are accessible to the voice of their Bishop, I
would most earnestly and affectionately address the paternal charge that,
in all that now seems to be before us in the proceedings of the Church,
they will endeavour ' to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace ;'
and ' 0 pray for the peace of Jerusalem ; they shall prosper that love thee.!
For myself— let other parties do what they will, and assail the Church and
her guardians as they please — none of these things shall move me from my
course ; through evil report and good report I shall, by the help of God,
go on, so long as I may be yet spared in the administration of the diocese
and the instruction of the fold, acting upon the same principles by
which I have been guided from the first, and which are in harmony with
those of my two venerated predecessors in the see. But whatever be my
attachment to Church principles, I am identified with no party, properly so
called ; and I do know, within myself, that I breathe a spirit of peace
towards all, and hope the day may come when we shall be all united. I
pray, then, that in the present crisis of our affairs, we may, both among
ourselves and to all men, manifest, as the disciples of Christ, such a temper
of heavenly love as may tend to disarm the adversary and to heal the hurts
of Zion. We shall never cease to misunderstand one another, more or less,
so long as we are encompassed with the infirmities of the flesh ; we see but
darkly now with reference to things human, as well as to things divine ;
let it be our aim to prepare for that day when we shall see face to face ;
and let each of us, for himself, so prepare his own heart by the grace of
Christ, and so fulfil his own task, as remembering that 'every man's work
shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it.' "
On the 11th January, 1854, the clergy of the diocese
were assembled in visitation at the cathedral, accompanied by
a large number of lay delegates, of whom two had, at the
suggestion of the Bishop, been elected by all the congregations
of the diocese, except those in the district of Gaspe" who are
cut off, during the winter, from communication with Quebec.
After the visitation, a meeting of Bishop, clergy, and dele
gates was held, at which the utmost unanimity and harmony
prevailed, and it was resolved to petition the imperial parlia
ment for the passage of a measure to remove doubts as to the
legality of holding diocesan and provincial synods in the
colonies, and to endeavour to obtain the sanction of the local
legislature to the action of such synods. Other resolutions,
relating to the secularization of the clergy reserves, and the
evils resulting from the operation of the laws relating to

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 325
education and the solemnization of marriage were also passed.
Thirty-seven lay delegates were present, out of fifty-seven
who had been elected.
One or two extracts from the Bishop's charge are here
subjoined, as serving to shew the temper as well as the
principles with which he exhorted his clergy to meet the
difficulties of the times :
* * * " Men should be something more than men of the world —
something more than men of acute parts, established character, and
extensive information — to treat correctly and safely of matters involving
the right exercise of a divine commission, and the right application of
spiritual truths to the hearts of sinners. A heavenly discipline of the
mind, a carefully cherished light within the bosom, which has been kindled
from off the altars of the living God, an experimental knowledge of the
wants of fallen nature before God and the relief of those wants in Christ,
are what we sjiall all feel, I believe, to be necessary to a just discrimination
and an adequate appreciation of doctrinal differences relating to the
mystery of godliness. There is a certain tone of assumed superiority, a
certain self-satisfied spirit of sarcasm, pronouncing, as from a seat of
elevation, with an easy scorn and an ironical pleasantry upon the questions
under review, whether religious, political, or more general in their character,
which has become very fashionable among the writers, on whatever side,
for the periodical press, but which is often very shallow and ill-sustained
in its pretensions, usually in vicious taste, and always irreconcileable with
the spirit of Christian humility and love. » * * In genuine charity,
however, of spirit and of judgment towards our brethren of mankind, God
grant that we may be ' as broad* and general as the casing air.' And I do
trust that we are not chargeable with party-spirit and prejudice, because
we may feel ourselves compelled to stand aloof, when endeavours are made
to carry on the cause of the Gospel under the banner of what is called ' our
common protestantism.' * * * One prime, one prominent duty of the
Christian ministry is to watch jealously, constantly, and closely over the
soundness of the faith, as ' once delivered to the saints,' and its transmission,
in its unimpaired integrity as well as its unsullied purity, from age to age.
If this be true, it is evident that we cannot discharge our duty without
being exposed to the imputation of exclusiveness. * * * What we are
doing ourselves for' Christ, and what we are teaching with the effect of
bringing sinners to Him, these are the grand, the awful questions which we
* Reference had been just made to the use of the term " broad " then
recently introduced as describing a party in the Church.

326 MEMOIR OF
must invariably bring home to our bosoms. 0 ! it will be to little purpose
that we boast an apostolic ministry — to little purpose that we glory in the
beauty and primitive character of our liturgy, in the orderly and chastened
solemnity of all our venerable forms— to little purpose that we are found
straining, after our ability, to clothe with all due and reverential effect the
material sanctuary of our worship — to little purpose that we exhibit ever
so dutiful and, in itself, laudable conformity to rubrics and rules — to little,
little purpose if, in the meantime, we are not faithfully feeding the sheep of
Christ, watching and praying, hour by hour, for the souls committed to us,
working, in humble imitation of our Divine Master, ' while it is day,' in
remembrance that ' the night cometh when no man can work,' the night of
that grave in which there is neither ' work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor
wisdom,' and our small distance from which, at best, prescribes the lesson
with special solemnity to us who are engaged in the ministry of the Gospel,
1 whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.' * * * We
ought to correct the prevalent ideas that preaching consists only in the
delivery of sermons, and that preaching, in this exclusive sense, is the sum
and substance of the purposes of attendance upon the house of God. And
yet how important, how tremendously important, and how gloriously too,
is the task of preaching in this popularly-received acceptation of the word.
We stand in the pulpit, ' the legates of the skies,' the messengers of the
Most High, the ambassadors for Christ, pleading with men, in Christ's
stead, to be reconciled to God. We have before us, for example, in all
congregations, stray members of the Saviour's flock, prodigal sons of the
Father of all, thoughtless beings unprepared for the eternity which is
advancing upon them, the good seed choked within them by the cares
and riches and pleasures of this passing life, their hearts and affections
alienated from God, and we stand there to awaken them from their fatal
lethargy by returning the echo of that voice which speaks from heaven,
warning them, on the one hand, that ' it is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the living God,' winning them, on the other, by the accents of
divine compassion and the overtures of Gospel love. How ought we, in
the execution of such a task, while we keenly feel our own utter unwortbi-
ness and incompetency in ourselves, how ought we to rise above the torpor
of worldly influences, and the laggardness of the flesh! What earnestness,
what fervent unction, ought to be infused into the delivery of the Christian
preacher, and how immeasurably ought he to be removed, at the same time,
from all feelings which minister to the gratification or glory of self, from
all the dangerously ensnaring love of human praise, from all pandering to
itching ears, from all adaptation of himself to the predilections of this or
that party in religion, of this or that favouring or flattering circle. * * *
There are men who, with a purified eye to the glory of God alone, and in
a. severe repudiation of all meretricious ornament, ambitious effort, or
popular trick, contract and even systematically cultivate a certain coldness

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 327
and dryness both of language and delivery — one of the pre-eminent faults
of our Church, and one which has contributed to her losing not a few of
her children — which, constituted as human beings are, will always be a
hindrance to the appeal which they have to carry to their hearers' hearts.
The gravity and dignity of the pulpit ought indeed to be never com
promised, and the arts of the actor or the demagogue can only profane
the place ; but if it would please God to gift us all for our work like
Apollos, who was ' an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures,' we
should combine two chief requisites for effectually preaching the Gospel_
» * » Restriction to written discourses is apt to have a bad effect upon
the manner — the restriction to'extemporaneous delivery (which is much
worse) upon the matter of men, and bodies of men, who discharge their
part in the pulpit."

328 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER XXII.
Re-appearance of cholera at Quebec in 1854 — Visit to New York — Com
pletion of triennial circuit — St. Michael's chapel — Death of Colonel
Mountain — Lieutenant J. G. Mountain.
The summer of 1854 was marked by a fresh visitation of
the cholera at Quebec, which served as before to call forth
the self-denying zieal of the Bishop, who for some time, during
the disablement of the chaplain of the marine and emigrant
hospital, took the charge of that institution. It was also
marked by one of those opportunities which always gave him
so much pleasure, of intercommunion with the Episcopal
Church in the United States. At the invitation of the Pro
visional Bishop of New York, he paid a visit to that city for
the purpose of preaching at a large ordination in Trinity
Church, and on his return was accompanied by Bishop Wain-
wright as far as Montreal, where they both officiated and
preached. It was the first time that the Bishop of Quebec
had done so in Montreal since the division of the diocese,
four years before, and he had not visited New York for nearly
thirty years. It was arranged that Bishop Wainwright should
pay a visit to Quebec to plead the cause of the Church
Society in the autumn, but very shortly before the time
appointed for it, his unlooked-for and lamented decease
deprived his brother of the opportunity of farther intercourse
on earth.
The triennial visitation of the diocese, which had been
partially interrupted by the Bishop's visit to England in

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 329
1853, was completed, by extensive journeyings both in sum
mer and winter, and its statistical results are given as follows :
Ordinations, five ; (priests, six; deacons, four ;*) confirma
tions, forty-two; persons confirmed, nine hundred and eighty-
seven ; churches consecrated, twelve ; burying-grounds, seven.
There is also a note of four hundred and thirty-two sermons
preached, of which one hundred and sixteen were written,
and three hundred and sixteen extemporaneous addresses
of a more familiar kind. Three were preached in Atlantic
steamers, twenty-nine in England, three in vessels of war,
four in New Brunswick, and two in Montreal.
Within his own parish of Quebec a new chapel was opened
at the close of 1854, the chancel of which was built at the
expense of the Bishop, as a memorial of his younger son,
Lieutenant Jacob George Mountain, of the twenty-sixth Came-
ronians, who had died at Gibraltar in 1850, in the twenty-fifth
year of his age. The Bishop's brother, Colonel Armine S.
H. Mountain, who had commanded the same regiment , was a
sharer in this work, but before the foundation-stone was laid,
he had himself been laid to rest at a still greater distance
from the birthplace of his nephew and himself. The names
of both, as well as of the only other child of the first Bishop
of Quebec (with the exception of one who died in infancy)
who was a native of Canada, and who was also a most liberal
contributor towards the erection of this chapel, have since
been inscribed under stained windows in the chancel. The
death of- Colonel Mountain was a heavy affliction to the
Bishop, (though more than lightened by the knowledge of
his happy and peaceful end,) particularly as it came upon
him at a time of unusual perplexity and distress of mind, and
of bodily indisposition. And yet, even at the first, he thought
more of his sister than of himself. Just after hearing of his
loss he wrote :
* Two deacons were ordained for the diocese of Quebec by other Bishops.
W

330 MEMOIR OF
" Two brothers never loved each other better than your uncle A. and I.
It has pleased God to cut off my hope of ever seeing him again in this
world. I copy what your uncle J. says : ' Our dear brother Armine is
with his Saviour. He died of fever, after a few days' illness, on the 8th
February. He suffered no pain, and was tranquil and conscious to the last.
His expiring words were, — ' peace, pardon, salvation.' My poor sister C,
weak and shattered as she is, and bound up in him, and constantly familiar
with the proofs of his tender affection, cannot, humanly speaking, long
survive this blow, but God can strengthen heT, if He see good, according to
her need. The three of my father's children who have gone in years of
maturity were all younger than myself. In the few years, at best, remain
ing to me, I must only pray and hope that I be not unfaithful. My work
grows very complicated, and the different offices which I hold embarrass
me by their united claims. At this moment I do not see my way through
all the arrangements to be made either for diocese or parish. But if we
conscientiously do the. best we can with the means at our disposal, and
decide all questions which perplex us with a single eye, we must leave the
issue to God Himself. * * * Your mother is of course in sorrow, but
she has a disciplined Christian mind."
I may here fitly introduce some fuller notice of the event
referred to in connection with the foundation of the chapel at
Sillery, though it carries us back to the year 1850. I was
unwilling to interrupt my narrative of the important public
events of that year by any details of private history, which I
have accordingly reserved for this place. And perhaps I
cannot here more appropriately recur to the loss of the only
one of the Bishop's children* who grew up to manhood, and
did not survive him, than by introducing a letter from his
brother, written from India in reference to that event, in
August, 1850 :
" Little did I dream, my dearest brother, when I sent you, in reply to
your kind letter of March, u long, gossiping epistle, that I was sending it
to the house of mourning ; little did I dream, when I complained of not
hearing from our young soldier, that he was in that mysterious world from
which no missive can reach us ! Most truly and deeply do I sympathize
with you and with the afflicted mother I Heavy is the hand of our God
upon you. He alone can send you comfort, and He will I I feel for you in
my inmost heart, and know that my loss, compared with yours, is light.
* Mentioned at the close of chapter xiv., p. 224.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 331
Yet I mourn, too, for myself. Jacob has left but one other of our name
and kindred in the British army. He was the only one in my branch of
my profession ; of all my nephews and nieces the only one with whom I
corresponded ; the only one with whom, since their childhood, I have been
at all associated ; one who was much attached to me. I was to him, poor
fellow, for four years, a strict and exacting chief, but I believe he gave me
credit for having his interest at heart, and I, vain worm, looked forward to
the day when he should be again my companion in arms. I believe that
you may look back upon his brief career with unmingled satisfaction. I
never saw nor heard of any participation on his part in any of the vices
or follies of his fellow-soldiers. His affection for his parents and brother
and sisters was predominant in his breast, never absent from him, and I
never saw nor heard of any departure on his part from the lessons of his
home. I shall dwell a little on his professional career, as, although you
live in a, garrison town, you do not, perhaps, exactly feel as I do the
importance of the situation which he held. His career embraced a period
of about seven years and a half. He was actually serving with his regi
ment about six years and a half, out of which he was just four years adju
tant, never absent from his duty, I may almost say, an hour. To pass
through Dublin as an adjutant, to serve as such under three successive
sharp commanders requires a thorough knowledge of professional details ;
the youngster possessed this ; and though neither I nor Colonel  are
men to allow the adjutant to command the regiment, as too many colonels
virtually do, an adjutant must always have greater power of good and
evil, a more immediate influence over the mass of a regiment than any
other officer except the commander, greater opportunities of giving pleasure
and pain. How our poor boy acted under these circumstances shall appear.
He devoted himself to the regiment; he did his duty, and did it well and-
strictly, but he never lost an occasion of doing an act of kindness, of work
ing upon men by their better feelings, of extending charity to those in need.
Had he been an A.D.C., and well spoken of, I should not value it a but
ton. It might be that he carved a ham well, or was a%favourite with his
general's wife's lap-dog. Had he been a D. A. Adjutant or Quartermaster
General, and much bepraised, I would not give a brass farthing for it. It
might be that he wrote a good hand, and was obsequious to the head of his
department. But when a lad, after four years' continued service as an
adjutant under three commanders, dies repected by all, lamented by non
commissioned officers and men ; when we find that his commanding officer
was quite cast down, that his brother-officers mourned, that many of the
soldiers cried like children, that poor women whom he had assisted grieve
at the news of his death (this is what I hear from Gibraltar, from more
than one undoubted source) we may believe, without fear of mistake, that
he was a good and faithful soldier, and a right-minded and kind-hearted
man. The staff is the post for show, for amusement, and in truth (though

332 MEMOIR OF
so it should not be) for advancement. The regimental career is the pro
fession of arms, that in which a true reputation is earned; and the appoint
ment of adjutant is that in which a young man is tried and called forth,
and shews what is in him. I say not this, because I had any hand in his
training * * * but it is my deliberate view of the profession in which
my life has been passed, and I think it must be some consolation to you
to feel, as without flattery you may, that through the power of the principles
which you instilled into him and his own good disposition, a lad, natur
ally too sensitive and full of misgivings, succeeded in a difficult and promi
nent situation into which he was early thrown, holding his own with his
superiors and equals, and obtaining, in no common degree, the attachment
of his subordinates, at the same time that we may believe that he walked
steadfastly with his God and Saviour. My friend Colonel — of the
Grenadier Guards says : ' I have rarely met with a young person who so
much engaged one's regards as poor J. Mountain, so unassuming, yet so
manly, so gentlemanlike.' A brother officer writing from Gibraltar, says
1 He is now at rest, and many an older man would be glad at his last
moment to be as ready to answer his last roll-call as he was. He was a
thorough soldier, and at the same time, a thorough Christian.'" Colonel
Mountain adds, " You must pardon my professional weakness. I aimed to
make him a thorough soldier and I love to think he was so — though
besides the other, nothing."
I may, indeed, seem to have gone beyond the object of
this memoir in giving this extract, but it serves to shew the
effect of home-training, as well as the weight of the trial,
though reheved by the highest comfort, which the Bishop was
called upon to bear. And for the same reasons, I venture to
add one or two briefer extracts. The Chief Justice of Gib
raltar, in writing to announce the young officer's death, said :
" Your agonized hearts will be consoled, under God's blessing, by the
assurance which your knowledge of your dear boy's character and conduct
will afford of his fitness, through his Saviour's merits, for the great event
which, though it has befallen him thus soon, has not, through God's mercy
found him unprepared : * * * the chaplain has assured me that he was
in the best possible tone of mind. He said himself, what all the officers
of his regiment bear testimony to, that he had always been a constant
suppliant for grace at his Lord's table, the whole merit of which he was
always attributing to parental influence. Of the benefit which he derived
from, this cause he was always speaking to the chaplain. * * * Lady
C, who saw more of him than I did, was particularly struck with, and early
remarked to me, the religious tone of his mind, as so different from that of
most of his age."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 333
The colonel in command of the regiment wrote :
" It is with profound and heartfelt sorrow I have to announce the melan
choly intelligence of the death of your excellent and amiable son. * * *
We followed him to the grave with sorrowing hearts, and it will be a con
solation to you to know that he possessed the esteem and affection of every
individual in the regiment. I cannot find words to express the depth of
my own grief on this sorrowful occasion, suffice it to say, that I shall long
deplore his loss. His merit as an officer was of the highest order, and his
many virtuous and amiable qualities endeared him to all who had the
happiness to know him, and to none more than to myself."
Another officer wrote, that he was known constantly to
read the Bible and pray, and " was not ashamed to own it."
The loss of such a son, whose absence from home had
specially endeared him to his parents, could not but be a
sore trial to the Bishop, particularly as it came upon him
without any preparation. The intelligence reached him just
as he had landed on the coast of Gaspe" from the Magdalen
Islands, his only surviving son having gone to meet him for
the purpose of carrying it to him. He was enabled, however,
to carry on his work without interruption, though deeply
anxious for those who were left in his afflicted household.
But he had had sufficient experience of the manner in which
she who shared his parental grief had been sustained under
the deepest sorrows (experience abundantly confirmed by
her most touching letters written at this very time), to be
able to commit her and all belonging to him to the hands
of a merciful Providence. The manner in which he was
always able to do this in his long and often trying separa
tions from his home was to the last most remarkable in one
whose domestic ties and affections were so strong. This
affliction seemed to serve only to strengthen those ties, while
he cherished with the utmost tenderness the remembrance of
his "precious boy," many most affecting instances of which
might be here introduced, if they were not too sacred for
public gaze. At the risk of seeming, perhaps, to violate this
sacredness, I cannot forbear from adding an expression of

334 MEMOIR OF
his feelings, because, in more ways than one, specially charac
teristic, from the beginning of a manuscript book in which his
beloved son had recorded some of his private thoughts :
" 0 my son J., my son, my son, my son J  ! Would
God that I had died for thee ! 0 J  , my son, my son !
Yet I must not speak so ! for it is more needful for others
that I than that he should abide in the flesh. And, blessed
be God, he was no Absalom, nor taken unprepared. When
I shall go to him, may I be as prepared as he was, whose
dear remains the rock of Gibraltar holds in deposit against
the last great day ! His hand, before it was stiff in death,
traced the thoughts in this book, and his humble and contrite
spirit, which dictated them, has passed into Paradise, washed
from all its stains. And there is a Book in which his name
is written, even the Lamb's Book of Life."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 335

CHAPTER XXIII.
Seventh triennial circuit — Illness — Visitation of the clergy — Visits of the
Bishop of Rupert's Land and of American Bishops — Commencement of
eighth triennial circuit — Obstacles to the advance of the Church — New
missions — Correspondence with S. P. G.
The seventh triennial circuit of the diocese was begun early
in 1855, when, for the first time in his life, the Bishop had
recourse for that purpose to railway travelling. It did not
however, serve to expedite his movements, for he was detained
within sight of Quebec at the commencement of his journey,
for about twenty-seven hours, by a violent snow-storm which
entirely blocked up the line. A similar detention occurred
at the close of the journey, when he again took the train.
He was absent from Quebec, in the district of St. Francis,
exactly a month, during which twelve confirmations were
held and two hundred and thirteen persons confirmed, two
churches consecrated, nineteen sermons preached, and five
persons baptized, four of whom were adults and the fifth one
of his own grandchildren. The journeyings were renewed
in May, August, and September, when three more churches
were consecrated, and sixty-six persons were confirmed at six
places in the French part of the country. Two hundred and
twenty-six had been confirmed at Quebec at Easter. During
this summer, the Bishop was for some time disabled from
duty by a very severe attack of influenza, and spent some
time, for the sake of change of air which had been recom
mended to him, with his son who had taken charge of the qua-

336 MEMOIR OF
rantine station. He beguiled some sleepless nights by putting
his thoughts into verse, of which a specimen is here subjoined :
0 hard and thankless heart of mine !
How blest, if in these weary hours,
My soul could dwell on things divine,
With all her concentrated powers 1
How blest, if like the Psalmist king, (a)
My waking thoughts I felt to rise,
And seek, with unencumbered wing,
A cloudless region in the skies !
Vile earthly vapours, dull and dense,
How long must I your torpor feel ?
0 Saviour, to my darkened sense
The fulness of Thy love reveal.
I know Thee, bright and morning star, (ft)
I own Thee for my only guide ;
But ah I I view Thee from afar,
Between are waters rough and wide.
Hold up, hold on, thou laggard faith ;
The Saviour walks the waters still ;
No phantom vain, no shadowy wraith, (c)
Powerful in presence (d), prompt in will.
0 no, I will not, will not say,
From me, a sinful man, depart ; (e)
The sinner's hope, the sinner's stay,
I claim Thee with believing heart.
Lost in myself, in Thee I live,
Poor, wretched, helpless, naked, blind, (/)
Some largess to Thy suppliant give,
Some salve, some covering let me find. (/)
0 gold, which only makest rich ! (/)
0 pearl beyond all earthly price I (g)
Say, shall the world their souls bewitch,
Whose treasure hangs in Paradise ? (A)
(a) Ps. xlii. 8, lxiii. 6, cxix. 55, 147, 148, cxxx. 6 ; (b) Rev. xxii. 16 ;
(c) St. Matt. xiv. 26 ; (d) St. Luke v. 17 ; (e) St. Luke v. 8 ; (/) Rev. iii.
17, 18 ; cf. Is. Iv. 1 ; (g) St. Matt. xiii. 46 ; (A) St. Matt. vi. 20.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 337
Soon shall be closed this feverish dream,
Worn through this (a) " mingled yarn " of life ;
Tried by stern test the things which seem,
Fought out of good and ill the strife.
A rest remains, a heavenly rest ; (6)
No death, no pain, no sorrowing sigh ; (c)
Chased every care from every breast,
Wiped every tear from every eye. (c)
The day is near, far spent the night ; (d)
Christ will His followers' place prepare ; (e)
The Lord our everlasting light,
Our God shall be our glory there. (/)
Early in 1856 he was again journeying, and in the summer
of that year paid his seventh episcopal visit to Gaspe", accom
panied by Professor Thompson, of Bishop's College, who will
forgive me for making public the impressions which the inter
course he enjoyed on this as well as other occasions served
to fix in his mind :
"My acquaintance with your beloved father commenced only a few years
back, yet beyond the circle of my own immediate relations there is no
figure which occupies so large a space in the field of memory as his. How
many pleasant days of travel together ; how many lovely spots of Canadian
scenery to which he first drew my attention ; how much cheerful conversa
tion ; how much valuable counsel ; what instances of Christian gentleness
and humility, and of diligence in his great Master's work come crowding
on the mind when I think of him that is gone 1 Never, I may safely say,
have I felt for any one more thorough respect and reverence and love than
for him."
They journeyed down the Kempt road, which was still a
matter of difficulty and fatigue, and were obliged to return
through New Brunswick to insure their being in time for the
convocation of Bishop's College in September. This afforded
another opportunity for valued intercourse with the Bishop
(a) " The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together ;"
All's well that ends well— Act IV. s. 3 ; (5) Heb. iv. 9 ; (c) Is. xxv. 8,
xxxv. 10; Rev. vii. 17, xxi. 4; (d) Rom. xiii. 12 ; (e) St. John xiv. 2;
(/) Is. lx. 19.

338 MEMOIR OF
of Fredericton, who soon followed his brother to Quebec, to
take part in the consecration of St. Michael's Chapel, men
tioned in. the foregoing chapter. As this was the last time
that they were permitted to meet on earth, I may here
properly give an extract from a letter of the Bishop of
Fredericton, written early in 1863 :
" I never saw one to whom I could more look up with veneration and
respect and affection, and we shall ne'er look upon his like again. I shall
never forget his visits to me, and each time have longed for a repetition of
the blessing."
In the course of this journey the Bishop of Quebec experi
enced an attack which weakeried him very much for some
time afterwards, and in the following winter he was again
visited with very severe suffering, from which, however, he
gained sufficient relief to be enabled to visit the missions
in the district of Quebec before the spring. He was naturally
very sensitive to pain, and I well remember his reproaching
himself by referring to the sufferings of the Cross, when
tempted to shrink under a surgical operation. A renewed
attack of the same kind in the early summer caused great
uneasiness to his friends, and prevented his attendance and
the delivery of his charge at the visitation of the clergy held
on St. Barnabas' day, 1857. The clergy presented him
with an affectionate address after they had met, by his desire,
to confer together on the steps necessary to be taken under
the Act of the provincial legislature, which had this year
been obtained for the removal of the disabilities which were
supposed to hinder the free synodical action of the Church.
By the blessing of God on the means used, and a change of
air (for he removed again to the house of his son, near St.
Michael's chapel,) the Bishop was so far restored' as to be
able to hold an ordination at St. Michael's on St. Peter's
day, and immediately afterwards to attend the convocation
of Bishop's College. He was obliged, however, to abstain
during the summer from nearly all public duties, and to

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 339
spend some weeks in the neighbourhood of salt water, from
whence he came up to his son's house, in the end of August,
to welcome the Bishop of Rupert's Land, who visited Quebec
on his way from England to his own diocese. Referring to
this visit in a charge (dedicated to him " who was, in a manner,
its first Bishop "), Bishop Anderson says :
" It was delightful to notice the warmth with which he made minute
enquiry after many here, and the deep anxiety which he manifested for the
progress of the Church in this land. The recollection of his wanderings in
the western wilderness is, he seems to feel, a bright and sunny spot in the
memory of the past."
And in a private letter written in 1863, he thus alludes to
his intercourse with him :
" It was with deep feeling and emotion that I saw the account of the
eaceful departure of your good and revered father. Very pleasant are my
jcollections of the hours spent in his society during my visits to Quebec
l 1857 and 1860. Inclined even beforehand to look to him as a son to a
ither, from his former association with this country and the work in this
uiocese, I found this feeling only deepened by personal intercourse and the
familiar friendship with which he favoured me. And now I think of his
end, as of his life, as almost to be envied, if it were ours to appoint the
manner of the approach of death. . Your sorrow is swallowed up
in the thought of the honour and affection in which his name and memory
will be embalmed^throughout the Churches of Canada, even throughout
the Church of Christ. I write with the portrait of his meek and gentle
face on the wall by my side. You have that face and the lineaments of
the soul and inner life more deeply imprinted on your hearts. ... My
sister shared in the deep reverence and affection which all felt in approach
ing your good father. Nor is this feeling limited to ourselves in this settle
ment. I alluded to it in preaching the Sunday after I received the tidings
of his death, and all now recall their recollections of his tall figure, his
engaging manner, his various sermons, and confirmation addresses. All
speak of him with fond affection and regret."
The Bishop of Quebec had later in this year the pleasure
of greeting two of his brother prelates of the sister Church in
the United States, the Bishops of Massachusetts and Vermont,
the latter of whom came to Quebec by invitation, to preach
at the reopening of the cathedral in November, which had

340 MEMOIR OF
been closed for several months for- painting and repairs. The
Bishop of Indiana had favoured him with a visit in 1856.
His health was so far reestablished as to admit of his holding
an ordination in September, and undertaking a confirmation
tour early in October, through some of the roughest parts of
the county of Megantic, where he held eight confirmations,
and consecrated two churches and four burial-grounds. His
first sermon addressed to the cathedral congregation after his
illness was preached from the text : "To me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain." A sermon which he preached
shortly afterwards to the same congregation on the fast-day
for the Indian mutiny was published by desire. The journey
just mentioned brought to a close the triennial circuit of the
diocese, in which nine hundred and thirty-five persons had been
confirmed on fifty-five occasions, twelve churches and seven
burial-grounds consecrated, and five deacons and five priests
ordained at six ordinations. The number of churches conse
crated included the chapel of Bishop's College, in July, 1857.
The erection of this chapel had been a long-cherished object
with the Bishop, and its consecration was an occasion of great
thankfulness. The Bishop of Maine preached the consecra
tion sermon.
Early in 1858 he was again travelling, visiting the missions
in the St. Francis district, and holding sixteen confirmations,
three of which were in places where the rite had never before
been administered. Part of the district of Quebec was visited
for the same purpose in June, and the district of Three Rivers
in August. Ordinations were held at Lennoxville on Trinity
Sunday, and at Quebec at the ember-seasons in September,
and December. Another was held at Quebec on the feast
of the Epiphany, 1859, when a deacon who had been pre
vented, by the effects of an injury he had received, from
coming forward at Christmas was advanced to the priesthood.
Towards the close of 1858, the present rector of Quebec suc
ceeded the Rev. Official Mackie, who had for family reasons

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 341

returned to England, as assistant minister of the cathedral,
and the Bishop appointed his friend, Mr. Wood, examining
chaplain. There is no record of the consecration of churches
during this year, nor indeed during the triennial circuit which
began with it, except of the chapel within the marine hospital
at Quebec. The gradual withdrawal of aid from home was
beginning to produce its effects. Not only had the S. P. G.
been obhged altogether to discontinue the practice of making
grants for churches, but the diminution of its missionary
allowances created a local demand which was felt to be of
paramount importance. The efforts of the Church were
directed to the maintenance of the existing body of clergy,
and new undertakings seemed to be beyond her reach. The
Bishop, however, felt so urgently the need of opening some
additional missions, that he proposed in 1858 to devote ,£200
a year, for five years, to that purpose, on condition that the
Church Society should meet it with an equal amount. The
mission of Danville was at once opened by this means, as well
as that of Hopetown in the district of Gaspe" ; and mission
aries were afterwards placed at Barford, Acton, and Bourg
Louis. The question of the maintenance of the clergy was
daily becoming more important and sometimes distressing.
The absolute determination of the S. P. G. to reduce its
grants upon the occurrence of every vacancy created great
difficulties in filling up such vacancies, and in effecting changes
which were for the manifest advantage of the Church. The
Bishop urged the claims of his diocese with all earnestness,
and, at the same time, his desire for the completion of an
arrangement which had been proposed in 1852, for committing
the distribution of the society's missionary grant to some
responsible body within the diocese, which he suggested
should consist chiefly, if not exclusively, of laymen, by whom
some mitigation of these difficulties might be secured. Several
minor obstacles had, however, to be overcome, and details to
be arranged in correspondence carried on across the Atlantic,

342 MEMOIR OF
so that it was not till 1862 that the plan was really carried
into operation, by the establishment of a diocesan board com
posed of members of the synod and the Church Society,
acting in concert with the Bishop.
The manner in which these diffiulties weighed upon the
Bishop's mind may be seen by the following little note refer
ring to a letter drawn up by his desire to announce to the
churchwardens of a certain mission the necessity for dimin
ishing the supply of service, on account of the failure of the
congregations to do what was required of them towards the
maintenance of the clergyman.
"Dearest A., — I have signed the letter, and feel something like King
Charles when he signed the death-warrant of Strafford. Our people are not
ripe for the self-supporting system; and we cannot— I am sure I cannot —
carry on the Church upon that principle. I hope it may please God to
look upon us and open some unlooked-for way of deliverance from our
difficulties. Every thing at present looks very, very black, and synods, I
am afraid,-will do little to help us. But I must not forget my own maxim,
'Oraetlabora.'" But though he was thus reluctant to resort to measures of
severity, and felt strongly the peculiar difficulties of his own
poor and scattered diocese, he had all along maintained the
principle on which the S. P. G. was acting as one which it was
the plain duty of all concerned to adopt whenever circum
stances should render it practicable. So long ago as in 1837,*
he had himself suggested that no missionary allowance should
exceed £100 sterling a year, and that it should be made
* In 1834 he had drawn up a circular for Bishop Stewart, on the occa
sion of the reduction of the grants of the S. P. G., caused by the withdrawal
of the parliamentary vote. This circular " containing much wholesome
counsel, and pointing out the sources from which the endowment of the
Church must be ultimately derived, not only lays it down as a principle
that the colonial Church must depend mainly upon its own resources, in
the voluntary gifts and offerings of the people, but suggests a convenient
mode of gathering those contributions." • See Annals of the diocese of
Quebec, Appendix B, p. 316.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 343
conditional on the performance by the people, in each locality,
of their part towards a proper maintenance for their minister.
The difficulties of enforcing this rule, though it was never, lost
sight of, in the case of newly-formed settlements were almost
insuperable, and the society had been always willing, " to its
power, yea, and beyond its power," to provide them with the
ministrations of religion. For many years no application for
the establishment of new missions had been refused ; the great
difficulty had been that of finding men for the work. In
April, 1841, the Bishop submitted to the society a "plan
for drawing out local contributions," one feature of which was
that " the clergy should not be directly dependent upon the
people," and proposed that, " in places where the congrega
tions were decidedly able to do something in this way and fail
to do so (if any such cases should occur) the missionary
should be transferred to some unprovided settlement, till they
should be brought to evince a more correct appreciation of
their blessings." This he thought "would have a good effect,
and yet it would be hard upon the poorer inhabitants upon
the same spot." He urged, at the same time, the import
ance of securing, whenever possible, some moderate endow
ment, and the society for some few years made a grant of
£1000 annually for this object, which was invested in the
purchase of glebes. In the same letter he thus states the
wants which pressed upon him on every side :
» Of eighteen new missions asked for in July, 1839, which the society
unhesitatingly undertook, barely one-half are established, for want of men,
while the demand still grows, the cry still swells from destitute settlements ;
the applications and complaints (for the Church is supposed to have the
means regularly at her command, as may be required) of the people still
pour in upon us from new quarters or from old."
Soon after this date the increasing demands upon the
society compelled it to restrain its liberality, though the
wants of the diocese had not been met.
In April, 1845, the Bishop wrote, " I must not hope for
the opening of new missions till it pleases God (and for the

344 MEMOIR OF
sake, not only of Canada, but of all the dependencies of the
Empire, I fervently pray Him, for Christ's sake, to speed
the day) to enlarge the resources of the society." In the
following year, however, the clergy reserves having become
available, the society undertook to provide a reduced rate of
salary for ten additional missionaries. But a reduction in
•its expenditure having become imperatively necessary, the
invariable rule was adopted, about six years later, of cutting
down the amount and limiting the duration of its grants on
the occurrence of every vacancy. This rule pressed very
severely on the poorer missions (where changes were naturally
the most frequent) while the wealthier were not compelled to
contribute towards the support of the ministry. The opera
tion of this system presented so great a hindrance to the
growth of the Church, and made it so apparent that the dio
cese was not in a condition to meet great and indiscriminate
reductions, that the Bishop's strong remonstrances could not
be withheld. In December, 1853, he urged as a " plea for
not cutting down," the difference, which he conceived to be
too much lost sight of, in the material prosperity of Upper
and Lower Canada respectively, shewing that while, in 1851,
the wheat crop in the former yielded 15.33 bushels for each
inhabitant, in the latter the proportion was only 3.46minots;"
and the settlers being, with scarcely an exception, dependent
for subsistence on their agricultural produce, this calculation
was a valid argument in his favour. A similar calculation as
to the relative value of the clergy reserves in the two provinces
exhibited a similar result. He described a visit which he had
recently paid to a backwoods mission, " a poverty-stricken
place," where he entered a log hut (and it may be pre
sumed that the Bishop was not invited to one of the very
poorest) where the poultry raised for the Quebec market had
their share of accommodation in the single room of which the
building consisted. Some flat barley cakes were then put
before the missionary and himself, with a cup of tea lacking

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 345
all accompaniment of sugar or milk. He was careful to add
that " every thing was clean and the people were kind."
Again, in January, 1856, in a letter (most of which was
printed by the S. P. G.) written with reference to some
particular reductions, he describes the general state of the
diocese in the following terms :
Additional number of clergy required from extent of country. — I. In
the first place, the enormous extent of country over which our Church
population is scattered in this diocese, — the Magdalen Islands in the Gulph
being nearly six hundred miles below Quebec, and the frontier townships
in the St. Francis district about one hundred and fifty above it, — necessi
tates, unless our poor feeble flocks are to be left absolutely to the wolf, the
maintenance of a body of clergy which may seem somewhat out of propor
tion to their mere numbers, while the same aspect of things at once tells
the tale of their inability to find resources within themselves for such a
purpose. And yet there has been a good beginning and a marked progress
made ; and there is in those congregations the germ, and something more
than the bare germ, of an important Church population, which to see
crushed or blighted would indeed be a disheartening sight.
Poverty of the diocese. — II. But in addition to the fact that our people
are, in many instances, not such a body as any man can slightingly regard,
yet numerically too inconsiderable, as mere settlers, to support a clergy
man upon the spot, and too isolated to command the stated visits of
clergymen from more privileged places, — they have to contend with a.
rigorous climate, in which not one-half of the year is open to the toils of
husbandry, and they occupy portions of country which from natural and
other causes participate, if at all, to a very confined extent, in the advan
cing improvement and prosperity of the province. Most of the Church of
England missions in this diocese are either in back-wood settlements, often
with desperately bad summer-roads, or among the fishing-settlements of the
Gulph. With reference to the former class of missions, the portion of the
emigrants who remain in this part of Canada consists largely of those who
are too poor to proceed farther. And it is notorious that if they become a
little prosperous they are constantly prompted to move westward, and thus
plant themselves out of the limits of the diocese.
In all particulars of the nature here considered, there is no part of Canada
so disadvantageously situated, by many degrees, as the diocese of Quebec i
and in the whole of Lower Canada the benefit derived from a portion of the
late Clergy Reserves fund, made available under the commutation system
towards the support of the clergy, is strikingly contrasted with the corres
ponding case of the diocese of Toronto. In that diocese, I believe (not
X

346 MEMOIR OF
speaking precisely,) that the commutation fund amounts about to £300,000
currency, or £2,000 for each clergyman of the present strength of the
diocese (supposing them all chargeable to that fund). In the diocese of
Quebec, it amounts to about £11,000 currency, or (making the same sup
position) about £275 for each clergyman, and yet we have by far too few
clergymen for our work. I suppose it would be hardly too much to say
that the difference in favour of the diocese of Toronto is almost equally
great, if we look to the general resources and advantages of the province,
as thus far developed within the limits of either diocese respectively ; and
I could furnish, if it were necessary, a variety of distinct and pregnant
details to sustain me in the supposition. Add to all which, that there are
rectories in that diocese very richly endowed. Here we have no single
instance of endowment beyond some little glebes of exceedingly trifling
value. I draw comparisons without the embarrassment of any delicacy or
reserve between the diocese of Toronto and my own, because the Society
having, as I understand, made conclusive arrangements with the former,
which, after the grant in aid of the sustentation fund, is chargeable no
longer to its bounty, — there is no possible competition or rivalry of claim
between the two dioceses upon that bounty. Never, indeed, could I
indulge in any unworthy jealousy of help given in other parts of Canada,
or elsewhere, — it is all one cause, and that the cause of the Church of God
upon earth. And I bless His name for all which, in any spot, can advance
that sacred cause, " from the rising of the sun unto the going down of the
same." Claims of the diocese to help and to consideration. — III. I must press upon
the venerable Society a consideration at which I have already incidentally
glanced, that although the Church of England population of this diocese
is, to a great extent, seated in backwood settlements which are, in a man
ner, struggling into life, — it has, under the nursing hand of the Society,
been brought up to a hopeful condition, and has assumed, if I may so
express it, an ecclesiastical consistency, which it would be grievous to think
of breaking up by any severe and sudden check. That the see is compara
tively old is evidently no argument for the discontinuance, or extensive
and rapidly progressive diminution of supplies from home, if the state of
the Church within the diocese, and the wants created by a new and con
tinuous influx of emigration, are such as to fall, with exact propriety, within
the objects of the Society's charter ; — if all local resources at command are
utterly inadequate even for the meagre and imperfect supply of those wants
which is now provided ; if the effect of what the Society has done and is
doing yields encouragement for the future ; and, finally, if the diocese stands
now in a conjuncture of a critical kind, and any shock given to the pro
gress of the Church would be charged with the most disastrous effects.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 347
Now, all these suppositions may, I believe, be safely averred to cor
respond to the realities of our case. With reference, in particular,
to the encouraging grounds which exist for protecting and cherishing
the Church in the diocese, and the call which is presented in the
insufficiency of its own resources, I would beg here to state some few
details. Statistics of the diocese. — We have a population of perhaps twenty-five
thousand Church-people, of iwhom between four and five thousand are in
Quebec. We have forty clergymen, of whom twenty-three are missionaries
of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. We have sixty-one
churches (including the chapels of the city). The number of clergy has
been increased, since my own accession to the episcopate in 1836, from
seventeen to forty ; that of churches from twenty-one to sixty-one ; and
within the same period, we have gained the object of passing a Church
Temporalities Act ; formed our Church Society, and obtained for it the
privilege of incorporation ; established our college under a provincial
charter, and procured for it a royal charter for conferring degrees ; sent
out from this college about thirty candidates for Orders, now labouring
chiefly in this or the adjoining diocese of Montreal. About two thousand
persons are confirmed in each of the triennial visitations, every church in
the diocese being visited for the purpose. The proportion of communicants
in our congregations is much larger than that which subsists in the mother-
country. If we are enabled to keep our ground, we shall, by the blessing
of God, lay a foundation in the country, firm and deep, upon which others,
to enter hereafter upon our labours, may prosperously build up and enlarge
the Church. We are now at a turning-point in our history, for the intro
duction of railroads, and the development of mineral and other resources
not yet made available, cannot fail to give an impulse to the country; and
its institutions and religious predilections, in connexion with the advances
of the Anglo-Saxon race, will be moulded by the influences which can
maintain the ascendant in supplying, intellectually and spiritually, the
popular want. If we are in any measure ready to meet this demand, our
pure apostolic Church and scriptural faith will establish their proper hold
upon the people. If we are found in a paralyzed condition, — if it is seen
that we have been compelled to leave the interests of religion to languish,
and are exposed to the mortification — it is already most keenly felt — of
rendering discouraging answers, and dealing out explanations and excuses
to those who address their appeal to us, — we shall sink in their eyes to a
character of inefficiency, and some of them will fall away to careless irre-
ligion, — some will follow the teaching of unsound and fanatical sects, —
many will be absorbed into the rich and powerful communion of Rome, —
and others still, not drawn away in any of these directions, will at least be
lost forever to ourselves. Alas 1 in different places which we could not

348 MEMOIR OF
supply, we have lost, and are now losing, some who would else have owned
the bosom of their mother in the Church.
* * • * * * ****
Measures for reducing the charge upon the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel, and mutual understanding acted upon in all new arrange
ments for the missions. — V. I have been endeavouring, for a long time, to
lessen the charge upon the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel,
wherever it was possible ; and have brought down, in several instances,
the missionary allowance to a lower mark, by exacting the difference from
the people. I have also been compelled, in carrying out what I knew the so
ciety had aright to expect, to leave here and there in the hands of one man
a sadly unwieldy charge, and to forbear from attempting to subdivide great
tracts of country into two or more missions, as was urgently required.
One whole mission (Lower Inverness, with parts adjacent) I have struck
off, and reannexed to the charge of a clergyman twenty miles away, who
is loaded with other work, because the poor people could not, in the experi
ment, fulfil the part which was thrown upon themselves towards the support
of a resident pastor.
***** * ****
My poor diocese — what is to become of the flocks? My poor clergy —
what are they to do ? Here, under all the difficulties which I have described,
they must, for the simple exercise of their vocation, each keep his horse,
each must provide saddle, bridle, a winter vehicle, harness, cariole-robes
(or buffalo-skins for the sleigh), and winter equipments for his own person.
With all the rigid self-denial which they can and do practice, they incur
debt, which drags as a weight upon their minds. Their spirits are discour
aged in the midst of a severity of labour which requires their unbroken
energy of soul. I do not see, from any prospect now before me, or any
calculations or auguries which I can now frame, how the missions of Ire
land, Frampton, and Stoneham, and other such missions, are to be carried
on at all if the allowance from home is to be cut down to £60 a year, and
to undergo, at the end of three years, a farther reduction. The missions
within themselves cannot make up the difference ; Quebec alone cannot do
for all. The parish of Quebec will, in a few short years at farthest — and
it might happen tomorrow — have to provide for the payment of clergymen
and some other objects within its own limits, for which the present rector,
(holding other appointments also, and being obliged, for reasons known to
you, to retain the rectory), is disbursing, in six separate payments, £670
currency a year. The whole annual income (apart from the special fund
for widows and orphans of the clergy) of our Church society, raised not
without much effort, is £850, of which, £500 is contributed in Quebec. It
may be understood, therefore, that the approaching call for Church expen
diture upon the spot is something which will be more or less sensibly felt,

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 349
and will, so far, increase the difficulty of contributing to the support of the
missions. Commending all these observations to the favourable notice and candid
consideration of the society, I remain, Dear Sir,
Very faithfully yours, G. J. Quebec.
He concluded a letter of about the same date as follows :
" I part with the subject, expressing on the one hand my
deep and unalterable sense (to which I have again and again
in all fervent sincerity given utterance) of the debt of grati
tude due from the North American Church to the society,
and the praise due to God above for the blessings which it
has long and widely dispensed among us ; and recording, on
the other, my solemn conviction that these measures of re
trenchment, to the extent to which they are carried by the
society, and so far as they are not the dictate of imperious
and unavoidable necessity, are unseasonable and premature ;
and that the actual and. prospective state of settlements in this
and certain other parts of the North American provinces con
stitutes a direct and legitimate claim upon the fostering help of
that great and noble institution. If it be true that, in the lan
guage of Lord Bacon, ' it is the sinfullest thing in .the world
to forsake or destitute a plantation once in forwardness, for,
besides the dishonor, it is the guiltiness of blood of many
commiserable persons,' it is a great responsibility which lies
upon the Church in England, if she would take her scattered
children to record that she is pure from the blood of all men,
to follow up to its needful mark the work which has been
begun and thus far proceeded with in the spiritual plantation
formed within these colonies."

350 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER XXIV.
Proceedings within the diocese for initiating synodical action — Difficulties
encountered.
The clergy who met at the visitation in 1857 passed a
resolution to choose certain of their own body, and to request
the Bishop to name an equal number of laymen, to act
together, with the Bishop at their head, in preparing the
draft of a constitution to be submitted to the first formal meet
ing of the diocesan synod. The Bishop, accordingly, ap
pointed six gentlemen, representing the different opinions
held on the subject, and after several meetings of the com
mittee had been held, a draft was agreed upon. Early,
however, in the following year, it became known that an
unexpected interpretation was put, by some parties, upon the
act of the provincial legislature for the removal of the doubts
which had existed as to the power of the Bishop, clergy, and
laity, to meet in synod. It was held that, as no distinct
provision had been made for the representation of the laity,
no diocesan synod could meet without first going through the
form of summoning the whole of the laity to a preliminary
meeting at which the principle of representation might be
adopted. The Bishop of Huron had acted upon this view in
organizing his new diocese, and it was represented to the
Bishop of Quebec that it would be safer for him to follow this
example, than to leave any room for doubts which might after
wards be found to affect the validity of the proceedings of
the synod. It seemed so perfectly plain that neither the

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 351

framers of the act nor the legislature which passed it could
have intended such an impossibihty as that of summoning to
one place the whole laity of a diocese, and it was so well
known that the act had been made as short and free from
details as possible, being in fact only permissive and enabling,
and not affecting to confer any new powers, or to prescribe
any action whatever to the Church, that the Bishop of Quebec
was disposed to adhere to the course which he had adopted
of calling a synod to consider the proposed constitution on the
9th June, 1858. He yielded, however, to the views of others,
and revoked the summons, calling instead, a meeting of the
clergy and laity, to be held at Quebec on the Feast of the
Nativity of St. John the Baptist. I forbear from attempting
to describe what took place on that day, but let it suffice, in
the words of a circular shortly afterwards addressed by the
Bishop to the clergy, to say that it became " apparent that
great confusion and multiplied mischiefs must ensue from the
act as interpreted to require a meeting of the Church, other
wise than by representation, as well as that extraordinary
prejudice must be done to the rights of the diocese at large."
The Bishop was so wholly unprepared for any opposition, or
for obstacles in the way of farther proceedings, that it was
impossible, at the moment, and under the circumstances, to
decide on any ulterior step, and the meeting was simply
adjourned to the 1st September. He had caused resolutions
to be prepared, similar to those adopted in the diocese of
Huron, affirming the principles of representation and of
voting by Orders, " pending the adoption of a constitution by
the synod," thus much appearing to be necessary in order to
put the machine in motion at all ; but an amendment was
moved for the appointment of a committee, to report to an
other meeting similarly constituted, and when it was to be
put to the meeting the question at once arose whether the
clergy were to vote separately, or to be out-voted by those
who claimed to represent the voice of the laity.

352 MEMOIR OF
In order to be prepared for the adjourned meeting on the
1st September, the Bishop, after receiving many suggestions
from different quarters as to the best course to be pursued,
determined to seek the opinion of the law-officers of the
Crown on the interpretation of the Act. He accordingly
undertook a journey, in July, to Toronto, which was at that
time the seat of Government. But on his arrival, he found
that as the Act affected only the interests of the Church,
they could not be called upon for their opinion, except in their
private capacity as members of the Bar. It was, however,
suggested by three or four laymen of high standing, con
nected with other dioceses, that the simplest remedy for the
difficulties of the case would be found in an application to the
legislature, then in session, for a short explanatory Act,
which should provide for the representation of the laity.
This course had indeed been suggested by a member of the
committee, when the unexpected interpretation was first put
forth, but no real inconvenience being then apprehended, it
was thought that the legislature would be unwilling to take
any farther action which might appear to be unnecessary,
and the Bishop went to Toronto without this idea having
been again presented to his mind, without the smallest
possible expectation of any such unlooked-for relief, and with
no other object than that of obtaining the opinion of the law-
officers of the Crown, and governing his subsequent proceed
ings in accordance with it. The idea was now freshly pre
sented to his mind again from totally different quarters, and
it was conceived that there would be no difficulty in obtaining
an explanatory Act, the intention of the original Act being
sufficiently plain, while the obstacles to its working had
arisen from an interpretation of which it had been accidentally
left capable. The event happily justified this expectation,
for when the bill was prepared it passed the Legislative
Council without opposition, and the House of Assembly
adopted it by a majority of seventy-two against seven. Not

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 353
one member of the Church voted against it, notwithstanding
that the party from whom the opposition had proceeded at
Quebec used every effort to defeat it, holding a public
meeting, and sending eminent counsel to Toronto for the
purpose. The Act, however, having been assented to by the
Governor-General, became law, and the meeting of the 1st
September fell through. The Bishop then, not deeming it
advisable to subject the clergy to the expense and incon
venience of another journey to Quebec in the same season,
determined not to assemble the synod till the following year.
He hoped also that time and reflection, and, above all, the
gracious influence of the Spirit of purity and peace, which he
earnestly besought them to seek, would have the effect of
healing the sore which had been opened, and bringing those
who had opposed themselves to a different view of their
duty. He put forth a letter addressed to the clergy and laity
of the diocese, explaining the course which had been adopted
in the matter of synodical action, and endeavouring to pre
pare them for a right use of its privileges within the bounds
now prescribed by law. Together with this letter were pub
lished some " Considerations relative to certain interruptions
of the peace of the Church in the parish of Quebec," which
had been previously prepared, but which he had withheld in
the hope that the ill effects of those interruptions would pass
away without his personal intervention. This hope appearing
now to be groundless, he put them forth, not without much
fear and trembling, " solemnly and affectionately charging
it upon all into whose hands they might come, to resolve,
by God's help, to read them without pre-possession." He
entered at great length on certain points which had been
publicly discussed, defending the Society for the Propagation
of the Gospel, as well as the practices of some parti
cular clergymen in Quebec, from charges which had been
brought against them. I subjoin some extracts from the
publication :

354 MEMOIR OF
"It has been a just ground of thankfulness to God, which, in different
ways and at different times, I have taken occasion publicly to acknowledge,
that in all the eight North American dioceses of the Church of England,
we have been exempt from the mischief of certain indiscreet proceedings
relative to the minutiae of ritual observance and of certain exaggerated and
unsafe views upon doctrinal points, which have characterized an extreme
party in the Church at home. I am not aware of any single instance
within the limits just specified of any such objectionable doings, or of the
introduction and advance of any such objectionable principles ; nor has
there been a single instance of any apostasy of the clergy to the ranks of
Rome. And a similar happy verdict may be rendered respecting the
character at large of the missions supported by the Society for the Propa
gation of the Gospel, the mother and the nurse of the Churches in the
dependencies of the Empire throughout the world.
##### *#*
"So far then, of the Anglican Church in the diocese, and its connection
with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Suffer me to speak
one poor word of its present Bishop.
(l It has pleased God, Who chooses His own instruments, unworthy in
themselves, and puts the ' treasure' of His Gospel ' in earthen vessels,' that I
should occupy in the Anglican Church the episcopal charge originally of
the whole of Canada, and now, by successive subdivisions, of that portion
of it which constitutes the reduced diocese of Quebec. I have held this
charge (without speaking precisely as to the months), for twenty-three
years, being exactly one-third of my life. Another third exactly was
previously passed in the subordinate grades of the Christian ministry
exercised, with the exception of three years, in Quebec. I have carried my
episcopal ministrations (having volunteered, before the erection of Rupert's
Land into a diocese, to visit that country) from the Red River in the
Hudson's Bay Territory to the Magdalen Islands in the Gulf of St. Law
rence. I have, in one ecclesiastical capacity or another, ' gone in and out
before this people ' — my own people in Quebec — for forty-one years. For
forty-one years I have watched and prayed and worked for them without
ceasing — watched and prayed and worked. 'I am old and gray-headed,
* * * and I have walked before you from my ' youth unto this day.
' Behold, here I am ; witness against me before the Lord.' With whatever
errors of judgment, with whatever deficiencies in practice, — and I know-
that they have been many, — I have been chargeable, I challenge the world
to shew that, over all this extent of space or of time, among ' high and low,
rich and poor, one with another,' I have been unfaithful to the true inter
ests of the reformed Church of England, or swerved from the proclamation,
according to the doctrine of that Church, of Christ crucified as the only
hope of fallen man, and the Word of the living God as the only basis of
didactic theology. I appeal to the whole tenor of my public teaching ;

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 355
and if ever (which, indeed, is not much to be anticipated,) that smaller
portion of it were to see the light, which has been delivered in a written
form, it would be seen whether I have failed to preach ' the unsearchable
riches of Christ' and to ' testify the Gospel of the grace of God.' And in
the regulation of worship or points of ecclesiastical observance, I have not
ventured even upon manifest improvements, but with a wary hand and a
considerate eye to the object of avoiding hurtful misconstruction, and have
abstained, in different instances, from the correction, however in itself
desirable, of practices with which it might have created disturbance to
interfere. I have not been ' a reed shaken with the wind.' Whatever
influence may have been in the ascendant, whatever opinions accidentally
most in fashion, whatever peculiarities most popular for their day, whatever
shibboleths may have been bandied about by men who charge the lovers
of the Church with exclusiveness, being, in their own way, without calling
in question their zeal and sincerity, preeminently exclusive themselves, my
principles have never changed. I have trodden in the steps of my two
venerated predecessors in the see, and with all the human infirmities
attaching to each of us, I have the comfort of feeling that I am, as they
were, ' pure from the blood of all men,' in the aspect of the case here under
consideration. And this consciousness I shall carry — thank God it is not
far — to my grave.
" It might be thought, perhaps, that under all the circumstances which
I have here described, the hope could have been left to me of being spared
from such a task as that of defending my diocese and my own administra
tion of it from the charge either of Romanizing tendencies or of deficiency
of concern for the spiritual well-being of the children of the Church. *
% * ********
" Of the tenets and usages, then, which are here in question, I proceed to
specify some examples, — being such as are associated in many minds which,
in these points, are imperfectly informed, with ideas of assimilation to
Rome, and such as, in instances known among us here, have exposed her
ministers to misconstruction carried to its very extreme. For the present
I merely state them. If unforeseen necessity should arise for shewing, by
means of another address or a series of addresses like the present, that the
Church does hold them, and that she is right in holding them, I shall not,
by the help of God, be wanting to my duty in this behalf.
1. " The Church of England maintains the high and sacred importance
of the two sacraments, and their living efficacy, when rightly applied, as
direct vehicles of grace and privilege to man.
2. " The Church of England maintains, as a principle, assumed in various
solemn acts and made the basis of legislative proceedings in her whole
communion, both within and without the British dominions, the regular
Standing commission of the ministry — the power of providing for the
preaching of the Word and administration of religious ordinances, and the

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regulation of matters ecclesiastical, not being held to reside loosely in this
or that body of believers who may agree upon this or that arrangement for
the purpose, but to have been originally conveyed to the keeping and
charge of an Order of men constituted for that end, and in the persons of
those who occupy the chief grade in that Order (wherever the integrity of
the primitive system is preserved,) invested with authority to transmit this
commission from age to age.
3. "The Church of England holds it to be an appendage of this com
mission (however dormant in practice, and this partly in consequence of
past abuses of ecclesiastical power), to preserve order and purity in the
Church of God upon earth, by the authoritative exclusion of scandalous
offenders from certain spiritual privileges, and their restoration to the
same upon due evidences of their repentance.
4. "The Church of England, in common with other protestant bodies,
maintains and precribes as a practice which she affirms to be founded upon
scriptural authority, the duty of fasting, upon set occasions, in the literal
and proper sense of the word.
5. " It is the genius of the Church of England, made conspicuous in
many ways, — while she affirms in her thirty-fourth article, and elsewhere,
the liberty which is left under the Gospel of adaptation in matters of ritual
to ' the diversity of countries, times, and men's manners,' and while she
avoids an overdone pageantry or an intricate and loaded ceremonial, — yet
to clothe the exterior of her worship, the whole apparatus of public devotion
in all its details, and the whole manner of its performance, with a certain
grave, orderly and significant solemnity ; and, where it can be reached, to
stamp upon it a. certain grandeur of effect. She carefully preserves the
associations of sacredness in ' all that is for the work of the service in the
house of the Lord ;' and she surrounds with a peculiar and scrupulous
reverence the holy memorials of the death of our adorable Redeemer.
6. " The Church of England takes order for the frequency as well as for
the dignity and religious decorum of public prayer, and provides a digested
series of commemorative observances through the ecclesiastical year, which
bring in each instance specially before her members, either some grand
feature of the Gospel history, or, according to the spirit of the apostolic
charge, some eminent example from that ' cloud of witnesses' which is
found in the first planters of the faith.
" All these are examples of characteristic points in the system of the
Church of England ; plain, prominent features of that system so impossible
to be mistaken that an attack upon any zeal shewn in the preservation of
such principles or practices is not an attack upon Mr. A. or Mr. B. ; it is
simply an attack upon the Church of England. I am very far from main
taining that no minutiae of observance can ever become obsolete or suscep
tible, under altered circumstances and with the tacit sanction of authority,
of modification ; nor yet that we are forbidden to desire some lesser changes

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 357
in this or that particular, when the time" shall serve and such experiments
can be safely tried ; nor yet that indulgence may not be due to men who,
under the influence of the times, are more or less lax in their church views,
if only they would shew indulgence in return to those who love to keep the
rule of their mother. But with reference to the foregoing general points,
they are points which we must of necessity include in what we accept and
assert, whenever in our approaching synodical proceedings we formally
accept and assert the system and liturgy of that Church. Some of them are
matters of faith ; others lie in the province of ecclesiastical authority,
according to the discretion committed to the Church, being conformable in
their spirit and their object to the Word of God ; all of them are to be
practically carried out, pro virili, and according to the opportunities open
to them, by the prelacy and clergy of the Church ; all of them constitute a
portion of the particular form and mode of carrying on the work of the
Gospel, which that prelacy and clergy have in charge; all of them should
be made instrumental in their hands, according to every just view of minis
terial responsibility, to the edification of the flock, by the familiar iteration
of endeavours to promote an intelligent use and appreciation of such observ
ances, — endeavours which may in some instances be made unduly promi
nent, but the total omission of which is the very way to make men mere
formalists in their public devotions ; all of them are comprehended in the
force of the question to which a clergyman assents, in rendering, when he
receives the Order of priesthood, his solemn vows before God and man :
" ' Will you, then, give your faithful diligence always so to minister the
doctrine and sacraments and the discipline of Christ, as the Lord hath
commanded and as this Church and Realm hath received the same, accord
ing to the commandments of God ; so that you may teach the people com
mitted to your care and charge with all diligence to keep and observe the
same ? '
" And is it fair, then, is it justifiable, is it of any possible good con
sequence that a clergyman, who, without any ill-feeling or breach of charity
towards other Christians, or any want whatever of preparation to stand
against the proselytism of those Christians who profess the Romish faith,
conscientiously endeavours to act up to this solemn vow of his ordination,
should be hunted down by a false, and in some instances an almost
ferocious, cry of Popery, and that efforts should be made, as in very many
places has been seen, to impair if not to destroy his usefulness, by under
mining his influence and blowing an evil breath upon his name ? I repeat
it — I will make the utmost allowance even for the unfair prejudices and
groundless alarms of persons who from sincere, simple attachment to the
pure truth of the Gospel which they are made to believe in danger, and with
instances in England of an unhappy apostasy before their eyes, may lend
themselves too readily to such a cry — I will give credit for right motives
to men who do very wrong things, (although they ought better to have

358 MEMOIR OF
examined what they are doing) but, whatever may be the dispositions of the
party, such a proceeding is in itself both mischievous and cruel. Is it
wise, is it safe, is it edifying to frighten the members of the Anglican
Church with utterly imaginary phantoms of superstition in the simplest
compliance with the rules of their communion, and to make them afraid —
fori do suspect that even this has occurred — to use the privilege of uniting
in humble prayer before their God, upon such occasions as that of a litany
service twice a week ! Such a litany as that in which the Church has
enabled us to pour out our hearts before God 1 * * * *
" But now let it be asked, however really respectable for their day, how
ever eminent may be some names which can be adduced in favour of low
and latitudinarian views in the Church, however plain and willingly con
ceded a superiority may attach to them over the claims of him who is
penning these humble remarks, let it be asked, so far as human authorities
and examples are concerned, whether there are not names immeasurably
higher — names which will stand when the names of any such living men
shall have been long and totally forgotten — illustrious, imperishable names
in the Church of England, the names of men of deep thought, of profound
learning, of accomplished scholarship, of masterly eloquence, all sanctified
by a holy spirit of love, and richly impregnated by the Word of the living
God,— to which an appeal may be made on the other side— and these, observe,
the names of men who have been specially distinguished as invincible
champions of protestantism. What were the sentiments of Hooker upon
the several points which have been above stated 7 Of Hooker, whose great
work (and the words will apply to it in the parts which regard our con
troversy with Rome no less than in others) has been described by a
distinguished scholar of the last century as the everlasting possession and
the impregnable bulwark of all which the English nation holds most dear?
Hooker might be quoted absolutely upon all the points in question — take
him here only upon one, in contrast with certain views upon the subject of
fasting. We are told in his life that ' he never failed, on the Sunday before
Ember-week, to give notice thereof to his parishioners, persuading them
both to fast and then to double their devotions for a learned and pious
clergy, but especially for the last, saying often, that the life of a pious
clergyman was visible rhetoric, and so convincing that the most godless
men (though they would not deny themselves the enjoyment of their present
lusts,) did yet secretly wish themselves like those of the strictest lives.'*
* See Acts xiii, 2, 3, as remarkably sustaining the observance prescribed
by the Church in this particular behalf. I have no doubt in my own mind
that Hooker derived assistance in achieving what he has left to posterity,
by his habit of "keeping under his body and bringing it into subjection"
in the observance of the prescribed fasts of the Church.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 359

"I might fill a large book with similar examples, and I might have
recourse to those of celebrated foreign divines, but let the above cited
specimens suffice. I would only now ask, were Hooker, Hall, Chillingworth,
Taylor, Andrews and Beveridge* men of Romanizing tendencies — by antici
pation tractarians or Puseyites 7
" I do not say that any of these men were infallible, or that in the sense
of implicit acquiescence in what they have said, simply because they said it
we are to call any of them our father or master upon earth. Whatever
weight their opinions may justly claim, my own maxim, and that which I
recommend to others, with respect to human authorities of this nature, is to
be nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. I refer to them as great,
illustrious protestant champions of the Church of England ; and if they,
being such, confessedly and conspicuously such, held the views which
have been exhibited by means of references or extracts here given, as views
by which they were distinguished, I ask with what shadow of justice, I
demand by what possible right, we can tax men with popish leanings
because they hold the same or perhaps even more subdued, although similar,
views upon the same points 7 I ask with what title to a just or generous
or warrantable proceeding, we can resort to the common and easy artifice)
in order to make them odious, of ringing the changes upon certain words
such as semi-popery, Romanizing tendencies, the opus operatum, etc., etc.,
which have no particle of just application to the case, but which serve the
purpose, with abundant readiness, of bringing suspicion and discredit upon
a clergyman because he desires to preserve in their undamaged integrity
the distinctive principles and usages of the Church of England, and which
aid the object of introducing into favour, in substitution for the real system
of that Church, a system which is stamped with the characteristics of
dissent ? Nobody attacks the Scottish presbyterians because they venerate
the name and cling to the peculiarities of John Knox. Nobody quarrels
with the methodists because they are fervently attached to the memory
and cultivate some now traditionary practices of John Wesley ; but if a
minister or member of the Church of England would affectionately identify
himself in faith and practice with all which has been handed down to us

The late Bishop Stewart, my honoured predecessor in the see, who never
laboured under the imputation of popery, made it his ordinary practice,
although not holding himself inviolably bound to it by any superstitious
feeling if circumstances occurred to suggest a deviation from it, to pass
every Friday throughout the year in as much religious seclusion as was
practicable, and to observe the day as a rigorous fast.
* Quotations from all these writers, or reference to their works had been
given. — Ed.

360 MEMOIR OF
by our martyr reformers and their venerable coadjutors in framing the
standards of our faith and worship, such a man is not to be endured for an
instant, and a movement must be made to put him down. The principles
of toleration freely extended, right and left, to others holding all shapes or
shades of opinion are to be refused in his exceptional case. And it is not
for the most part an adversary who does him this dishonour, for then, per-
adventure, he might have borne it, but it is done by those who ought to be
his companions and his guides, his own familiar friends whom he could
trust, with whom he could take sweet counsel together and walk in the
house of God as friends. Well may we adapt to the case the prophetic
words of our Divine Redeemer : ' A man's foes shall be they of his own
household.' " But how easy would it be in many of these unhappy cases of difference,
to turn the tables upon those who make the attack, and to ask them how
in their own line of proceeding, they can reconcile it to themselves to
repudiate the rules and provisions of their own prayer-book, and to put the
force which they do, in particular instances, upon the plain, strong,
unequivocal language of -the forms of the Church which they use. More,
much more than this. How easy to retort upon the assailants, the charge
of helping forward the cause of Rome. Any reverential care in public
worship, any strict attention to venerable rules, any solicitude whatever
for that decorous ecclesiastical effect in the varied ministrations of the
Church, which is eminently characteristic of the work of our reformers,
creates an alarm in some quarters, and calls forth from others a torrent of
unmeasured abuse or of ungodly ridicule. But there is no one thing more
certain in the world than that a mean, cold, and denuded aspect of religious
ceremonial, or a slovenly neglect of externals in the house of God, combin
ing with a meagre and inadequate, a clouded, uncertain, unsatisfactory
estimate of the ritual ordinances of Christianity, as well as with a hasty
disparagement of settled order and venerable authority, and a promiscuous
recognition of new and multiplying forms of religious profession, have been
the direct means of driving many well-disposed men into the arms of Rome,
who under different auspices might have been won to spiritual views of
their religion, and preserved in the profession of a pure and scriptural faith.
The tractarian movement itself, which ran on to dangerous and unwarrant
able lengths, and wandered at last so far away from the Church of England,'
was urged to those very lengths, as it was in the first instance (and then,
with wise and good intentions,) set on foot by the marked and wide-spread
deviations, in another direction, both from the letter and the spirit of the
Anglican standards which prevailed in the Church. Extremes beget
opposite extremes.
" I will here illustrate my meaning by a familiar example in point. The
laxity of observance which has crept over our own Church has produced
the painful exhibition to be witnessed in our army and navy of bodies of

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 361
men sitting in public prayer. That may now be said to have grown up
into the rule of the army and navy, where the Church of England is pro
fessed, — at least I never saw any other practice in either* Take an army
of people belonging to the Romish or Greek Church. You may see ten or
twenty thousand men during their public religious performances, all down,
in humble reverence, upon their knees. An intelligent protestant will not
be shaken in his principles by this spectacle as contrasted with what he
will see in the corresponding case within the Church of England. He will
understand very well that the prostrate awe of superstition may exercise a
power over men which spiritual religion, adopted nominally by the mass,
but actually influencing only the true Israel of God, may fail to shew. But
if he is a truly intelligent protestant, he will deplore the introduction of
that external irreverence in this and other similar points which takes away
the aids to inward reverence provided by our own Church, and suggests
the idea at once, with all the heightening effect of contrast, to unsettled
minds, no less than to the adherents of a superstitious system, that protest-
ants do not care about their religion, and are ashamed to bow the knee
to their God. Our own people are chilled and impeded in their devotional
exercises ; kept back in the moulding of the religious man ; the careless
among them are confirmed in their carelessness ; those who are alienated
from us as votaries themselves of an erroneous faith are hardened in their
alienation ; those who may be described as standers-by and spectators in
religion receive unfavourable impressions, of which they experience and
communicate abroad the bad effects ; and some, perhaps, are led to aposta
tize from their faith. It is therefore (since the train of natural causes and
effects is assuredly not left to be inoperative among the influences which
form religion within the heart), the merest mistake in the world, and the
most complete misapprehension of the manner in which human beings are
constituted and are acted upon in religion, to suppose that a care for exter
nals can be safely neglected, or that it is a dereliction of the preaching of
Christ and Him crucified, to maintain the value of outward ordinances, and
to cultivate a dutiful conformity to every prescribed observance. Nothing
is more unfounded, nothing can be more shallow than such a charge. St.
Paul tells us that he determined not to know anything among the believers
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. What did he mean by this? He
meant, of course, that the great cardinal doctrine of salvation by the death
of Christ should never, in any part of Christian teaching, be lost from
sight  should inseparably be interwoven with every endeavour for the
spiritual good of the flock — should constitute the grand, the absorbing
object of Christian ministrations. But did he mean to be so literally taken

* I know an instance of one regiment in which the colonel succeeded in
establishing the use of the proper posture in prayer, but this, so far as my
opportunities of information have reached, was a solitary exception.
T

362 MEMOIR OF
as that he would not teaih anything, for example, about the operations of
the divine Spirit, or the resurrection from the dead, or other points of
christian belief, save the one here in question ? Or did he mean that he
would never charge upon the believers the remembrance of their baptism
and of the obligations then contracted as well as of the privileges then
conveyed? Or did he mean that he would never descend to familiar
instruction respecting the details of duty in common life ? Or did he
mean that he would not enjoin it. upon the disciples to pay respectful
regard to the directions of those who were ' over them in the Lord ' ? Or
did he mean that it was impossible for him to afford a thought for the
decency and order to be observed in public worship, for the establishment
of rules which are'to distinguish the sexes in the house of God, for the
reverence to be associated with the place where the holy communion was
celebrated, as distinguished from the houses which men have to eat and
to drink in ? Certainly the holy Apostle did not mean all this or anything
resembling it, for if he did, he would most prodigiously contradict himself.
" The lessons of the past are apt to be lost upon the inconsiderate mortals
of any living generation. We might else deem it a marvellous thing that
the warnings should be forgotten which stand out in broad and awful
characters upon those memorable pages of the history of our own country
which record the demolition of the Church establishment by a religious
faction, in the civil war of the seventeenth century. Delenda est Carthago
was their war-cry. ' Down with it, down with it even to the ground,' wa3
the motto inscribed upon their banner. The ancient episcopacy, the vener
able ritual, the solemn and spiritual liturgy, the grave and orderly observ
ances of the Anglican Church were all to be exterminated, root and branch.
Then it was that the heavenly-minded, the evangelical Bishop Hall (among
thousands of similar examples), lifted that voice of lamentation of which
some notes are heard in an extract already given, over the dishonour done
to the Church which he loved, and in his ' Letter from the Tower ' and his
' Hard Measure,' left a picture of her fanatical enemies which as it is touch
ing in itself, so, in the agitations of our own time, it is curious and most
instructive to contemplate."
* * * # * * *
" And if a clergyman is seen to manifest any zeal for the correction of
neglects, irregularities and deviations in the things pertaining to the house
of God, which marked a drowsy day in the Church — if he does not look
with favour upon those happy times when the more convenient slop-basin
or pewter vessel displaced the ancient font, transferred, to serve as a flower
pot, to the garden of the squire, and when the celebration itself of the rite
of baptism was passed from the house of God to the dwellings of men, — if
he does not sigh over the loss in some churches of high-partitioned pews
which snugly ensconced the more stately worshipper, and often shut off
the poor from public worship ; — then fcenum habel in cornu, longejuge — this

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 363
man is a mad tractarian ; he will toss you all if you let him come near you
over the fences which divide us from Rome.
" There is, perhaps, no person living who has had more ample or more
varied experience of public prayer and preaching conducted with the ru
dest appliances, or scarcely with any appliances at all, than myself. And
the roughness and extreme bareness of the accessories of worship are felt
sometimes to be aids to devotional feeling. You will hear persons who
are inclined to deprecate, if not to denounce, every approach to pomp of
ceremonial or ritual effect, describe with much zest, and in what, accord
ing to a hackneyed modern phrase, is called a 'graphic' manner, the
touching simplicity of a scene where the preacher reminds them perhaps
of the Baptist in the wilderness. Yet they are then owning the influence,
developed in a different manner, of the very principle against which they
are disposed to contend. They are recognizing the aid of circumstantials,
the power of externals in the acts of devotion and the performances of the
minister of God. Either way, these accidents of our worship are of course
non-essentials ; the grand points of the Gospel ministry may be gained, the
heart may be lifted fervently in prayer and praise, the soul may be pene
trated with the love of Christ, the Word of life may be carried with power
to the heart of sinners within the walls of a very convenient and respect
able building, whose architecture is most supremely unecclesiastical, and
whose arrangements for the conduct of worship are utterly revolting to a
correct and nicely formed taste. But where the bounty of God has placed
the means at our command, I am well persuaded, and think I am sustained
in this persuasion (as I have shewn elsewhere) by different passages to be
found in the New Testament, that, as christian worshippers, we may adopt
for our own, with reference to the exterior of our worship, to the order of
its distribution, and to the solemnity of its effect, the language of the holy
psalmist (according to the prayer-book translation) : 'It is well seen, 0
God, how Thou goest, how Thou, my God and King, goest in the sanctuary.'
It is, in fact, upon these principles, if we examine the philosophy of the
thing, that music, sanctioned by the practice of the Redeemer,* is made an
ingredient of devotion. The power of music, by a peculiar and mysterious
kind of charm, by the touch of some hidden spring within us, moves and
melts, subdues or elevates the soul of man ; and this natural power, with
the heightened effect of artificial culture, is made available in his religion.
A remarkable exemplification of the principles laid down in some of the
foregoing remarks is found in the following extract from the recent account
given by Dr. Livingstone of his labours among the African tribes :
" ' So long as we continue to hold services in the Kotla, the associations
of the place are unfavourable to solemnity ; hence it is always desirable to
have a place of worship as soon as possible ; and it is important, too, to

* St. Matthew xxvi. 30.

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treat such place with reverence, as an aid to secure that serious attention
which religious subject* demand. This will appear more evident when it
is recollected that, in the very spot where we had been engaged in acts of
devotion, half an hour after a dance would be got up.' — Missionary Travels,
chap, ix., p. 206.
" ' Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where is the
good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.' I do
not know of any occasion within my own experience, which has afforded
more room for such a charge as this, than the recent interruptions of our
peace in this place. I do not mean, any more than the inspired prophet
could have meant, that we are to check all advance, to disdain all sugges
tion of improvement, to resist all indication of progress. Every principle
for which I am here contending is connected with genuine progress in the
Church. The two things go on pari passu together, and of this, if we
had room for them, many striking and satisfactory proofs might be stated,
in the way of example, as seen throughout the Empire. But there are ideas
often propagated and easily accepted among men, nay, caught at in many
quarters with eagerness, of a necessity for substituting something new
which seems to offer itself, or to be attainable in the management of affairs,
for breaking up the old routine and brushing aside the inherited prejudices
attaching to the received system — they have not yet got ' the real thing,' —
nothing will effectually be done without this renovation ; no life will be
infused into the body till new influences are allowed to have their play and
the channels of control and authority are changed.
" All this may be more or less true, or it may be more or less erroneous.
Let us then, with reference to our own Church affairs, pass very briefly in
review some principal historical facts of our case, and enquire under what
particular auspices and in connection with what set of principles the work
of the Church has been done among us, and how far it has, while thus
conducted, earned a title to our confidence."
"The Society (the S. P. G.), since the formation of colonial sees, has
carried on its work in an unswerving recognition of the principles received
in the Anglican branch of the Church, and in concert uniformly with the
local ecclesiastical authorities. It would take up space which cannot be
spared here for the purpose, to trace its labours or those of the sister
Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, either in a review of the past
or in a survey of what it has been recently doing and is doing now abroad
over the world, in which latter aspect it has, among other benefits, provided,
through a special department of its labours, for the multiplication of the
colonial sees in all quarters of the globe, and has furnished a triumphant
answer, in the conspicuous fruit of this enlargement of the episcopate, to
those objectors who imagined that the means of augmenting the missionary

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 365
force of the Church and other machinery of evangelization would be-thence
abridged. But not even looking at the adjoining portions of British North
America, let us remember that if we can point here to recesses in the forest
where the rose of Sharon has been planted by the hands of our labourers;
if we can indicate remote and rude places of the Gulf untrodden by any
minister of religion, till the ground was taken up by our own ; if we can
shew the work of the Gospel perseveringly carried on, by strained efforts
and with meagre resources, among feeble flocks scattered over a prodigious
surface of country, here buried in the woods, there in danger of being
absorbed into one with the prior occupants of the country, proud alike in
their numbers and ecclesiastical wealth, who profess the faith of Rome ; if
we can bless God for a race of clergy who, with all the faults attaching to
them as ' men of like passions ' with their brethren of the laity, have been
ready, without worldly recompense, to endure privation, to encounter
hardship in the service of Christ, to put their lives in jeopardy in seasons
of pestilence, and have been known, in several instances, to fall as victims
' upon the sacrifice and service of the faith,' — men familiar with prisons,
with hospitals, with all the haunts of squalid poverty ; if we can boast of
a college conducted by professors from English and Scotch Universities,
and now constituted a University itself — a college often most ungenerously
disparaged, often injuriously misrepresented as to its principles, in its
present young and still struggling stage, which was at first set fairly in
operation by an indomitable spirit of zeal and self-denial upon the spot,
and has been the means of so moulding a great portion of the junior clergy
in the two Lower Canadian dioceses, as not to be behind the race of men
already described, and can shew many of its alumni ceaselessly devoting
themselves to the labours of their ministry — never looking back after the
hand has been once put to the plough— continually engaged, whether in
cities or in the roughest scenes of missionary labour in the woods, in
pastoral work ; warning their people from house to house, assiduous in
lengthened preparation of the youth for confirmation, in the formation of
Bible classes, in the establishment of libraries for their people, and in other
efforts for the spiritual improvement of their charge ; if there has been
recently engrafted upon our college a ' junior department ' which affords
advantages of education in its different branches, equal, as I believe, to
those of any school in North America, and which preeminently excels in
familiarizing the minds of boys with the Word of God ; if the Church has
been enabled to dispense the bread of life, not only to. her own destitute
children in the wilderness, but to many who had no claim upon her as
their mother ; to dot the back places of the country with decent though
humble temples of the living God ; to found permanent institutions for the
general work of the diocese, or the wants temporal and spiritual of the
poorer classes in the city, and all this in the face of disheartening difficul
ties and accumulated obstacles ; if the Church of England has done all

366 MEMOIR OF
this, and more, in the country, then what, with the blessing of God, might
she not hope to do—  " ' which honour bids her do,
Were all her children kind and natural ?'
and by what earthly agencies, by what human instruments has all this —
little, it must be sorrowfully said, compared with what the ruling powers
of the empire ought to have given (or to have left) her the means of
doing — by what earthly agencies, by what human instruments has it been
done ? ' Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths.' It has
all, all been done ; — and ' as the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop
me of this boasting' ; — by the hands of those who love the Church of their
fathers in the stable integrity of her principles and are linked in their
religious proceedings with the cause of ancient authority and order."
* # * * * * *
" Under the auspices, then, and by the agencies which have been here
pictured, the work of the protestant Church of England, in this as in other
dependencies of the empire, has been brought up to the point at which it
now stands. The Church of this diocese is still mainly drawing its nutri
ment from the bosom of the mother Church at home and carried still in her
arms. It is not time yet to turn round and say, ' We have done with you;
we can walk alone now, and do not want to be in leading-strings ; or what
help we want we will get from other sources and manage upon a new plan
and upon new and more enlightened principles ; we will discard all these
musty prejudices which hinder the growth and vigour of the Church. We
will have a revolution.' Alas ! but what will be seen in the end thereof?
Where would the Church have been now in the diocese, if both its support
and its administration had not been provided for in connection with that
system, the plain, real, honest Church of England system, which some of
us would desire to see superseded by what is new, and perhaps more
popularly taking? Whereas the hope, the strength, the reliance under God,
of the protestant Church of England in Canada? Look back upon the
past and tell.
" I am not, however, by profession or in principle or in feeling a mere
laudator lemporis acti. I bless God for the marvellous improvements of the
age and believe them ordained to be gloriously instrumental in advancing
the highest interests of the human family at large. I bless God for the
revolution which has taken place within my own recollection in the Church ;
but this is a revolution connected and indeed identified, in many of its
most signal benefits, with the recovery, in practice, of ancient and charac
teristic principles of the Anglican system. You then, who love the reformed
Church of England, know, I beseech you, who are your friends. They are
not your friends, although some among them, carried away by ill-examined
impressions, may mean you well, who sound an alarm in this diocese about

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 367
Romanizing tendencies. That oiaa/iaxia (for if ever there was a fighting
with shadows, a 'beating of the air,' it is found in this instance) can only
do hurt to the cause which is dear to your hearts. The interests of our
Anglican protestantism in this diocese, I am bold to say it, are much safer
in my hands and the hands of those who support me, than in the hands of
men who would bring our fidelity into question. For my own, of course
is brought into question, if I do not seek to put down those who are charged
with dispositions to tamper with our protestant truth. I do not wish, —
God forbid ! — to extinguish a jealous watchfulness over that truth. I do
not blame men who are so tremblingly and sensitively alive to the danger
of covered advances on the part of Rome, that they start at the imaginary
semblance where no reality exists, and are carried beyond themselves in
their excitement. I do. not impute bad motives to them simply because
they may be prompted by these feelings not only to conceive but to propa
gate a groundless alarm. They may do this— I would to God, though, that
we had seen a little more of such a spirit 1 — in a spirit of candour, of charity,
of Christian forbearance. But I think, in the meantime, — nay, I am abso
lutely sure, — that by that propagation they are doing mischief to the cause
which they mean to serve. Hard things have been said of tried and faithful
ministers ; hard constructions have been put upon their doings ; sneers and
taunts have been bandied about ; much ridicule has been employed, and
not exclusively on one side, a weapon which a well-known sceptical
writer pronounces to be ' the test of truth,' and to which he would subject
accordingly the pretensions of Christianity ; but though ¦¦< playful sally,
made in a kindly spirit, is not austerely to be condemned, it would be
well to remember, when once religious discord begins, those beautiful
words of Hooker : ' There will come a time when three words uttered with
charity and meekness shall receive a far more blessed reward than three
thousand volumes written with disdainful sharpness of wit.' ' Every idle
word which men shall speak,' whether by tongue or by pen, ' they shall
give account thereof in that day. It will not look well then, and it will
be wise to bear this in memory now, that men, in order to gratify malice,
to weaken the force of truths to which they are opposed, to seize, without
one thought of its fairness, the readiest engine for their purpose against
their adversary, or possibly, ' as a madman casteth firebrands, arrows, and
death, and saith, am I not in sport 7' to indulge in mere wanton amuse
ment, — fly at once to the press, the seeds of the mischief being thus blown
throughout the province and beyond it, and bring disparagement upon the
faithful servants of the Most High, weakening their hands in His work and
wounding their hearts.
" The cause of the Church of England in this diocese has received »
check. Rome and others who may have ill-will to her have had a triumph.
The disturbance has been uncalled for ; for I repeat it — let one instance be
proved in which any of my clergy have outgone either the doctrinal

368 MEMOIR OF
teaching or the ritual directions of their Church. Let one instance be
shewn in which they have even availed themselves of certain recent de
cisions in England under which decorations, and symbols, and appurtenan
ces of worship are pronounced to be lawful, of which, nevertheless, from
the sensation which they might excite, the introduction would not be
expedient. But it has pleased God to humble us ; and we cannot hope
that the brand having been thrown in and the fire set running through
combustible matter, with gusts of no gentle kind to fan it in its progress,
we ?an speedily extinguish such a blaze. All that we can do is to hold
fast to our duty in the sight of God, and ' through evil report and good
report,' through rough or through smooth, to labour that we may approve
ourselves to Him, and be prepared ' to stand before the Son of Man,' earnestly
studying and striving at the same time, ' if it be possible, as much as lieth
in ' us, to ' live peaceably with all men.' To Him we must confide the issue.
And He Who can bring good out of evil may perhaps, even in this
world, though I do not anticipate any such result within the term of my
own service, make the damage which we now suffer, not only to leave no
hurtful trace, but to redound to the credit and prosperity of the Church.
So shall it be seen that —
' Per damna, per caedes, ab ipso
Ducit opes animnmque ferro.' "

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 369

CHAPTER XXV.
First diocesan synod — Visit to Gaspe" — Conclusion of triennial circuit —
Visits of the Bishops of Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Montreal, Rupert's
Land, Victoria and Michigan — Journey to Burlington — Prince of Wales.
The first synod of the diocese of Quebec was held on the
sixth of July, 1859, and two following days, and though three
years had not elapsed since the last visitation of the clergy,
the Bishop called them together for that purpose at the same
time, partly because he had been unable to meet them in
1857, and partly because he was unwilling to place them
under the necessity of travelling to Quebec again in the next
year. The winter of 1858-9 and the following spring were
times of very serious anxiety and distress to the diocese,
which weighed most heavily on him who was entrusted with
the care of all its Churches. But it pleased Him, Who is the
author, not of confusion but of peace, to bring His Church
safely and happily through the crisis, and to grant His servant,
after the storms which had nearly overwhelmed him, a calm,
for the few years for which he was yet to labour, such as he
had not known before. The blessing of God rested upon the
patience with which he had endured, and crowned his efforts
with success far beyond what had been looked for. The two
great points for which he was chiefly anxious in the constitu
tion of the synod, and to which the greatest opposition had
been made — recognition of its three distinct orders, and the
communicant qualification for lay-delegates — were carried by
overwhelming majorities, the first by one hundred and forty-

370 memoir of
three to thirty-seven votes, and the second by one hundred
and twenty-five to twenty-two. The patience with which the
Bishop sat for three days from early morning till late at night,
during long and not always agreeable discussions, and the
meekness which he displayed towards those that opposed
themselves, had, in many instances, the effect of drawing over
men who had differed from him. Their admiration of his
personal character led them by degrees to look with more
favour on the views which he maintained. At the close of
the synod, a member who had taken a very active part in all
the proceedings, which the Bishop had felt himself obliged to
condemn, of a body styled " The Lay Association," proposed
a vote of thanks for the address which he had delivered at
its opening, and for his able and impartial conduct, of which
he suggested that all present should mark their sense by
escorting him in a body to the rectory. He declined the
honour, and after dismissing the synod with the benediction,
rode four miles on horseback, with a lightened and thankful
heart, to his home.* It was nearly midnight when he reached
it. But notwithstanding the close and trying nature of his
occupations for the last few days, by nine o'clock the next
morning he was on board a steamer (lying nearly five miles
from his house) which was to convey him to the extreme
point of his diocese.
The address to which reference has just been made relates
to a crisis so important in the history of his administration of
the diocese, that I think it right to insert the whole of it in
this place : ADDRESS.
" My brethren of the clergy and laity, we are met, by the permission of
Almighty God, to discharge very solemn and important duties which are
new to us all. And we must engage in them under a deep sense of our
* Bardfield, near Quebec, to which he removed in the spring of 1858, at
the recommendation of his medical advisers, on account of his own health,
and that of Mrs. Mountain.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 371

responsibility before God and man. We have to regard our task, first, as
to the christian spirit and religiously disciplined frame of mind in which it
is to be fulfilled ; and next, as to the preservation, in this portion of Canada,
of the principles, constitution, and usages of the Churph of England, for
the better establishment and administration of all which, as well as for the
perpetuation of them in their essential force and integrity, it devolves upon
us, so far as depends upon human instruments, to provide.
" For the first point then. It is evident that in addressing ourselves to a
task such as that which is before us, we undertake to deal with the interests
of religion, the interests of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We put ourselves for
ward in the community as men who are concerned for the kingdom of God
upon earth, for His glory and the salvation of souls. These are views and aims
which it is impossible to separate for a moment from the objects for which a
Church is constituted and the affairs of a Church are conducted. Itwouldbe
an utter mistake to regard our religious system merely as a certain method
for the public worship of the Deity, which we have inherited, or from acci
dent of situation have nominally adopted, and which it is left to us to
mould after the prepossessions of the world. If we do not come here —
with whatever sense of unworthiness, and this cannot, in any one of us, be
too deep or too strong, — yet if we do not come here as religious men, as
men who having assumed an active part in the promotion of objects just
above enumerated are seeking guidance in the discharge of their duty
from above, we cannot properly be considered as qualified for taking part in
these deliberations at all. The eye of God is upon us at this moment and
penetrates our hearts. It behoves us to consider whether we are about to
engage in the affairs of His Church in a temper and preparation of mind
which are fitted to endure that awful scrutiny. And again, it would be a
very unhappy misconception of our case, and yet one into which, whatever
side we espouse, we might be liable in a manner inadvertently to slide, to
suppose that our proceedings in synod must be assimilated in all points
to the proceedings of public bodies who manage the secular affairs of man
kind. In the parliament, for example, of a free country, under a limited
monarchy, it is, whether wrongly or rightly, a kind of recognized maxim
that an organized opposition must be a standing feature of the system and
a necessary element in the conduct of affairs. And there are certain
parliamentary tactics, certain stratagems of party, certain engines of
policy adroitly wielded by practised hands, certain appeals also ad captan-
dum to popular prejudice and passion, certain artifices in getting up an
agitation certain catchwords scattered abroad to produce an effect, the
truth of which, if it serve the purpose in hand, it is not conceived very
necessary to examine ; all which are understood in many quarters to be
part of the routine of business in the body or familiar instruments employed
in preparation for it. In an assembly convened for carrying on the work
of the Church, any approach to such manoeuvres as these, as well as any

372 MEMOIR OF
disposition to find matter for minute cavil and to produce embarrassment
by ingenious niceties of law, is totally out of character and out of place.
I do not mean, of course, and can hardly be understood to mean, that we
are not to desire the utmost freedom of discussion ; that we are not to
benefit, within the bounds imposed by pure religion and consistent ortho
doxy, by the unrestrained expression of opinion, and to work out, by what
may be called a, friendly collision between mind and mind, the best
digested and most practically useful plans which can be brought under our
review. I do not mean that we are not to exercise the utmost wisdom and
prudence vouchsafed to us ; that we are not to call in the aids of valuable
experience ; that we are not to put carefully in train the most orderly and
efficient system. in the management of our proceedings, or not to avail our
selves of the facility for working them, afforded by forms received in the
conduct of public business. But I do mean that the synod is to be regarded
not in the light of a parliament, or a political organization, but in the light
of a family assembled under their earthly father, to deliberate in love upon
the interests of the house. These are the right mutual relations of the
parties ; and these, which, thank God, do extensively prevail among us,
are what I hope and pray that we may, in His good time, see everywhere
established among ourselves. I hope it will, before long, be generally seen
and felt that if anything is done calculated to sow feelings of distrust and
suspicion towards the episcopal office (the proper and reasonable claims
of which it will readily be seen that I must not be withheld by any false
delicacy from maintaining), if anything is done to put men on their guard
against a presumed desire of encroachment on the part of the person occu
pying that office, it can only be compared — looking, however, to things
done upon an enlarged scale and with far extended consequences — to an
endeavour made in a family, who else would be harmoniously and happily
bound together, to set the children, in the same way, upon the watch
against their father.
" The Bishops of the colonial empire have some claim, if they had it upon
no other grounds, to the confidence and good-will of their people, because the
whole movement made to introduce synodical action has been, from first to
last, purely and simply a movement of their own — an unconstrained and
spontaneous movement to divide with the clergy and laity, because they
trusted that it would be for the advantage of the Church to do so, the
powers which were lodged exclusively in their own hands. There has been
nothing and there is nothing to oblige them to do it, or to make it difficult
to them to avoid it. There are dioceses now, here in British North America,
situated in all respects like our own, in which the system has not been put
in operation. And the Bishops, in making this effort, had in the first
instance to encounter great opposition and misconstruction, proceeding
from what is considered (without meaning to use the word in an oppro
brious or offensive sense) the party leaning to democracy in the Church,

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 373
as persons here holding similar sentiments have since declared themselves
opposed to the principle of representation, the only principle which can
afford any voice to the rural districts. Of the interruptions of christian
peace and the ill-omened appearance of any separation of the interests of
the laity from those of their pastors, I wish to say but little. It is impossible,
however, to refrain from saying that we might have indulged the hope of
doing our work without disturbance. We might have imagined our way
to be sufficiently smooth. We have precedents and patterns already before
our eyes, and all uniform in their essential characteristics throughout the
empire. We are now following in the wake of sixteen colonial dioce"ses,
being the whole number in which synodical action has taken place ; and in
every one of them, without a single exception, that particular principle has
been embodied and recognized as an indispensable feature of Church of
England episcopacy, which is conceived in some quarters here to be a
special grievance and which constitutes a main object of active and organ
ized assault. But this opposition, we may well hope, will die away. We
may well hope that the opponents will become reconciled in the actual
working of the experiment to that from which, in theory, they have been
prompted to anticipate ill consequences to the Church. And it cannot be
doubted that gentlemen, who have been found hand to hand opposed to each
other in the conflict of opinion upon points of the constitution, will after
wards cordially co-operate in all which they shall be alike persuaded to
tend to the common good. In the meantime, we may challenge all parties
to shew what special and local grounds have existed for attempting to
make a difference in this point between the diocese of Quebec and all the
other dioceses of the empire. Yes ; the day will come when the excite
ment of the occasion having passed off and the clouds of some prevailing
prejudice having cleared away, the objects upon which we fix our regards
will be seen as they really are, leaving it only a subject for wonder that
any such agitations should have existed at all, and a ground for true
thankfulness of heart that all differences upon the subject may be forgotten.
Upon this point I venture to say that we are strong ; and as in the example
of certain stories set afloat before the elections about particular clergymen
it will be found, by those who possess themselves of correct information
that they are pointedly opposed to the truth of the case ; so with respect to
our whole case at large, I feel safe in declaring, as I feel called upon to
declare, that no plea has been afforded, either in the administration of the
diocese, or the teaching, the proceedings or the practices of its clergy, for
any alarm to be sounded, for any agitation to be put in train, for any
organized opposition ; still less, of course, for any movement liable to be
regarded as having any revolutionary aspect.
" Most deeply is it, under these circumstances, to be deplored that any
difficulties should have arisen from within, upon the invitation given to
the laity to co-operate in the management of matters ecclesiastical, with

374 MEMOIR OF
those who are set over them in the Lord, and that the invitation should in
any instance have been so misapprehended as to cause its being met in a
spirit of unkindness. We have difficulties enough with which to struggle
in planting and rearing up, in extending, directing, and upholding the
provisions of the Church for the scattered and widely severed population
who belong to her within the diocese ; and a statistical exhibition of our
progress which, together with a slight historical outline of the formation of
our Church institutions within the diocese, I had intended, if I had not
judged that I should trespass too far upon your time, to put before this
meeting, would serve to shew that, with miserably meagre resources, and
in the face of many disheartening obstacles, we have, by the good hand of
our God upon us, and His blessing upon the help of our friends at home
and upon the efforts of our labourers upon the spot, something more than
kept our ground and laid some good foundation for those who will come
after us. I had thought that a survey of such a nature (which I may
possibly prepare at some future opportunity) might encourage and interest
us farther in the work which we have now in hand, and aid us in appreci
ating, as well as — if anywhere it be imperfectly or incorrectly understood
 in understanding our task. The whole subject is practically new among
us, but we shall remember that we have not champ libre — we have not a
clear stage for creating a new system or trying experiments in the way of
remodelling the old one which we have received. We have to deal — and
we are thus brought to the second part of our subject according to the
distribution of it which I proposed in the outset of these remarks, — we
have to deal, under the two provincial statutes which provide for the
case, with the system of the Church of England.
" Now, here there are two postulates to be assumed. First, that if the
legislature of a country or province concedes powers, of whatever kind, to
a religious body, it must be understood, as a matter of course, that those
powers are to be called into exercise according to the constitution, laws
and usages of the body itself. And secondly, that if the body proceed to
frame, under those powers, a representative constitution for certain delibera
tive, executive, and legislative purposes of its own, the enquiry presents
itself, in limine, what that body is which is to be represented, and how its
original, essential, and distinctive character is to be preserved.
" The body to be represented, in the present case, is the episcopal
Church of England.
" What, then, is episcopacy ?
" We need not to go to the schools of theology for an answer to this
question, nor ransack the labours of learned divines. We have only to
consult the most familiar repository of definitions in our own language.*?
We have only to look there for the word episcopacy, and we see it thus
* Johnson's Dictionary.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 375
defined : ' The government of the Church by Bishops, established by the
Apostles.' " If we have to frame a synodical constitution within the episcopal
Church of England, it is plain that we must frame it according to the
principles of episcopacy. We are at liberty to repudiate .episcopacy if in
our consciences, we cannot be persuaded of its primitive and apostolic
origin, but can we, in that case, be qualified to bear our part in acting for
the Church of England? And if we have never fathomed the subject
— perhaps never looked into it at all, — ought we not to endeavour to
master it before we refuse to acquiesce in the received principle of the
Church here considered, or conceive ourselves prepared to deal with a
practical question which involves the recognition or the rejection of epis
copacy as above defined 7 For if the Order of Bishops in their distinctive
character could be ignored in the synod,, and they could merge simply in
the general order of the clergy, though with a complimentary precedence
allowed to them, and the place of chairman reserved for their occupancy
this is not episcopacy. The system would cease to be properly an episcopal
system. " That the maintenance, as an inviolable principle, of such a transmitted
episcopacy is part and parcel of the Church of England, is what it is most
abundantly easy to shew, but it is what I shall not take up your time by
proving here ; nor shall I labour to exhibit the law of the case ; that latter
question has been1 recently treated amongst us by more competent hands.
And with reference, in particular, to the construction, upon this point, of
the permissive statute (19, 20 Vict., c. 141), I have had the benefit of an
opinion rendered to me by an authority entirely unaffected by our immedi
ate local influences and agitations — an authority which would be acknow
ledged by all parties whatever to be as high as the province of Canada can
afford The act, according to this opinion, expressly recognizes the three
distinct orders of Bishop, clergy, and laity, as three branches, the concur
rence of each of which by itself is necessary to give effect to legislation
within the body. Each of the three branches alike, therefore, has what,
according to the popular rather than the correct phraseology of the day, is
called, in the case of the Bishop, a veto upon the other two.
"There is, however, one point of enquiry upon which I shall, in conclu
sion of this whole subject, enter a little more at large, because it is one
upon which great misapprehensions are seen to prevail and such as have
great influence upon the judgments of men in the matters here considered.
The remarks which I have to offer upon it, as well as a small portion of
those already made, are not altogether new to some few members of the
synod who are here present.
« The enquiry is this :
" What and where are the precedents to which we would have recourse
if we could possibly establish a synod which, in making laws for the
Church, could dispense with the episcopal concurrence 7

376 MEMOIR OF
" I answer, my brethren, that we should be doing what has not yet,
under the same circumstances, been seen in the Christian world. We
should be inscribing a name upon this diocese of Quebec which would be
new in the history of our religion upon earth. We should be seeking our
pattern — not from the precedents of the pure primitive Church in her
unchallenged and invariable practice in this behalf; not from the declared
principles and settled system of the Church of England, or other reformed.
episcopal Churches ; not from the proceedings of any one among all the
colonial Churches of our own communion in different and far-divided
quarters of the globe, who have thus far, whether upon a formally legalized
basis or otherwise, adopted a synodical constitution ; not from the action
of public authority or the course taken in our own voluntary movement in
Church matters within our own province (for look at the original consti
tution of our Church Society, subsequently incorporated by provincial
statute, which makes the Bishop's consent necessary to all changes ; or
look at the charter of Bishop's College, in all which instances men have
not been afraid to put large authority, within an episcopal institution, into
episcopal -hands) ; no, it would not be to any of these examples that we
must have recourse, but to the semblance (as I shall shew) rather than the
reality of a precedent in the introduction of the episcopate into the United
States of America. And under what circumstances ? With the wounds
yet raw and bleeding, caused by the violent dismemberment of the territory
from the monarchy of England; with prejudice raging all around in
exasperated minds against those institutions of England in which the
established Church is conspicuously prominent; with heightening effect
added to this prejudice, as well by the notorious fact that the people of the
Church had been characteristically loyal in the great struggle which had
just been brought to its close, as by the circumstance that the constitution
of the Church itself is of a monarchical aspect; and, finally, with utter local
inexperience of any episcopal supervision whatever, and habits of mind
remaining altogether to be formed with respect to the relations between
this new order of men brought into the country under all these circum
stances of difficulty, and the flocks who were to receive them.* In this
conjuncture of affairs the original dioceses adopted a constitution in which
the consent of the Bishop is not made essential in their ecclesiastical legis
lation, and the system once introduced into the republic, it has (with the
exception of Vermont, the well-known defence of whose particular consti
tution, by the present Bishop of the diocese, I do think to be a victorious
* So little, in many quarters, was the Church then understood by her
own people in America, that when the body at large was in process of
organization in the country, the people professing to belong to her in one
of the States applied to be received into convention, with the condition
proposed that they should not be obliged to have any Bishop.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 377
performance and one recent exception in a more qualified form) naturally
been continued in the dioceses which have been since created. Is this
feature, then, of the American Church convention the special precedent
which any of us can desire to single out* for our own guidance?
" But here it is not unimportant to observe that this supposed American
precedent does not after all (as I have intimated) go the length of divest
ing the Church of the episcopal control in legislation. For the Church in
the United States provides, not only for the annual convention of each
diocese, but for the. supreme authority of a triennial convention of the
whole Church throughout the Union. And in this general convention
nothing can pass without the consent of the house of Bishops. It was not
so originally ; but it was made so, even in that land of democratic pre
dominance, by subsequent legislation within the body, because in the
working of the system its necessity was seen and felt. The case, therefore,
of individual dioceses there, even if they could, under any circumstances,
be made a warrantable pattern for ourselves in the point at issue, is not
parallel to our own case here. We are proceeding to act in synod, not as one
out of many dioceses which are all subject alike to the paramount authority
of a general convention (or, according to older ecclesiastical language, of
a Provincial synod) in which the ratification of the Bishops is required,
but we are proceeding to act as a diocese, singly and independently ; and
we have no right to assume as a prospective certainty the formation of a
Provincial synod in which we shall be comprehended. And therefore, it
may safely be averred that, if the supposition of such a case could possibly
be admitted as that of the disallowance of the episcopal privilege here in
question, we should be doing what is unsustained by any single fair and
full precedent in the whole world.
" It is farther to be observed, although at first sight we may receive
exactly the opposite impression, that, in point of fact, any innovating sur
render or diminution of the standing authority of the Church within our
communion may with much less apprehension of dangerous consequences
be ventured upon in the American republic than in our own colonies.
For as there is in that country no Church-establishment or national
religion, and nothing therefore in the way of prestige or association with
the love of country or acquiescence in the transmitted system of privileged
institutions, to bias or prepossess the minds of men in their adoption of
one system of religion rather than another, the attachment of episcopalians
to their own Church may generally be presumed to be founded upon their

* In the learned work of Judge Hoffman, of New York, on the law of the
Church, it will be seen that it was by the surrender, from the force of
circumstances, of an inherent right, that the Bishops became divested of
what- is called the veto. Z

378 MEMOIR OF
distinct and intelligent preference for the system of episcopacy and the
usages connected with that system. It is well known that the class of
mind in that country which has a love for order, reverence, and stability,
and which encounters a shock in the religious fluctuations and distractions
and the many unwholesome excitements prevailing on this side and on
that, is seen continually to fall in, as with something satisfactory and con
genial, with the episcopal Church, to which there are very large and
frequent accessions both of ministers and people from this very cause.
And the self-evident consequence of all this is a powerful infusion of what
is called the conservative element into the system. Whereas, among our
selves, it is a thing familiarly observable, that a vast proportion of our
people throughout the empire are churchmen, not properly from holding
episcopal principles, but simply from an inherited and too often an unex
amined conformity to the received institutions of their country ; and
having so many loose adherents, we are as a body less prepared than our
neighbours to admit with safety any sudden removal of checks of standing
authority in the Church and to open the door for the agitation of questions
without any such balancing weight, in which the distinctive principles of
the Church may be compromised.
" I might say a vast deal more upon many points which have been
agitated among us. But I have said already more than I originally
intended, and have felt it thrown upon me by circumstances to touch upon
points — those especially connected with my own office — which it would
have been far more agreeable to me to pass in silence. I do not want to
bar the way, in any point, against freedom of argument here, but it never
can be improper that, in presiding over an assembly met to frame a con
stitution for its future proceedings, I should indicate the necessity of our
not violating the constitution of the very Church itself, of which that
assembly avows that it is a part. It must be my duty to do what in me
lies — I believe I have done too little — surmounting all reserve on account
of considerations personally affecting myself, to make the real principles
of the Church understood upon points to which the attention of her mem
bers is apt to be only called by some extraordinary occagion such as the
present, and which in a multitude of instances are new to the habit of
their thoughts. All which I have said, then, I commend to the candid
acceptance and the serious consideration of minds — and I hope they are
not few among us — which are accessible to arguments happening to jar
against their own preconceived and perhaps very favourite impressions.
Let it be seen that in entering upon the grave and important functions
which are now before us, we ' do nothing against the truth but for the
truth.' And let us be content if, among the principles to be now adopted
for our guidance, we find one place reserved for the maxim of the wise
King : ' Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.' "

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 379
The visit of the Bishop to the district of Gaspe-, in 1859,
was marked by an occurrence new to that part of the diocese.
An ordination was held at Pasp6biac, when a deacon was
advanced to the priesthood. The Bishop had heretofore
ordained only at Quebec and Lennoxville, except, in one or
two instances, at Three Rivers and Sherbrooke. But believing
that the edification of the people would be promoted, and
their interest in him who was to minister among them in
creased by witnessing and taking their share in the ceremony,
he this year held ordinations in rural districts on two
subsequent occasions, on each of which one deacon only
was ordained. One of them, who had laboured for many
years with exemplary zeal and fidelity as a lay-reader, was
ordained as a. permanent deacon. In the course of his Gaspe-
visitation, which occupied six weeks, besides holding the
ordination above mentioned, he confirmed 181 persons at
fourteen places, consecrated two burial-grounds, and preached
eighteen times. Two Sundays were unfortunately lost, so
far as public duties were concerned, in going to and from the
Magdalen Islands, the landing there being effected on the
first, at too great a distance from a settlement and. too late
an hour of the day to admit of any service being held, and
the second being spent in the hold of the mail schooner,
where he was glad to make his bed on the round stones that
served for ballast, rather than continue to be drenched by
the heavy rain which freely made its way into the berth
which had been assigned to him. Other confirmations were
held in the autumn in the neighbourhood of Quebec, as well
as an ordination in the cathedral, at which the Bishop of
Nova Scotia, who was on a visit (felt to be too short) to his
brother-prelate, preached. Confirmations were held, in the
places still remaining to complete the triennial circuit, in the
earlier part, and some in the autumn, of 1860, making the
whole number during the three years sixty-three, of which
six were in Quebec, forty-four in country churches, eleven in

380 MEMOIR OF
school-houses or private dwelhngs, and two in dissenting
places of worship lent for the purpose. At three churches
no candidates were presented. Nine hundred and eighty
persons in all were confirmed. On three occasions the
service was held in French. The ordinations during the
same period were eleven, of eight deacons and nine priests.
This was the last triennial circuit which the Bishop was per
mitted to complete. Before the next had been gone through
his work had passed to other hands. In this year (1860)
he established an annual gathering in the cathedral on
Whitsunday of the Sunday schools in Quebec. Four hundred
children were present on the first occasion, whom he addressed
in a simple and affectionate manner. In the summer of 1860
he had also another opportunity of exchanging friendly offices
with the sister Church in the United States, having visited
Burlington, on the invitation of the Bishop of Vermont, to
take part in the consecration of the chapel of the diocesan
Theological Institute. He had also, during this summer,
the pleasure of receiving at his house the Bishops of New
foundland, Montreal, Rupert's Land, and Victoria, besides
enjoying a brief visit from the Bishop of Michigan.
The year 1860 was rendered memorable in Canadian
history by the visit of the Prince of Wales. The Bishop,
accompanied by a large proportion of the members of the
diocesan synod, presented and read an address to His Royal
Highness. The Prince presented the Bishop with a hand
some Bible for the cathedral, in memory of having attended
divine service there, as well as a donation to Bishop's College
of two hundred pounds, being part of a larger sum given to
the principal colleges in Canada. With this sum a scholarship
was founded, called the Prince of Wales' scholarship.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 381

CHAPTER XXVI.
Second diocesan synod — Address on history of the diocese — Last triennial
circuit — Visit to Labrador — Meeting with the Bishop of Newfoundland
— Illness — Domestic bereavement.
The second diocesan synod was held in July of this year.
The deliberations of the first had been confined to the adop
tion of a constitution, and on this occasion, before entering
upon the practical matters which seemed chiefly to demand
attention, the Bishop thought it appropriate, at the marked
period which had been reached in the history of the diocese,
to give, in his opening address, a short sketch of that history,
which it may be interesting to insert here in his own words,
though the leading points of it have already been mentioned
in these pages : —
" The first Anglican Bishop of Quebec, within the lifetime of the more
aged men among us, began his task with nine clergymen for the whole of
Canada, and after thirty-two years left the diocese, upon his decease, with
sixty-one, having three archdeacons and two corporations of the clergy,
in Upper and Lower Canada respectively, for the management of the
clergy-reserves. His successor, whose diocese was also co-extensive with
the whole of Canada, raised the number, in ten years of apostolic labour,
to eighty-five. That was the state of the charge upon which I entered
twenty-four years ago. Since that date Canada has been divided into
four dioceses : Upper Canada or Canada West, now comprehending the
two dioceses of Toronto and Huron, was under my episcopal supervision,
as administering that of Quebec, for three years, during which I was
enabled to add nineteen clergymen to the number of fifty-one which I had
found within those limits. In that portion of Lower Canada which now
constitutes the diocese of Montreal, the number was raised during its con
tinuance under my direction for a space of fourteen years, from seventeen

382 MEMOIR OF
to forty-eight. From causes already indicated,* independently of the
larger amount of Church population, the advances which I was permitted
to make in this way in parts of Canada which are no longer within my
jurisdiction were greater than I have made in that which now constitutes
the diocese of Quebec, where the increase, in my hands, has been in
twenty-four years from seventeen to fifty. The whole increase in Canada,
within my own proper administration (not noticing what has occurred in
any of its ecclesiastical divisions and subdivisions after their passing out
of my hands), has been from eighty-five to one hundred and sixty-five.
Since the meeting of the synod last year, I have admitted four gentlemen
to the Order of Deacons and three to that of Priests. One clergyman has
left the diocese, and one, besides the additions just named from ordina
tions, has come into it. Two new missions have been formed. Some more
are in prospect and some more labourers to occupy the ground.
" My venerated predecessors in the see are too well remembered to make
it necessary for me to disclaim any pretensions which, if I had the smallest
disposition to advance them, would readily be open to repudiation, to
equal myself in the discharge of my office with them. But it has been so
ordained to befall, that the Church should not, till after my assumption of
the episcopal charge, reach that stage in which she began to form her
permanent institutions and provide her settled organizations within the
diocese. I entered upon my charge in the latter half of the year 1836.
The Church Society was established in 1842, and incorporated in 1844 :
its objects and its operations are too well known to all who are present, to
need any notice here from me. The Church Temporalities Act, having been
reserved for the Royal Assent, finally became law in 1843. The corner
stone of the College was laid in 1844 : the College was opened in buildings
temporarily occupied in 1845 : the royal charter conferring upon it the
privileges of a University was procured in 1853 : the junior department,
consisting of a first-rate school,! was opened in 1857 : the whole institu
tion is still, in a manner, in its infancy, and will never be exempt from
imperfections attaching to all things here below ; but it has now four
efficient professorships (including that which is immediately connected
with the junior department), — a library of between four and five thousand
volumes, the promising commencement of a museum, and a chapel which
may be cited as an architectural pattern. Of the fruits of the institution
I forbear to speak, because I should speak before their faces of some men
moulded within its walls ; and men who do best are least pleased to have
their doings proclaimed. I will simply say, therefore, that the benefits of
the College (speaking only, though I might give some farther extension to
* The local peculiarities of the diocese, climate, scattered population, &c.
f A school had been established long before under College auspices, and
most successfully carried on for several years.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 383
my remarks, of its supply afforded to the Church), have by no means been
confined to the single diocese of Quebec. I might also refer to certain
advantages reserved within the institution to the sons of the clergy. And
with help as well from this institution, as from other quarters, we have,
notwithstanding the meagreness of our resources and the diminution of
extraneous aid to which I have adverted, been still taking up new ground,
year by year, and have penetrated to remote and destitute quarters where
no other protestant ministrations have been known."
This address, as originally written, went back to an earlier
point in the history of the Canadian Church, the reference
to which (omitted for the sake of brevity) as it stands in the
manuscript, it seems desirable to preserve ;
" In the whole extent of the colonial Empire of Great Britain throughout
the world, there was no Bishop of the Church of England before the
erection of the diocese of Nova Scotia, to which the Rev. Dr. Charles
Inglis was appointed in 1*787. That prelate, acting under powers con
ferred upon him in his patent from the Crown, visited Canada and held
confirmations* as well as a visitation of the clergy, some if not all of
whom received licences at his hands, in 1 789. The whole number of clergy
men who could then be assembled from one end of the province to the
other (Upper and Lower Canada having then constituted together the
province of Quebec,) was eight. It appears that, in 1774, they had been
four in number, including a chaplain to the garrison at Quebec.
"In 1793 the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, of which the
division had taken place two years before, were constituted a diocese
of which the see was fixed at Quebec, and Dr. Jacob Mountain was
appointed as the first Lord Bishop.
* A printed account of this visit, taken from a periodical of the day,
gives the following interesting particulars, together with addresses pre
sented to his lordship at Quebec and Montreal, and his replies :
Montreal, July 9.
On Thursday evening last arrived here from Quebec the Right Reverend
Father in God, Charles, Bishop of Nova Scotia. The Bishop was met at
Pointe aux Trembles, and conducted into the city, and has since received
the compliments of many of the most respectable inhabitants both of the
Protestant and Romish persuasions. On Sunday morning he delivered to
a numerous auditory an excellent discourse on the nature and end of
confirmation, with a view to the administration of that ordinance next
Sunday.

384 MEMOIR OF
" During the greater part of his episcopate of thirty-two years,* the pro
testant population made very slow advances in Canada, and the difficulties
are almost inconceivable under which he had to labour in providing, even
in that slow advance, for the wants of the Church. He made great but
unsuccessful efforts for establishing efficient means of education in this
country. His visitations, in the then state of the country, were no less
arduous than they were extensive. He procured the erection of the cathe
dral at Quebec, which was consecrated in 1804, and was the first place of
worship belonging to the Church of England in that city.f Some years
afterwards he effected the incorporation, by separate charters for Upper and
Quebec, August 13.
On Wednesday, the 5th instant, the Right Reverend Father in God,
Charles, Bishop of Nova Scotia, held his primary visitation at the church
of the R6collets in this city. Divine service was performed to a crowded
audience, and a sermon was preached by the Rev. Philip Toosey, minister
of the parish ; after divine service an excellent charge was delivered by
the Bishop to his clergy, upon the various and important duties of their
office, with great force and energy.
On Thursday divine service was performed and a sermon preached by
the Rev. Mr. Stuart, minister of Kingston.
And on Friday divine service was performed and a sermon preached by
the Rev. Mr. Doty, minister of William Henry ; after which the Bishop
held a confirmation, at which upwards of 130 persons were confirmed.
On Saturday divine service was again performed and a sermon preached
by the Rev. Mr. Tunstall.
On the Sunday following the sacrament was administered by the Bishop
himself to a great number of communicants, several of whom had been
previously confirmed ; and in the afternoon some persons expressing a
desire of participating in this ancient and salutary rite of the christian
Church, the Bishop indulged them with a private confirmation.
* In 1823, two years before his death, the whole number of protestants
of all denominations in Lower Canada was 34,400.
t The members of the Church of England had previously worshipped in
a chapel belonging to a R6collet monastery (which stood where the upper
town market now is), with the use of which they were accommodated.
The Bishop had maintained, while this building was occupied by the
Church of England, a surpliced choir at his own expense, which was after
wards transferred to the cathedral, where it was kept up for forty years.
The cathedral was opened with a full choral service, which, as I have heard,
was regularly maintained as long as a clergyman could be found qualified
to conduct it. The Rev. M. Feilde, mentioned at p. 14, had acted as pre
centor.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 385
Lower Canada respectively, of the Bishop and clergy for the management
of the clergy-reserves. He also succeeded in getting archdeaconries esta
blished, and left at his decease, in 1825, Bixty-one clergymen in the
diocese." An instance of the personal good feehng which prevailed in
many quarters through the troubles which had now been hap
pily terminated, and one which was a cause of much gratifica
tion to the Bishop, was a proposal, emanating from a gentleman
who had taken a leading part in opposition to him on the
synodical question, that he should sit for his bust to be pre
sented to his family. The gentleman referred to suggested
the idea to another who had been active on the other side, in
these words, " I think many who have often had the mis
fortune to differ in opinion with our good Bishop, as well as
the many who have not, would be glad to unite in a tes
timony of affection to him who has spent so many years
amongst us." *
The last circuit of the diocese was begun in January, 1861,
in the district of St. Francis, where twenty-eight services
and twenty confirmations (being an increase of three) were
held, and one deacon was ordained at Richmond. Confirma
tions were now held, for the first time, in the new mission of
Hereford and Barford, and at Tingwick in the mission of
DanviUe. Several adult baptisms took place at the hands of
the Bishop. The extreme and unwonted severity of the
weather, and the accumulation of snow from a constant suc
cession of storms, were such as the Bishop, in his long
experience, had never before encountered, and caused the
disappointment of several candidates for confimation. One
storm in particular, on the 10th February, when the trains
* It would be an act of great injustice not to mention that while the
Bishop was supported by a large number of churchmen, whose devotion to
good works as well as their personal attachment to himself was a source
of comfort and strength to him, the same character in both points attached
in no less a degree to not a few of those who differed from him, as the
records of diocesan institutions abundantly testify.

386 MEMOIR" OF
were stopped for days together, deserves special notice, as it
was found to have extended to Labrador, and to have raged
even on the coasts of England and Ireland* The number of
persons confirmed on this tour was two hundred and ninety-seven,
shewing, notwithstanding the disappointments just mentioned,
a shght increase over the last occasion. Two hundred and
twenty-nine were confirmed in the cathedral immediately
before Easter, on which day most of them became commu
nicants, making the whole number who partook on that day
of the Lord's supper in the parish of Quebec eight hundred
and eighty-nine, out of a population of about five thousand.
In May, another confirmation was held at a place which had
never before witnessed the ordinance, Montmorenci near
Quebec, where a mission had been lately established. The
diocesan synod was convened this year a month earlier than
usual, in order to permit the Bishop to avail himself of a
favourable opportunity of carrying out his long cherished
desire of visiting the coast of Labrador. The few protestants
settled there, whose number had increased now to about two
hundred, scattered along a shore of about half as many miles
in length, had been up to this time cared for, so far as was possi
ble, by the missionary on that portion of the coast whichbelongs
to the diocese of Newfoundland, whose parsonage is scarcely
more than a dozen miles from the httle stream which divides
the two dioceses. But independently of the necessarily im
perfect nature of this supply, the hands of the zealous mis
sionaries being sufficiently full with their own proper work,
the Bishop had felt for a long time that the Canadian Church
should not leave the care of those few scattered sheep to
pastors of another diocese, and had prevailed upon the S. P. G.
to regard this as an exceptional case, and establish a new mis
sion. Two years had passed by without the society having
been able to find a man for the post, the wants of which the
* See Illustrated News, February 16th and 23rd, 1861.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 387

Bishop was most anxious to ascertain by personal inspection.
He had hoped to reach the coast in 1859 from the district
of Gaspe", and had left Quebec with that expectation, but no
opportunity was afforded. He had also endeavoured to make
arrangements for visiting it in company with the Bishop of
Newfoundland in his church-ship, but other engagements pre
vented this. The only means that remained of getting down
were the small river craft, and a steamer which is sent down
twice a year from Quebec with supplies to the lighthouses in
the gulf. He would have been willing to encounter the hard
ships which a voyage in one of the smaller craft would have
involved, but the uncertainty attaching to it might have
caused an absence of many months from Quebec, which could
not be spared from the other work of the diocese. The meet
ing of the synod had interfered with the first trip of the
steamer in 1860, and the second was so long delayed that
he could only have been landed from her, and left to find his
way home again as best he might. The probability was that
the opportunity of doing so might not occur till the following
spring. At length, however, it pleased God both to open the
door for his own visit, and to enable him to send a missionary
who reached the coast from Gaspe" a few days before him.
Every accommodation was afforded on board the steamer, both
by the commissioner of public works, and the captain of the
vessel, and he remarked that he had never before been so
comfortable at sea. He had the opportunity of visiting the
solitary families at two lighthouses in Anticosti, and also at
the Hudson's Bay Company's post at Mingan, where the
steamer called, and ministering to their spiritual wants, a
kind of work which he specially delighted in. Early on the
morning of St. Peter's day (twelve days after leaving Que
bec), he was landed at Blanc Sablon, and hospitably enter
tained at the establishment of Messrs. de Quetteville. This
being, however, on the eastern side of the little river, he
pushed on at once, being impatient to go to work in his own

388 MEMOIR OF
diocese, proceeding on foot to the first settlement where an
English-speaking population was to be found. Settlement
there was none ; a solitary and poverty-stricken family occu
pied what had once been a large and flourishing establishment.
The comforts of the steamer seemed greater than ever when
contrasted with the misery that now surrounded him. I
forbear from details ; suffice to say, that in all , his varied
experience of roughing it in log-huts, in the woods, in open
boats, or on sand banks, he had never met with any thing
to compare with the wretchedness and discomfort which
he was now called upon to share. But all was cheer
fully borne, and he felt himself amply repaid for all his
privations by the comfort of being permitted to preach to
these poor destitute settlers the unsearchable riches of
Christ. The missionary who had come from Gaspe" was so
much discouraged by the aspect of things, that he asked per
mission to return there, and left the Bishop in order to seek
an opportunity of doing so. The Bishop, meanwhile, pushed
on towards the west, encountering endless difficulties in
procuring the means of doing so. He embarked in a chaloupe
(a small decked vessel), laden with salt, which was to con
vey him to the point which he wished next to reach in two or
three hours. He had not been one hour on board before the
wind utterly failed, and he would fain have gone ashore again
to urge his way on foot. The only means of reaching the
shore was by a small flat, and the captain was unwilling to risk
the possible loss of a breeze which might spring up during
the absence of his men if he spared them for the purpose of
putting him ashore. The prospect of an indefinite detention
in the chaloupe, without bedding or provisions, and with rain
coming on, was not encouraging ; but more than thirty hours
were spent on board with cheerfulness, the cargo of salt fur
nishing a bed, and the sailors' fish-soup and biscuit serving
for breakfast and dinners. Late in the evening of the second
day, when the prospect of passing another night on board

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 389
seemed certain, a boat was descried at a distance, which
after many alternations between hope and fear, was found to
have been attracted by the signals anxiously made from the
chaloupe. On board this boat there was but one man, who
willingly pulled the Bishop and his chaplain into the beau
tiful httle harbour of Belles Amours, where they found a
hospitable welcome, combined with cleanliness and comfort.
And from this point there was less difficulty in every way.
Eleven services were held in the Canadian part of the coast,
and several children baptized. Everywhere the people mani
fested a kind and thankful spirit. The Bishop was depending
on the steamer which had brought him down for the only sure
opportunity of returning to Quebec. On this occasion she
had carried down workmen to Belleisle for the completion of
whose work she was to wait, and to call again at Forteau,
where the Bishop was to be picked up. He was obliged,
therefore, as the time fixed by the captain approached, to
retrace his steps towards that place, where, however, he was
detained more than a fortnight. He had made arrangements
with the Montreal Ocean Steamship Co., for going onboard one
of their vessels if possible, at this point, and was in readiness
day and night to embark whenever they were expected to
pass the lighthouse where he was lodged. But one passed
in a fog, another when it was blowing too hard for a boat to
get out, and the signals of the third were not seen by the man
who was paid to keep a look-out. Everything here was clean
and comfortable, though the good woman of the house fan
cied herself so unequal to the task of entertaining a Bishop,
that she positively refused at first to do so; and it was
only when she learned the extreme discomfort he had endured
wiien her door was closed against him, that she the next
day relented. She soon found that she was waiting on
no lordly prelate, but on one who remembered that he was
the servant of Him Who had not so much as where to lay His
head. The only ground of impatience or uneasiness was the

390 MEMOIR OF
anxiety to turn what seemed to be spare time to the benefit
of his own diocese, though he did all that he could for that of
those who were within his reach; and it was a satisfaction to
him to do something in return for the services which the
Newfoundland clergy had rendered to his own people. He
could not however be withheld from making some farther
effort, and after great difficulty in finding the means of con
veyance (or rather the hands to guide it, for the missionary
at Forteau, who shewed him every possible kindness and atten
tion, placed his barge at his disposal), he again set his face
westward, though it was blowing a gale in which he was
strongly warned that such a vessel should not venture out*
He spent a Sunday at Isle a Bois, where he held two ser
vices, one of which was in French. The next day he had the
great happiness of meeting the Bishop of Newfoundland.
The comforts of the highest kind which were now enjoyed on
board the church-ship, where he became an honoured guest,
were sufficient to refresh him after what he had undergone
on the shore. It was not long since no ministrations of the
Church had been ever seen upon this desolate coast, and now,
on the festival of St. James, her highest offices were cele
brated in a pretty and well-appointed church by two Bishops,
two priests, and a deacon. It is not easy to imagine the joy
which such intercourse under these circumstances afforded.
Before the church-ship left Forteau, the steamer arrived on
her way to Quebec, and the two Bishops separated. She
was detained however for two or three days, and they had
the opportunity of once more joining in prayer and praise
together in a store at L'Anse a Loup. The senior Bishop
would not consent to deprive the people of the privilege of
* His fearlessness was very remarkable. I remember once, at the Mag
dalen Islands, his expression of regret, mingled with pity, when a brave
crew, with the usually intrepid missionary at the helm, thought it prudent
to turn the head of their boat towards the land because a squall was seen
approaching.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 391
listening to their own, who took occasion in preaching on
the second lesson (the epistle to Philemon,) to allude in a
most touching manner to the presence of " such an one as
Paul the aged " among them. They had just spent together
the birthday of the elder one, who entered then his seventy-
third year. The reverence and affection with which the
Bishop of Newfoundland always treated his brother were
most remarkable. The church-ship now went on her way,
and the two bishops parted, never to meet again on earth.
Eighteen months afterwards the Bishop of Newfoundland
wrote thus :
" I might almost say, cures leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent, I am so
unable to express what I felt at the sudden and sad announcement of your
dear father's removal. He was to me more than an elder brother ; I looked
up to him and revered him as a father. I look back, with deep gratitude
to God, on the advantage I have derived from his counsel and example, or,
I should perhaps say, may have derived if I could follow or profit by either
as I ought ; particularly I shall ever remember the intercourse and commu
nion I had with him and yourself on the Labrador, being, as indeed he was
then, ' such an one as Paul the aged and servant of Jesus Christ.' I shall
ever remember his patience, cheerfulness, and piety, with admiration and
thankfulness. I have hoped and earnestly desired to see him, and that he
might have been seen and heard by others, in Newfoundland, but it has
been ordered otherwise : better, surely, as we can all acknowledge, for
him ; and that consideration must reconcile me to the disappointment. The
description which Mrs. M. received of the Bishop's last days and hours was
most touching and delightful, as it was, I am sure, faithful, for the end was
as holy and peaceful as his life had been laborious and useful, and the
blessings he gave to those who surrounded him must have been precious
indeed. I have never heard of any person's departure respecting which I
could more earnestly and sincerely say and pray, ' Let my last end be like
his.' As on the Labrador he might have addressed us ' being such an one
as Paul the aged,' so, I believe, he might have said, (though he, perhaps,
would have been the last to have said it,) in the same Apostle's words, ' I
have fought a good fight,' &c."
The Bishop reached Quebec after an absence of seven
weeks, on the 7th August. During the whole of that time
he had never been once able to hear from home, though he
had left Mrs. Mountain in a state of health which afforded

392 MEMOIR OF
sufficient grounds for anxiety. When he had finished his
work on the Labrador coast, he was desirous, therefore, of
reaching home without unnecessary delay. But besides the
disappointments already mentioned, he experienced another.
The captain of the steamer, in which he had embarked at
Forteau, kindly undertook to transfer him to another which
was going direct to Quebec, and when she came in sight at
two o'clock one morning, the Bishop was put off in an open
boat for this purpose, but the steamer did not stop, though
she had replied to the signals made from the other, and the
Bishop was obliged to return to his own vessel. In the in
terval between this time and his reaching Quebec, the effect
of his fatigues and privations began to shew itself in an attack
resembling inflammatory rheumatism, and he was obliged to
be carried on shore at Quebec. His patient trust in God's
goodness was rewarded by finding all apparently well at his
home ; and she for whom he might have been anxious, if he
had not been always accustomed to cast all his care on Him
Who cared for him, became his tender nurse. Before, how
ever, her own anxiety on his account was relieved, she was
removed beyond the reach of all trouble and care. On the
23rd August he lost the partner, for forty-seven years, of his
life, the sharer of all his joys and sorrows, his help-meet in all
his labours. And he bore it as one disciplined by trial only
could have borne it. A few short hours of illness, during
the whole of which she was unconscious, were all that were
ordained for her at the last, and even to the very mo
ment of separation he had not been able to realize to himself
that it was so near. He had all his children and grandchil
dren around him in this hour of trial, and they never met
together again afterwards till he was to see them so for the
last time on earth.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 393

CHAPTER XXVII.
Missionary sent to Labrador — First provincial synod — Appointment of
Metropolitan — Sermon before the synod — Triennial circuit continued —
Last visitation— Meeting of diocesan synod — Jubilee — Bishop Williams
of Connecticut — Finlay asylum.
Even this heavy sorrow and his own continued illness did
not hinder him from exerting himself for the supply of the
spiritual wants of the few sheep over whom his heart yearned
on the coast of Labrador. There was, indeed, no time to be
lost before the closing of the navigation, and the Bishop went
to Lennoxville on the 6th September, to confer Priests' Orders
on a young Augustinian who had accepted his call to tend the
straggling flock. He sent him forth with great thankfulness
and comfort, being well persuaded, particularly from the
manner in which the call had been received, that he was
prepared to " endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ." Another Augustinian was at the same time admitted
to the diaconate, to supply the place of him who was going
to Labrador, on whom and on one other the Bishop laid
hands again at the last ordination which he held.* From
Lennoxville the Bishop proceeded to Montreal to attend
the first meeting of the Provincial Synod. He was still so
disabled that he could not take his place in the procession to the

* Three weeks after this the new-made priest was called upon to attend
the funeral of his Bishop, and this was the last public act in which he,
himself took part in the diocese, if not on earth. He was obliged to leave
the ranks of the procession by illness, from which he never recovered.
AA

394 MEMOIR OF
cathedral, but he nevertheless preached with unusual power
and energy before the Synod. The marks of sympathy
and affection with which he was everywhere received were
very soothing to him. In his address to the synod of his own
diocese in the preceding June, he had thus referred to the
appointment of a Metropolitan at Montreal :
" We are permitted to enter this day upon the business of our third
synodical session in this diocese. If our proceedings have not yet produced
any very marked effects, we must not suffer ourselves, on that account, to
be discouraged. It must be the history, I apprehend, of synodical action,
to work itself first, step by step, into a manageable shape and a capacity
for practical benefit, and it is then that the engine is set freely in motion
and so plays as to effect the purposes for which it is constructed. A great
and important addition to the machinery by which these operations are to
be conducted has been made, since we last met, by the appointment of a
Metropolitan of the Church of England in Canada, binding together the
several dioceses in order to their joint action in matters ecclesiastical, and
at the same time leaving each diocese free to provide separately for its own
local interests, and to regulate its own immediate affairs. I trust that we
shall be blessed in all this. I trust that we shall always approach and
carry through our task in a spirit of devout humility, and with firm faith
in the promises of grace and guidance made to us in Christ. I trust that
a religious, a christian character, a character different from that of mere
political organizations, will always be impressed upon our proceedings ;
and that none of us will insensibly be drawn into a habit of immersion
(with whatever aptitude for the purpose we may happen to be gifted,) in
the forms and details of business, to the prejudice either of that spiritual
frame of mind, or of that devotedness to pastoral labour, that close assiduity
of attention i,o the flock, which ought (and with heightened effect in a
missionary diocese like our own) to characterize the ministers of the
Gospel. " We have full reason, I think, to be satisfied with the location of the
metropolitan see at Montreal. The situation of that city is central : its
wealth and its population greatly surpass those of any other city in British
North America ; and it is more marked than any other by a general spirit
of progress and improvement. Nor is it a circumstance to be counted
absolutely for nothing, that it has now a really creditable cathedral
church, correct in design and beautiful in effect. As far as the person
holding the office is concerned, all parties must be thoroughly satisfied :
but, in point of fact, it is the place and not the person nor any personal
considerations of whatever kind, which ought to determine the choice of
the metropolitan see.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 395
¦" As matters actually stand, the establishment of this chief see at Mon
treal would involve an arrangement of which the prospect has given rise
to some jealousy, seeming not wholly unreasonable : for the diocese of
Montreal alone, having the election of its own Bishop, would thus choose
the man who is to have ecclesiastical authority over the whole Province. A
movement, however, has been made to provide against objections conceived
to attach to this feature of the arrangement, without disturbing the ar
rangement itself. Against any such remedial contrivances, however, as
would invest the metropolitan see with an ambulatory character, making
it shift about, upon the occurrence of vacancies, from diocese to diocese, I
should most energetically and solemnly protest.
" We now expect very soon to have a fifth bishopric established in Canada.
In our episcopal communion, the multiplication of bishoprics is the exten
sion of the Church and of her service in the cause of the Gospel — a very
natural and obvious consequence, and one which has been remarkably
exemplified in our own day. We are rather backward, I think, here,
as regards the interest which we take in the operations of the Church at a
distance; and the new task in which the Church of England has been per
mitted to engage in providing a local episcopate for the superintendence
of missions among the heathen beyond the limits of the British dominions
is an auspicious omen of great things to be achieved by her towards the
gathering in of the Gentiles, which ought to stir within us more thankful
emotion, more lively sympathy, more happy anticipation than is, I fear,
likely to be actually witnessed. That hearty engagement in the affairs of
our Church upon the spot, which is necessary to the effective character of
synodical action, will never have life among us, unless we catch a glow of
feeling reflected from abroad, and contract an animated sense of common
interest in the advance of the cause of Christ over the world at large.
" In our own particular case in this province, the principle of elective
Bishops has been introduced. Not that it has been made compulsory : we
are left free to choose our own method in each diocese of providing for
the occupation of the episcopate, and might leave the nomination, if we
saw good, in the hands of the Sovereign. But we may consider it, in a
manner, as a settled point, that all the bishoprics will be elective ; and the
day cannot be very remote when occasion will be given to put this prin
ciple in exercise within the diocese of Quebec. I hope the clergy and laity
will be prepared, when that day shall come, to act with a single eye to the
glory of God, to the salvation of souls, and to the progress and consolida
tion of the Church; — with an inviolate spirit of charity and forbearance;
with an utter repudiation of all worldly intrigue and partizanship, all
recourse to the arts of canvassing and caballing, — everything, in short,
which is described by the word electioneering in the transactions of popular
government in the world. Without staying to examine the question
respecting the preponderance of advantage in the system of election on the

396 MEMOIR OF
one side, or nomination by authority on the other, it must be admitted that
there are evils and dangers incident, generally, (for these remarks are not
prompted by any suspicion of our particular local tendencies and disposi
tions,) — incident, generally, to the elective principle : — evils and dangers
against which it may be for the wisdom of our synods to provide some
adequate guard. The sentiment of Dr. Johnson, with reference to a
question similar in its nature, within another communion established in
one portion of the British Isles, without being adduced as condemnatory
of the principle of election here in our view, may serve to indicate some of
those incidental consequences, the prevention of which must, on all hands,
be desired. Having had described to him, two parties, ' those for sup
porting the rights of patrons, independent of the people, and those against
it,' ' It should be settled,' he said, ' one way or the other.' ' I cannot wish
well,' he continues, ' to a popular election of the clergy when I consider
that it occasions such animosities, such unworthy courting of the people,
such slanders between the contending parties, and other disadvantages.
It is enough ' he concludes, ' to allow the people to remonstrate against the
nomination of a minister, for solid reasons.' " *
The appointment of the Metropolitan had been in entire
accordance with the wishes of the Bishop of Quebec. It has
been stated that the office was offered to himself; but this is
not strictly true, though, if it had not been for his interven
tion, an arrangement for giving it to" the senior bishop for the
time being, which had been actually agreed upon by the
authorities at home, and would have involved his acceptance
of it in the first instance, f would certainly have been carried
out. In the episcopal conferences held in London in 185S
on the subject of synodical action, it was understood that a
Metropolitan should be appointed for the whole of British
* I have inserted this passage, as well as that relating to the Metropoli
tan, as possessing a peculiar interest from the fact that the counsels which
it contains were so soon called for in his own diocese. The passage was -
re-printed in a Quebec paper just before the election of the present Bishop,
and probably contributed to produce the right spirit with which that election
was conducted.
t His patent as Bishop of Quebec dating in 1850, some of the officials at
home who had not ascertained that the dafe of his consecration was 1836,
imagined the Bishop of Toronto to be senior in office as well as in years,
and this gave rise to a report that his lordship was to be the Metropolitan.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 397
North America, according to the suggestion of the Bishops
who had met at Quebec in 1851, and that his seat should be
in that city. The Bishop of Quebec wrote privately, how
ever, to the Archbishop of Canterbury, to decline the honor
for himself, and recommended, at the same time, the appoint
ment of the Bishop of Montreal. And when he was informed
of the proposal just mentioned, which was supposed to be in
accordance with the prayer of three of the four Canadian
synods, he objected so strongly, not only on personal grounds,
but chiefly on account of the principle which was involved,
at the same time recommending Montreal as the best place,
that the present arrangement was 'made. Some disappoint
ment was felt within the diocese at his preference for Mon
treal over the mother-see, particularly as it carried a depar
ture from the practice which had prevailed in all similar
appointments in the colonies, and a feeling of the same kind
was more widely spread with regard to his own non-acceptance
of the office. But he justified his proceedings in a protest*
* The following is the protest :
Reasons against those portions of the printed draft for the amendment of the
Letters Patent (report of the committee No. 3), of which the object is
to leave open a power of transferring the metropolitan jurisdiction to
other sees within the Province.
1. Because the office of Metropolitan, according to the ancient and uni
versally (*) received usage of the Church and invariable practice of the
United Church of England and Ireland at home and abroad (there being
now five metropolitan sees in the colonial dependencies of the empire), is
attached permanently to a particular see.
2 . Because it is most highly inexpedient and undesirable to introduce
into any branch of the colonial Church any such marked deviation from
ancient ecclesiastical and Anglican usage, as would be involved in substi
tuting for the office of Metropolitan, properly understood, a sort of ambula
tory jurisdiction which would shift about from see to see.
3. Because the very title of Metropolitan imports the designation of a
particular city as the permanent seat of the jurisdiction attaching to that
(*) If any exception can be found, it is only such as to exemplify the
saying : Exceptio probat regulam.

398 MEMOIR OF
which he entered on the journal of the first Provincial Synod,
and which, when he caused it to be printed and circulated at
the second session of that body, had no inconsiderable weight
in producing the adoption of a measure accordant with his
own views.
In his sermon preached before the Synod, he went back
to the earliest times to shew the inherent right of the Church
to express her voice by her synods, and referred to the
measure of partial relief which had lately been accorded to
the Church of England :
" I forbear also from expatiating upon such happily increased facilities
for the work of the Church, and for the share assigned to her in the evange
lization of the world, as are found, first, in the partial loosening of the rein
office ; and the change now intended to be provided for would thus involve
a contradiction in terms.
4. Because the endeavor to modify the Letters Patent in the manner
proposed would, in the event of its being successful, nullify the professed
object of the petitions for the creation of such an office, and virtually set
aside the whole of the proceedings had in the case.
5. Because the appointment of Metropolitan having been made by Her
Majesty, in compliance with petitions to that effect proceeding from three
of the Canadian dioceses, it would be a plain inconsistency on the part of
the petitioners to seek so to alter the provisions of the Letters Patent that
there might by consequence be, in effect, no metropolitan see, and therefore
no true Metropolitan.
6. Because the petitions for such appointment evidently implied and
brought under the consideration of the Crown an appointment of the same
nature with those previously made in other parts of the empire.
7. Because the only objection of any apparent weight against the pro
visions of the Letters Patent in this behalf being the seemingly undue
preponderance of privilege assigned to the diocese of Montreal in electing
the Metropolitan by the act of electing its own Bishop, that objection may
be obviated by the transfer of such election (presuming the diocese of
Montreal to agree to the same) to the hands of the Provincial Synod, or by
other methods which that Synod, in its wisdom, may devise.
8. Because the city of Montreal is central in point of local situation, and
is, of all the cities in the province, the most populous, the most consider
able, the most prosperous, and the most increasing. (Signed,) G. J. Quebec.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 399
by which convocation was so long and so rigorously held fast; and
secondly, in the removal of all impediments to our sending missionary
bishops into heathen lands beyond our own dominions. The Church must
indeed be considered as in a hampered and crippled condition,-if it be
interdicted to her so to lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes,
that she can freely break forth on the right hand and on the left,* carrying
her ministry in its fulness into any of the outlying highways and hedges
of human society : Commissioned as she is by the voice of her Lord and
Master to announce, wherever the sun illumines the habitable portions of
the globe,f tna* all things are ready, and to bring in guests to His table
from among the outcasts of the world. ' Go ye into all the world and
preach the Gospel to every creature ; and lo ! I am with you alway, even
unto the end of the world.' Yes — blessed Lord— that is the lofty com
mission, and that the sustaining promise, which we have received from
Thee ; and we will not have any rest in our spirits till we, till we of the
Church of England, have done our part, trusting to Thyself to give the
increase, in contributing to bring on the glorious consummation — how
short, as yet, of its accomplishment 1 — when Thou shalt take to Thyself
all ' the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth
for Thy possession,' till ' the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of
the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.'
" Within the British dominions in North America, and, to a certain
extent, within our own province of Canada, we know that the Church
has done labour, and has labour to do, for a race reclaimed, or remaining
to be reclaimed from the darkness of heathenism and the wildness of savage
life. But labour where we will, and in whatever advanced condition of
civilized society, never, never will it cease to form part of our task that
we should turn men ' from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan
unto God.' And when we felicitate ourselves upon the enlargement of the
Church at home from fetters long fastened upon her without relaxation, as
well as upon the greater liberty and more open privilege which have been
conceded to us in this behalf in the colonies, we shall none of us, I trust,
forget, whether of the clergy or the laity who take part in our synods,
that the ultimate objects of all ecclesiastical deliberations and proceedings
are the glory of God and the salvation of the souls of men."
* *********
" And here I would observe farther, with reference to a point not wholly
without affinity to the remarks just made, that, as I do venture to think,
there is a great mistake committed by some eminently pious and zealous
* Is. liv. 2, 3.
t — 0 qua Sol habitabiles
Illustrat oras. — Hor.

400 MEMOIR OF
men who engage in the sacred work of extending the Gospel over the
world,  a great mistake when they seem to confine their object simply
and exclusively to the change to be operated upon individual souls, and
to repudiate all idea of enlarging the kingdom of Christ in any other
sense than as this effect is conceived to be produced — to measure, in short,
the whole work, in all its parts, by this standard alone. For, granting
most freely that we can never be too much in earnest in deprecating a
mere formal adoption of Christianity, a name in religion without the
reality of love, a mere carcase without life, it must be conceded, I think,
on the other hand, that with respect to the evidences of grace in indivi
dual subjects, we are apt sometimes to pronounce upon them from tests
which very insufficiently ascertain the case : — Men may be wrought upon,
on the one side, — in fact it is a very common occurrence, — so as to exhibit
what are accepted as decisive marks of conversion which may one day
prove to have been fallacious ; and the power of religion may have sunk
deeper into the hearts of others of a retiring character and a reserved
temperament than we are ready to imagine or allow. The great day
alone will bring all to light. I believe that, in this very point of view,
as well as in others, the saying of the Saviour will be signally verified,
that ' many that are first shall be last, and the last first.' It is a dangerous
forgetfulness to lose sight of the maxim that we are to ' judge nothing
before the time.' But this is not all. For supposing, argumenti gratia,
such a case as that the ministry of the Church, from whatever cause, should
be found, here or there, unsuccessful in the great work of turning sinners,
whether Jew, Turk, Pagan, or nominally Christian, from darkness to light
and from the power of Satan unto God, — are we to conclude from thence
that nothing is done when a foundation is laid, among any body of people,
for a scriptural and apostolic system of religion, — when the channels
are opened, the machinery prepared, the provisions established for intro
ducing and perpetuating a Church, which, in the lowest estimate of her per
formance, will distribute the Word and dispense the sacraments of Christ,
with the sanctification of the seventh day ; and by her very worship, by
her ordinances, by the cycle of her observances, will familiarize her people
with the great and saving truths of the i Gospel, of which these obser
vances may, in their digested series, be well said to exhibit an epitome ?
If we can imagine such a case as that all this can be done without any
present return of fruit, or immediately satisfactory result in the spiritual
condition of the worshippers, — upon which we ought never too hastily
or without sure warrant to render our verdict — yet is nothing done when
all is at least in fair train for carrying on the grand purposes of the
christian ministry, and the instruments are ready by which Christ may,
in God's good time, if it really has not been already done, be brought
effectually home to the hearts of men ?

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 401
" Among these instruments, we indulge the hope and trust that our
synods, now extensively introduced into the colonial dependencies of
the empire, will, in the active exercise of their functions, sustain an
important and beneficial part. Surveying all the provision and all the
apparatus of the Church for executing the commission confided to her
hands, we may contemplate, side by side with the delineations of our
text, those glowing words of the psalmist, ' Walk about Zion, and go
round about her, and tell the towers thereof. Mark well her bulwarks,
set up (or consider) her palaces, that ye may tell them that come after"
and we may adapt, in the way of application to our synods, the words
of another animated psalm, where the distinguished privileges of Zion are
portrayed, that there, as one of those special privileges, is the seat of
judgment.f We may look far back to the ancient Church of God in the
wilderness, and we see there Moses sitting to judge % the people — guiding
their movements, regulating their proceedings, resolving difficulties,
reconciling their differences, governing and administering their affairs at
large. Yet though he acted under a direct commission from on high,
enjoying " celestial colloquy sublime," § and was invested conspicuously
by the hand of God with wonder-working powers, we observe that he
availed himself at once of the suggestion offered by his father-in-law for
his relief. Jethro had just witnessed the oppressive weight of his labours,
as well as the inconvenience suffered by the people from his having to
deal single-handed with them all ; and recommended that, reserving for
his own jurisdiction the disposal of the higher and harder causes, he
should provide himself, out of all the people, with help. And the requisite
qualifications of these proposed assistants are specified. They were to
be ' able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness.' Moses
loved his people : he prayed, upon one occasion, in a strain similar to the
sentiment, expressed many centuries afterwards, on behalf of the same
people, by St. Paul, rather to be himself blotted out of the book of life,
than that the threatened doom should come upon them. And we see, in
another instance, how far he was superior to any mere personal jealousy
of power, such as would grudge to see others made participants of privi
leges vouchsafed to himself; ' Enviest thou for my sake? Would God
all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His
Spirit upon them !' ||
" These words, we remember, were uttered upon the occasion of assem
bling, by Divine command, the seventy elders,— the same body, in the
judgment of some divines, which had already been created, as just
noticed, upon the recommendation of his father-in-law. And the origin
is there supposed to be found of the Sanhedrim, or great council of

Psalm xlviii 11, 12, prayer-book translation. f Psalm cxxii, 5.
% Exodus xviii, 13. § Paradise Lost. || Numbers xi, 29.

402 MEMOIR OF
seventy, which subsisted so long as the nation had a home. The govern
ment and legislation of the State and the government and legislation of
the Church having been, under the system given to the Israelites, so
intertwined and incorporated together as to constitute, in a manner, one
and the same thing, this Sanhedrim may be considered as having been
alike an ecclesiastical synod and a feature in the political organization
of the country.
" The first Council of the christian Church of which we have record is
that held at Jerusalem upon the question, which had been agitated with
much heat, of imposing upon the Gentile converts the obligation to be
circumcised and to keep the law of Moses. The deputation from Antioch
were to address themselves to the Apostles and elders (or presbyters), and
the Apostles and elders came together, accordingly, to consider of this
matter. But we see that the multitude of believers were present, and that
after the address of James, who appears to have presided, a voice was
given, in the decision upon the course to be adopted, to the Church at
large. It pleased the Apostles and elders, with the whole Church, to send
chosen men to Antioch with written instructions for the believers there
upon the subject in dispute. The authors of these instructions announce
themselves, in the form of greeting by which the missive is headed, as the
Apostles, elders and brethren ; and they proceed to say, it seemed good
unto us, i. e. to us the Apostles, elders and brethren just mentioned,
being assembled with one accord, to send chosen men* It does appear,
therefore, that, while a distinctive place and character are preserved, in
terms sufficiently marked, to the Apostles and elders, the body of believers,
under the names of the whole Church and the brethren, were associated in
the transaction. To a similar effect is the testimony afforded in a passage
from the writings of St. Paul. St. Paul certainly never leads us to lose
sight of the estimation and reverent consideration of the christian
ministry. Yet we find that Apostle, where he refers to a judicial pro
ceeding in the exercise of discipline within the infant Church of Corinth,
declaring the sufficiency of a punishment which he describes as having
been ' inflicted of many.'
" Some standing co-operation, therefore, of the laity in the conduct of
matters ecclesiastical appears to have been established, both under the
law and in apostolic days under the Gospel, as a. sort of constitutional
feature of the Church."
* * * *******
" Upon the whole, then, we have been doing nothing new, nothing
rashly experimental, nothing unsustained by ancient nor yet — for look
at the progress and successful working of the Church in the neighbouring
* Acts xv. 6, 22, 23, 25.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 4X33
republic — by modern principles and practices, in enlisting the help of
our lay-brethren and inviting their active interest in the management of
our Church affairs. These affairs are their own affairs ; for it is they
who, with us, constitute the Church — and why should they not have a
voice in the deliberations and the administrative functions of that
Church? They will not, on their part, seek to usurp more than their
place. The- more familiar they are made, by their practical share in it,
with the system of the Church, the more intelligent and the more lively
will be their appreciation of it ; the better they will understand the ne
cessity of preserving an inviolable regularity and a well-balanced subor
dination in her associated proceedings. As we, on our side, are taught
that we are not to lord it over- the heritage nor to affect dominion over
their faith ; as we are ready, while ' we preach not ourselves but Christ
Jesus our Lord,' to be their ' servants for Jesus' sake,' — so they, on theirs,
will not fail to remember that their teachers are set over them in the
Lord and that they are charged, with reference to the pastoral office of
the clergy and the maintenance of conformity to the regulations of the
Church, to obey them that have the rule over them and submit themselves
to those who watch for their souls as they that must give account. Never
ought these principles to be lost sight of, from any desire of popularity for
its own sake, or in accommodation to any prevalent notions of the day ;
for there will always be some reigning and favourite error, and it will
always be part of the duty of the Church of God to testify against
it. What we have to do in our synodical proceedings is to carry on,
ministers and people hand in hand, the system delivered down to us in the
episcopal Church of England ; and while we forbear from pronouncing
upon the case of bodies differently constituted, or decrying their efficiency
and zeal, none of us, whatever position we may occupy, ought, from any
false personal delicacy, to suffer, without seeking to prevent it, the dis
tinctive principle of our own system to be either assailed or undermined —
the principle, linked inseparably as a safeguard with the preservation of
order, unity, stability and soundness in the Church, that the supreme
government of the Church and the channel for the conveyance of minis
terial power are found in the Order of Bishops. Men among ourselves, and
good men, too, may be found seeking to discredit this principle, and teach
others to sneer at it as an exploded notion ; but does any man seriously and
deliberately believe that the ministry of the Church of England or any of
her offshoots will ever, while the world lasts, be constituted and carried
on upon any other principle than that which compelled the episcopalians
of America, at the close of the revolutionary war, to procure consecration
in England for the men who were to hold and pass on the episcopal office,
and through that office to have the title transmitted for the other two
Orders of the ministry ? Would not the very men who cry down these
principles, or who shrink from asserting them, be rather backward, if it

404 MEMOIR OF
came to the point, to accept a ministry which should be fabricated, de
novo, at the will of this or that self-constituted authority, in order to
provide for the demands of the Church ? fro — look, in this very point
of view, as well as in others, upon Zion, the city of our solemnities : — She
is a tabernacle that shall not be taken down ; not one of the stakes thereof
shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken*
" Never, I trust, will the peculiar Anglican stamp, the genuine Angli
can character and spirit, (with whatever necessity for some partial
adaptation to local circumstances) be obliterated from our colonial
institutions. They are dear and most justly dear to our hearts ; and
fervently may we hope, and fully may we trust, that the establishment
of a metropolitan jurisdiction, in compliance with our own petitions, and
in conformity with the Anglican system at home and abroad, will tend
to confirm and to perpetuate our close identity with the honoured institu
tions which have been passed to us from our fathers. But while we are
-charged in our synodical capacity with the duty of carrying out the
system of the Church of England in its integrity, we must remember that
there may be such things as discipline to be improved, deflections in
practice and usage to be corrected — neglects to be repaired — and the full
original intention of ecclesiastical provisions and appointments to be
recovered. " And here I might enlarge upon a variety of points of this nature —
but we should open a wide field upon which it is impossible now to enter,
for these observations must be drawn to their close. I will barely
enumerate, therefore, some two or three examples in point, which ought,
in my apprehension, to be kept in view, as subjects for correction gra
dually to be effected as the time shall serve : — Such as the revival, in its
proper efficiency, of the office of deacons and the employment perhaps of
school-master deacons to continue in that grade ; but never the admission
to holy Orders of men engaged in trades or callings purely secular. Or
the restoration of rule and discipline in the admission of new or unknown
comers to the holy communion, and of parties who present themselves to fill
the office of sponsors, with reference to which last I presume that we are
to have the advantage here of the action taken in convocation at home
to adapt the 29th Canon to the altered circumstances of the Church : —
And I think that we ought to take some steps to turn better to our own
spiritual improvement and the effective condition of the Church certain
particular observances provided for that end,_such as the set seasons for
special objects, and among others the neglected ember-days which suggest
¦everywhere the prayers of the faithful at the times of ordination, that we
may be furnished with godly and able ministers of Christ. I will say

* Isaiah xxxiii, 20, the text of the sermon.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 405
nothing — for I must stop — respecting the recommendation of a closer
attention wherever it is fairly practicable (and to such extent I may be
pardoned, perhaps, for stating that I have long ago enforced that attention
within my own diocese), to the law laid down for us by the Church that
we should, for the more reverence of feeling and edifying solemnity of
effect, celebrate the sacrament of baptism and the ordinance of marriage
within consecrated walls."
On his way from Montreal to Quebec, after the close of the
synod, the Bishop held confirmations at Three Rivers, Nicolet,
Portneuf and Bourg Louis, where sixty-three persons were con
firmed, making 592 at twenty-seven confirmations during the
' year. He reached home on the 20th September, and on the
2nd October set out on another journey to Lennoxville, to
attend a meeting of the convocation of Bishop's College.
He visited the college again in November, and this closed his
journeyings for 1861. During this year he had the happiness
of carrying out a project on which his heart had long been set,
the appointment of a chaplain to serve the port of Quebec.
In March, 1862, he went to Kingston, to take part in
the consecration of the Bishop of Ontario, and early in the
following May set out for the visitation of the missions in
the Gulf, choosing this season in the hope of being in time
to afford the benefit of confirmation to the many young men
who had missed it on previous occasions from being engaged
in the whale fishery. He was so fortunate as again to procure
a passage in the steamer which had conveyed him to Labrador,
and his first mark was the Magdalen Islands, in approaching
which the steamer was kept out a whole night in the ice.
The Bishop was unfortunately so ill as to be unable to leave
the steamer at House Harbour, and that place, as well as Grosse
Isle, was consequently unvisited. By a great effort he held
a confirmation at Amherst, and the day following at Entry
Island, where he administered the rite as he sat on his chair,
being too weak to stand, and afterwards addressed the candi
dates. It was with the greatest difficulty that he could be
dissuaded from remaining at the Islands to complete his work,

406 MEMOIR OF
with recovered strength, after the steamer should have gone, and
trusting to the mail schooner for a conveyance to the mainland.
He was so ill, however, that he yielded the point, and bade a
sorrowful adieu to his friends at Entry Island. A few days'
rest at New Carlisle, with the care of kind friends, restored
him, with God's blessing, so far as to enable him to resume
the visitation of the district. The church at Port Daniel
was used for the first time for any episcopal ministrations ; and
the new church at Perc6, of which the interior arrangements
and furniture elicited his special commendation, was conse
crated. The Bishop reached Quebec on the 1st June, and at
the end of the same month attended the annual convocation
of Bishop's College, returning home to hold a visitation of the
clergy, in the cathedral, on the 1st July, and to meet the
synod on the same day. His charge to the clergy was
chiefly occupied with a warning against the dangers of which
the recent publication of Essays and Reviews afforded an
example, and with some practical directions, especially with
regard to pastoral visitation. It concluded with these words,
the last he was permitted to address to his clergy collectively :
" And oh ! may God, in all our endeavours, in all our institu
tions, in all our difficulties and struggles, in all our ordinary
labours, shed down upon us His abundant blessing, and give us
grace, by the power of His Holy Spirit, never once to look
back, never to fail in seeking the glory of our Master and the
good of our brethren upon earth, — never to forget the solemn
charge from the lips of the Lord, and the magnificent encour
agement with which it is coupled, Be thou faithful unto
DEATH, AND I WILL GIVE THEE A CROWN OF LIFE." The Same
spirit breathed in his address to the synod, delivered the
same day, of which the closing words were, " May God give
grace to us to work together in wisdom and in love, and bless
and prosper our work, that we may be effectually instrumental
in promoting the great and sacred interests with which we are
charged. The glory be all to Him, Father, Son and Holy
Ghost, Whose we are and Whom we serve."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 407
The attention of the synod was mainly engaged with the
final- arrangements for the constitution of the diocesan board,
the first meeting of which was presided over by the Bishop
on the 4th July, the day after the close of the session of the
synod. But there was one resolution which must find a
prominent place in this memoir, and which does credit to the
kindness of heart of him who moved it, and with whom its idea
originated. It was moved by W. G. Wurtele, Esq., and
seconded by Rev. J. W. Williams, and " carried by accla
mation, all the members of the synod rising up and remaining
standing, while the Bishop, with much emotion, expressed
his grateful sense of the kind feeling and affectionate attach
ment involved in the resolution and the manner of its adoption ;
" That a committee be appointed, consisting of the Revds. Rural Dean
Milne and E. W. Sewell, and Messrs. H. S. Scott and J. B. Forsyth, with the
mover and seconder, to prepare an address of congratulation, to be pre
sented, on behalf of the synod, to the Lord Bishop of the diocese, on the 2nd
August next, being the day on which his lordship will (D.V.) complete
the fiftieth year of his ministry, and that on that occasion as many of the
clergy and lay delegates as can conveniently attend do make it a duty to
be present ; and farther, that divine service be celebrated in the cathedral
church, with the administration of the holy communion, and that a sermon
be preached on the morning of that day, and that the Right Rev. John
Williams, D.D., Assistant Bishop of Connecticut, be requested to preach
on the occasion."
" In accordance with the above resolution, on Saturday, 2nd August,
18S2, the members of the Church of England in this diocese, celebrated
the fiftieth anniversary of the admission to the sacred ministry of their
venerable and beloved Bishop. During the half century through which
his lordship has laboured in the fulfilment of his arduous duties, he has
not only endeared himself to the members of the Church, but has also
won the respect and esteem of the community at large. A general interest
was therefore taken in the commemoration of the anniversary.
" Soon after nine o'clock a large number of ladies and gentlemen, in
cluding the clerical and lay delegates of the diocesan synod, assembled in
the Lecture Hall, Ann-street, for the purpose of assisting at the presenta
tion of an address to his lordship. At the appointed hour, the Bishop
being seated at the head of the room with the Right Rev. John Williams,
D.D., Assistant Bishop of Connecticut, and his chaplain, the Rev. II.
DeKoven, on one side, and the Revds. J. H. Nicolls, D.D., and S. S. Wood,

408 MEMOIR OF
M.A., chaplains to the Lord Bishop of Quebec, on the other, the committee
entered the hall, preceded by the clergy and lay delegates ; and advancing
to his lordship, the Rev. A. Balfour, incumbent of Kingsey, read in a
clear and distinct voice the following —
ADDRESS.
To the Right Reverend Father in God, George Jehoshaphat, by Divine
permission, Lord Bishop of Quebec, D.D., D.C.L., 4rc, fyc.
May it please your lordship :
Half a pentury having this day elapsed since your lordship's entrance
into holy Orders, we, the clergy and laity of the diocese of Quebec, beg to
approach your lordship with the expression of our unfeigned affection and
filial attachment, and at the same time to render our hearty thanks to
Almighty God, Who has been pleased to prolong, beyond the ordinary
period, a life and ministry which have been productive of so many blessings
to the United Church of England and Ireland in Canada.
Many of us have been baptized, have been confirmed, have received the
Lord's Supper at your hands ; and many of us of the clergy have been
admitted into the sacred ministry of the Church by your lordship ; words
must therefore fail adequately to convey all that is in our hearts this
day. Of your diligent labours as a parish priest at Fredericton and Quebec,
of the privations and trials cheerfully borne by your lordship in your
many and arduous missionary journeys, extending from Red River to
Gasp6, both before and since your elevation to the episcopate, and at
a time when, from the absence of the facilities now enjoyed, travelling
involved hardships and dangers of no ordinary kind, we can, many of us,
speak only from the grateful reports of others. Their memory, however,
still lives, and will ever remain to the Church, the unconscious legacy
of a devoted missionary, willing to spend and be spent in the service of
his Lord.
For more than half the term of your ministry, your lordship has
discharged the duties of a Bishop in the Church of God, how faithfully and
how devotedly is known to all. For several years, sustained by indefati
gable energy and unflagging zeal, your lordship was the Bishop of a
diocese stretching from Lake Huron to the Atlantic; and now when,
happily, that vast diocese has been subdivided into five, each of dimensions
sufficiently ample to task the energies of a Bishop of its own, we cannot
but congratulate ourselves that our lot has been cast in that portion of it
which still remains under your lordship's personal supervision.
We trust that it may be neither presumptuous in us, nor unwelcome to
your lordship, if now, when about to meet together in the house of God,
and to partake in faith and love of the holy Eucharist, we first gladden

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 409
our hearts with a brief and scanty retrospect of some of the many blessings
which the great Head of the Church has vouchsafed to this diocese during
your episcopate.
Inadequate as are in number the clergy in this portion of the Lord's
vineyard, still would we lift up our hearts in solemn thanksgiving when
we reflect that not a few of the poorest and most remote settlements in this
province are this day cheered and blessed with the ministrations of our
beloved Church.
May God, by His Holy Spirit, enable us, one and all, clergy as well as
laity, to render, for the time to come, a truer and more active obedience to
our crucified and risen Redeemer, and to be more self-denying in our
labours in behalf of our brethren for whom He died !
Ample provision has been made for the maintenance of a successor in
the see.
The clergy reserve fund forms a nucleus for the endowment of the diocese.
Ten separate endowments have been established, and are steadily
increasing, and to these five others will be added in the course of the
present year.
The management of the financial affairs of the rural missions has been
recently confided to a board, under the direction of the diocesan, a measure
from which we anticipate the happiest results.
The University of Bishop's College, founded and endowed chiefly by
your lordship's exertions, has now been for seventeen years in successful
operation. During this period the college has sent forth forty-five clergy
men, to labour either in this or some other diocese of the province.
For twenty-one years the incorporated Church Society has conferred
incalculable benefits upon the diocese.
The sagacity which moved your lordship so anxiously to desire, and so-
strenuously to promote, the inauguration of synodical action, has been
evinced by the success which has already attended the periodical meetings
of our diocesan synod.
When we look around and see the increasing brotherly love and
christian toleration prevailing amongst us, truly would we take up the
psalmist's words and say with him—' How pleasant and joyful a thing it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity.'
And it is the heartfelt conviction of those who now address your lord
ship that for this real unity, peace, and concord, we are mainly indebted
to the gentle wisdom, and the holy example of our beloved Bishop.
On the courteous and christian suavity which so eminently distinguishes
your lordship, on your scholarly attainments and theological learning, of
which we are justly proud, on the depth and delicacy of your kindness,
on the single-mindedness with which you discharge the grave duties of
your office, we would willingly enlarge, but for reasons which cannot and
will not be misunderstood, we forbear. BB

410 MEMOIR OF
That you may" live long in the enjoyment of that intellectual vigour and
bodily activity which you continue to manifest; that we may for many
years yet to come reap the fruits of the wisdom pf your counsels, of the
excellence of your example, and of the paternal gentleness of your govern
ment, is, we beg once more to assure you, right reverend father in God,
the heartfelt, unanimous prayer of the Church in your diocese."
Quebec, August 2, 1862.
On behalf of the Committee of Synod,
Chas. Hamilton, M.A., W. G. Wurtele,
Clerical Secy, of Synod. Chairman.
J. Bell Forsyth, Lay Secretary. ,
To which his lordship returned the following
REPLY.
" The address which has just been read to me from my dear brethren of
the clergy and laity of this diocese cannot possibly be otherwise than
acceptable to my feelings ; and what is especially grateful to me and
precious in my estimation is the affectionate tone by which it is marked.
The only drawback from its value is the consciousness on my own part
(a common thing perhaps to say, but it is said now in the utmost sincere
conviction,) of the manner in which your good will towards me has
prompted you to overcharge the picture both of my labours and of my
qualifications. I am almost sorry for the effect, but I cannot quarrel with
the cause. It is comforting to me more than tongue can tell or pen
describe, to receive the assurance that my ministry in the Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ has, by the blessing of Him Who giveth the increase,
been productive, to whatever extent, of those fruits which constitute the
end and object of the pastoral charge in its different grades. In my own
retrospect of my ministry, if I may venture perhaps to hope that I have
'received mercy to be faithful,' and if thus I have enjoyed an exalted
privilege, yet I cannot fail to be touched by a humbling sense of multiplied
failures and deficiencies, and thence to need all the encouragement which
may be afforded to me. I thank you, then, from my heart for the cheering
effect of your present address : and I trust it will help to stimulate me, in
the small remainder of my days upon earth, to a closer and closer prepara
tion for the night which cometh, when no man can work.
" It is a happy thought that so many kind members of the Church, lay as
well as clerical, have given their time, their counsel, and their constantly
active help, in establishing and advancing those undertakings and insti
tutions of the diocese, to which reference is made in your address. How
large a proportion of credit is due in those quarters for the success of our

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 411
Church operations, how little, comparatively, would have been effected
"but for the zeal, ability, and perseverance of those friends, is what it needs
not to speak ; but it is what I never, for my own share, can be so
ungrateful as to forget.
" May God, of His abundant mercy, give us grace always to cultivate
such mutual relations, that in looking to the consummation of all things,
your Bishop may have warrant for applying to our own case the words of
the Apostle, " For what is our hope or joy or crown of rejoicing ? Are
not even ye, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming ?"

At half-past ten o'clock divine service was celebrated in the cathedral.
A very large congregation was in attendance, including his Excellency
the Governor-General, accompanied by Lady Monck and family. Upwards
•of thirty-five clergymen were present, among whom were several from
other dioceses. An eloquent and most appropriate sermon was preached
by the Right Reverend J. Williams, D.D., Assistant Bishop of Connecticut.
This noble discourse, adorned as it was by the admirable delivery of the
eloquent prelate, can never be forgotten by any one who had the happiness
of being present on this interesting occasion.
A full cathedral service was performed by the choir, under the able
direction of Mr. J. Pearce, Mus. Bac. Oxon, organist of the cathedral.
The first part of the prayers were said by the Rev. A. J. Woolryche,
incumbent of Pointe Levi, the psalms for the day being chanted by the
choir. The first lesson, Jeremiah xxxi., was read by the Rev. J. W.
Williams, M.A., Professor of Belles-Lettres in the University of Bishop's
College, Lennoxville, and Rector of the Junior Department ; and the
second lesson, St. John xxi., by the Rev. J. H. Jenkins, B.A., incumbent
of Frampton. The remainder of morning prayer was said by the Rev. J.
H.- Thompson, M.A., Canpn and Assistant Minister of Christ Church
Cathedral, Montreal.
The anthem for the occasion was from Psalm li. 9, 10, 11.
After the Sanctus, the Bishop of Quebec read the ante-communion
service, the epistle and gospel being read by Rev. H. DeKoven, of the
Berkeley Divinity School, Middlebury, Connecticut.
The following hymn was then sung, in which the congregation heartily
joined : When all Thy mercies, 0 my God, &c.
The Rev. J. H. Nicolls, D.D., read the offertory sentences, and a collec
tion was taken up on behalf of the Mountain Jubilee Scholarship.
The Holy Communion was administered to a large body of the clergy
and laity, the Bishop of Quebec being the celebrant. He was assisted in
the distribution of the elements by the Assistant Bishop of Connecticut,

412 MEMOIR OF
the Rey. H. DeKoven, and the Revds. Rural Dean Wood, M.A., G. V.
Housman, M.A., and J. H. Nicolls, D.D., chaplains to the Lord Bishop of
Quebec. The benediction, by the Bishop of Quebec, closed this most
interesting service.
At the close of the service, the Lord Bishop of Quebec was attended by
a large number of the clergy and congregation to the Finlay Asylum, on
the St. Foy Road, when that institution, then recently finished, was.
formally opened with a special service, and an address by his lordship..
The ceremony had been purposely deferred until this auspicious day.
In connection with the celebration, the following circular had previously
been issued : " Quebec, 24th July, 1862.
" Dear Sir, — It is proposed to mark in perpetuity the full completion of
our venerable Bishop's service of half a century in the christian ministry,
by establishing a scholarship or a prize, in the University of Bishop's
College, Lennoxville, to be called the ' Mountain Jubilee Scholarship,' or
' Prize,' as the case may be.
"A sum of $1,000 would endow a scholarship with1 $80 a year. A sum
of $500 would yield a revenue of $40, which might be spent on a medal
or on books, to be given annually as a prize.
"If the sum (of $1,000) necessary to establish the scholarship be raised,,
it is proposed that the scholarship should be open to all candidates for
holy Orders, and tenable for three years.
" If the sum of $500 only be raised, it is proposed that the prize shall
be given to the divinity student who affords most satisfaction to the
examiners in elocution — the reading of a chapter in the Bible and of a
portion of the liturgy being included in the examination.
" The suggestion that the completion of the' fiftieth year of our Bishop's
service in the christian ministry should be marked in some enduring
manner, in addition to the formal presentation of an address from the
synod, and the solemn services to be held in the cathedral on the anni
versary itself, has proceeded from so many quarters that the proposal is
certain to recommend itself strongly to every member of the Church.
Your co-operation is invited in making this proposal known in your
nsighbourhood. " In order to afford an opportunity to every member of the Church to
join in this work, it should be understood that the smallest contributions
will be admitted.
" In order that the proposal may become a fact before the 2nd August,
it is evident there is no time to be lost in forwarding contributions.
" Our hope that others would have undertaken this matter must be our
apology for the short notice which is now given ; and our unwillingness

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 413
that such an excellent suggestion, proceeding simultaneously from so
many, should not be carried into execution, our defence for putting our
selves forward. " Your obedient and humble servants, " Jas. Bell Forsyth.
" c. n. montizambert.
" A. J. Woolryche.
" C. Hamilton.
" Henry Roe."
In answer to the above appeal, the sum of $950 was at once cheerfully
subscribed, and many friends from abroad have promised donations, which,
when received, will swell the amount considerably beyond the sum men
tioned in the circular.
Quebec, August 30, 1862. W. G. W.
The foregoing account was drawn up at the time, and
published as an appendix to the sermon of the Bishop of
Connecticut. That prelate displayed great good feeling and
delicacy in accepting, and also in discharging, the task im
posed upon him. He was anxious not to say too much, out
of regard to the sensitiveness of one who, he knew, shrank
from praise, but he said —
" I will try not to make you feel uncomfortable, and to be as reticent,
on points where your wishes would enjoin silence, as possible."
He discharged his task to the satisfaction of all who had
invited him to undertake it ; and that the occasion was not
without interest and pleasure to himself may be inferred not
only from the sermon, but from his letters written a few
months later : —
" I can almost see the good Bishop, my truly honoured and beloved friend
and brother, now, as I saw him last, on the evening of the 5th August,
standing in his door, and waving his adieux to us as we drove away. If
the thought crossed my mind that I might perhaps never see him on earth
again, it only crossed it as it always does when one parts from friends
whom one rarely meets. How little could I dream that in five months he
was to gain the rest of Paradise ! God's will be done ! But I assure you
there is a feeling of vacancy and sorrow in many hearts beyond the limits
of his own family and diocese. Applied to him, the line on Berkeley was
hardly an exaggeration, for he did really seem to have
' Every virtue under heaven.'

414 MEMOIR OF
... My affectionate reverence for him as a godly and learned prelate,,
and truly holy man, has constantly been growing from the first time I was
privileged to meet him — in 1845; and I am truly thankful that I was
permitted to see him as I did during the last summer, and to be refreshed
and strengthened by his kind words and. wise counsels. It was in great
mercy that God gave such a man to be a chief pastor in His Church, and
we should not mourn that, in a good old age, He has given him, as one of
his beloved, sleep. . . May the good Lord comfort you all, my dear
brother,* in this our bereavement, and in His own good time, send you
one to walk in the steps of him whom He has taken from you. No one
need ask more than that."
In connection with the mention of the Mountain Jubilee
Scholarship, I may here give the testimony rendered, while
he was still living, to the character of the Bishop of Quebec,
by the Metropolitan of Canada. It is extracted from one of
many most gratifying letters received from all sorts and
conditions of men, with reference to the foundation of the*
scholarship, and enclosed a handsome contribution : f
" Few individuals, I feel sure, can appreciate more highly than I do the
loveliness of his christian character, or the value of his labours, of which
I have reaped so greatly the advantage in the foundation laid by him for
the Church of Christ, upon which it has been my endeavour to carry on
the work he had so well begun."
The feeling of him whom his diocese, and good men with
out its limits, thus delighted to honour, may be gathered
from the following extracts from his own letters written at
the time :
" The address is quite undesirably laudatory, for when we know our
selves, and remember ourselves, such language grates against our feelings.
However, it is well that the effect should take in the Church, and among
them that are without, of high appreciation of episcopal labours, &c.
. I shrink from the thought of that day, and its bustle and praise,
* This is extracted from » letter addressed to a clergyman in Quebec,
not one of the Bishop's family.
t Not the least gratifying among these letters was one from a young
officer in India, a native of Canada, begging his father to add his name to
the list of contributors to the scholarship, having learned the design from
the newspapers.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 415
of which I would fain escape from being the subject ; and I feel the 2nd
August, upon another ground, to be a day upon which I should like to be
quiet ; but, so far as the Church is concerned, it is probably desirable that
the celebration should take place. My fifty years in the ministry might
have been infinitely better filled up than they have been ; things done and
things left undone alike suggest thoughts of self-humiliation 
What I like in the address is an affectionate tone which runs through it."
The other event, of which the 2nd August was the anniver
sary, was his marriage, and there were special reasons why
he should mark its recurrence this year. It was the first
that had occurred since he had lost her who had witnessed
his ordination fifty years before, and his sense of solitude
could not fail thus to be sharpened. And the double observ
ance, too, must have brought her remembrance forcibly to
his mind. For the three institutions which now found a
common shelter under the roof of the Finlay Asylum, the
Male and Female Orphan Asylums, and the Church Home
for widows and infirm persons, all reckoned her among their
originators. The two former have been already mentioned
in these pages. But after the orphans had been provided
with a home, she felt that a similar benefit should be con
ferred upon the widows of the parish, and in 1850 laid aside
a certain sum towards, the building of such an institution,
which was designed to serve also a memorial of the son whom
they had lately lost. In the meanwhile she hired part of
a house, where two or three widows were placed, whom she
constantly visited and cared for. The plan, however, did
not answer her expectations, for it happened that most of the
persons whom she then befriended had children, and were
sufficiently young to be able to earn their own living, and it
became apparent that their comfort would be more promoted
by their living apart. The memorial, therefore, took another
form, the money being applied towards the erection of the
chancel of St. Michael's chapel. But the idea was not lost
sight of, and when a legacy, which came into the hands of
the Bishop in 1852, from Miss Finlay of Quebec, for the

416 MEMOIR OF
benefit of the poor of the parish, had reached a sufficient
sum, a house was purchased, to which some old and infirm
men (who had before been gathered under a roof provided
bj another charitable lady) were removed, and the place
was opened towards the close of the year 1857, under the
name of the Finlay* Asylum. About a year later, the
Bishop (who had all along taken the greatest interest in the
institution, and constantly visited the inmates,) received a
note from a lady in Quebec (herself a widow,) enclosing
a donation for the asylum, which he supposed might be
of ten or twenty dollars, but when he opened the cheque he
found it to be for two thousand. With this help the corporation
of the institution (consisting of himself and the cathedral
church-wardens) resolved to remove it to a better site, and
to endeavour to raise funds for the erection of a handsome
building, the foundation-stone of which was laid by the donor
of $2,000,t on the 10th May, 1860. The formal opening took
place, as above mentioned, on the 2nd August, 1862, with a
special service, prepared by the Bishop, who afterwards
delivered " a touching address." The event was a subject
of the deepest thankfulness to him.
* Miss Finlay also bequeathed $2,000 to the Bishop for the widows and
¦orphans of the clergy.
f The same lady made a subsequent donation of $400, accompanied by
one of $300 from one of her sons, who afterwards bequeathed $2,000 to
the Church Home, and $2,000 to the Male Orphan Asylum.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 417

CHAP. XXVIII.
Summer of 1862 — Letters to his family — Latest acts of his life — Last
illness and death.
It was perhaps the peacefulness of his diocese and parish
which produced in this year (1862) an unwonted, or rather a
more uniform, cheerfulness of mind, and apparently renewed
strength of body.* A clergyman in Quebec wrote of him
in the summer of this year — " Our dear Bishop seems to
have taken a new lease of his hfe." Alas for human fore
sight ! God was bringing him "peace at the last," to pre
pare him, in great mercy, for the blessed state, " where the
wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest." He
gave him full strength of body and mind for His work so long
as He willed that he should do it here. His letters to his
children written during this year are overflowing, as ever, with
affection and interest in them, and all that belonged to them,
though generally written in great haste, from the pressure of
business. I make one or two extracts from those addressed
to myself: —
" It is really a matter of lively interest to follow you in your Norfolk
wanderings and your visit to Norwich. * * * It is very delightful to observe,
incidentally, in your account of things, the still growing recovery of

* He was never fond of walking, though an admirable horseman, yet in
August he rose one morning soon after five (having been in bed less than
five hours) and walked more than two miles and back before breakfast to
refresh himself with a swim in the St. Lawrence. He never lost an oppor
tunity of going into the water when he had time on his journeyings, but
this seldom presented itself at Quebec. ¦

418 MEMOIR OF
ancient usages and helps to reverence in the worship of God, and the
earnestness of churchmen in making their worship really a thing of the
first interest and importance.* The advance of religion in every other
way is coupled with this, and goes on pari passu. * * * Your description
of your movements, and of the people, scenes, and objects with which you
meet, but particularly your mention of my dear relatives still remaining,
prompts a longing sigh to see my own country once more before I die :
but it seems scarcely worth while for a person who will so soon have done
forever with this world to undertake such a visit, and perhaps hardly
justifiable to leave my charge when I have no great Church object to carry,
and to incur an expense of which the amount might do very sensible good
for different objects of religion or charity in this poor diocese. I have
little to do now in the way of planning journeys except to journey about
among my clergy and people, and to prepare myself better (which there is,
ample room to do) for the last journey of all, seeking a better country, that is
an heavenly. I do not deny that I could find great delight now in visiting
the continentf as well as in re-visiting England, but I believe it will end in
my making up my mind to cross the Atlantic no more. * * * I hope and
trust that the present little interruption of your ordinary labours will
refresh your spirit and minister to your enjoyment and invigorate your
"health." The remainder of the year 1862 was spent at home, with
the exception of four short absences : one in August, to give
a Sunday to Murray Bay, ninety miles below Quebec ; the
second to attend the Provincial Synod at Montreal, on his
» In a letter written in 1844, he said, " 0 that we could see all churches
like that which you describe ! 0 vile, vile disfigurements which have over
spread the houses of God in the land."
t In a letter written nearly twenty years earlier, he said, " It is good to
get a glimpse (or more if we can) of foreign lands. * * * My early and con
tinued longings after the continent I mentioned to you before. I have been
a great traveller, but other travels have been ordered for me than those for
which I once longed. In 1843 I travelled between 8,000 and 9,000 miles :
and my memorable journey to the Rubicon through the ' waste howling
wilderness,' affords more ground of thankfulness and satisfaction than if I
had been enabled to gratify my tastes by a continental tour. Even now
I should delight in going through the continental countries of Europe to
Jerusalem. But I indulge in no such vision ; all that I hope for is that,
through the mercy of God, I may so pass through the journey of life, as
to reach at last the Jerusalem which is above."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 419
return from which he spent a Sunday in the neighbourhood
of the St. Francis river, where his presence seemed to be
required ; the third to visit Bishop's College in October, and the
last in December, to administer the holy communion at Port-
neuf, then served by a deacon.* In September he admitted a
young Augustinian to deacon's Orders, who came to Canada
for the purpose of serving at Labrador, where he relieved his
fellow-collegian who had preceded him. The Bishop was
greatly interested in this young man, both for his work's
sake, and for his own. In his sermon at the ordination he
referred specially to the wants of Labrador, which produced
a response, among others, the next day, in the shape of a
donation of $100 from a member of the same family already
alluded to in connection with the Church Home. He wrote
to me saying that he meant to put this and the other sums
by as the beginning of a fund for church-building &c. on
the coast, to which he thought of adding, if he were spared,
four hundred dollars himself. He was not spared, how
ever, long enough to do this, but his thoughts and prayers
were with the missionary at Labrador to the last. In his
last illness, when he could not speak without the greatest
pain and difficulty, and did so only on subjects which he
wished specially to remember, he said one day, " Poor little
C  , God bless him and his work, and open the way
for us there." And the very last word he uttered, when
he saw his end closely approaching, before he turned to
bless his children and dependents, was the single word
" Labrador." That end was drawing now much nearer than any one
expected. One more ordination was held in Advent, when
* During this year he exhibited a proof of his desire for inter-communion
with other branches of the Church, by permitting a clergyman in Swedish
Orders, (with whom he was much pleased,) accredited by the Church in
the United States, to officiate to his own countrymen among the emigrants
at Quebec.

420 MEMOIR OF
two others, who had been sent from St. Augustines,* were
advanced to the priesthood. On Christmas Day he preached
his last sermon, and celebrated the holy communion in the
cathedral. He attended divine service in the afternoon at St.
Michael's, and in the evening his children and grand-children,
with one or two other friends, were gathered round him. I
never saw him more happy and cheerful, or more animated
in conversation. Little did we know that we should never
so meet again. On St. Stephen's day I was surprised not
to see him at church, and hearing that he had a cold, I went
to Bardfield, but as he was asleep I would not disturb him.
The next day he was still in bed, a most unusual thing, and
though there was not supposed to be any ground for uneasi
ness, an indescribable feeling came over me, which told me
the end was not far off. On the following day (Sunday) I
•did not see him till after morning service, but while I was at
the Sunday school I received a little note from my sister,
telling me that the doctor pronounced him to be. suffering
from congestion of the lungs. I went to him as soon as
possible, and found it was indeed " the beginning of the
end." His medical adviser told me that, on account of his
age, it was a serious matter. On the evening of Monday, the
29th, he insisted on my leaving him to go to a Christmas tree,
which was to be given to my school-children, and which he
would not allow me to postpone. But the poor children were
in no mood for enjoyment, and it was a dull party, and soon
over. On the Saturday evening, before any one was alarmed,
he had been allowed to sit up for a little while, and he com
pelled all who were with him in the house to go to dinner.
In their absence he went into his study, where there was no
fire, to look for some books and papers which he wanted for his
gardener's children, whom he always taught and examined
himself on Saturday, and this greatly increased his cold.
* See page 393.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 421
His sufferings after Monday became very severe indeed,
and no relief could be obtained, though all the best medical
skill at command was employed. His chief care and first
thoughts were still for his work and for others. When he
found the doctor coming twice a day, he said, "I see this
will be a tedious business, and I am thankful I have no visita
tion before me this winter, so I hope the diocese will not suffer
much." And when a second physician was called in, he said
to the first, "I see you think me very ill : if you think I am
in danger, you ought to tell me so, for I am not afraid to die ;
I know Whom I have believed." With reference to this he
said to me a day or two afterwards, " I have been greatly
humbled since I spoke to Dr. B. the other day. I spoke
much too confidently, for though there is of course no limit to
the efficacy of Christ's merits, there must be some to man's
continuance in sin, and I have been a sinner for fifty years."
I asked him how he would have answered me if I had spoken
so, saying that his answer would apply with ten thousand
times more force to himself. He was constantly engaged in
silent prayer with uplifted eyes, and sometimes he told me
to pray with him, directing me to use particular prayers from
the liturgy, when he found "the constant pain made it dif
ficult to keep the mind in one track of devotion." One night,
as he lay awake (for he scarcely ever so much as dosed),
he made me get a slate and write down his wishes on some
points, delivered, a word at a time, with pain and difficulty,
and not all even intelligible. They all related to some kind
ness which he wished to shew to persons whom we should
' have been least likely to think of, or matters of importance to
the diocese which he feared might be lost sight of. On the
mornino- of New Year's day he took the slate and wrote him
self " cheques for clergy and bills of exchange," that I might
o-et his signature at once, without the risk of subjecting them
to any delay in payment. I told him all had been arranged
without it. He desired me to give his special thanks to the

422 MEMOIR OF
"churchwardens and the members of the board who had
helped him in the work of the Church," and gave special in
structions respecting attention to the spiritual wants of some
young people who had formerly been in his service, with
many other touching remembrances. He spoke as little as
he could, and did not mention those who were nearest to him
on earth ; but there was one, of whom he said he could not
die without rendering his testimony to what she had been to
him and to her children.
The anxiety and sorrow which his illness caused were not
confined to his own house. The fervour of the amens of the
people, when he was prayed for in the different churches, was
most striking, and prayers were offered for his recovery even
in Roman catholic churches. A clergyman of great experi
ence of life wrote to me that he had never seen " so universal
a demonstration of regard, respect, affection, hope and prayer
as that which has been elicited by the illness of your dear
father. That God may speedily help and deliver him is the
sincere prayer of all whom I meet." But that deliverance
was to come, not as they hoped. He said to one of his
children, " you know my will is His will, and even these
grey, hairs are all numbered." On the evening of the 5th
January (the birthday of his youngest child, which he well
remembered,) he was lying on a sofa to which he had been
carried from his bed, in the hope of gaining some ease by
change of posture, with one of his children standing on each
side of him, when he suddenly looked up on us with a smile
such as I can never forget ; it was not of this earth. A few
moments afterwards, when I was alone with him, he called his
two daughters from the next room, but the exertion was too
great to admit of his speaking when they came. We saw the
end approaching, and knelt before him, while he laid his
hands on our head without speaking. God strengthened me
to say the commendatory prayer, and when I had finished
he said, " 0 Saviour," meaning me to use the short prayer
in the visitation office beginning with those words, which I

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 423
did. He then said, "I could not take sacrament, because I
could not swallow, but I know God will be merciful to
me a sinner," laying his hand upon his heart. After this
he rallied a little, and when his daughter-in-law, who had
been sent for, came in, he drew her to him, and kissed her
repeatedly; and then, as she knelt, showered all blessings,
spiritual and temporal, on her head. He did the same
for her brother, adapting his words to the case of a young
man ; and then to his little grand-children, to whom he
said, " My children, I am dying ; I am going to the other
world (pointing upwards) : you know how tenderly I have
always loved . you here," and then laid his hands on
the head of each. His servants next came in, but he
was too much exhausted to speak to any but the first
three, who had all lived very long with him. I am sure
they will none of them ever forget that night. They all
knelt for his blessing, and he spoke to all. To the first he
.said, " God bless you, and all your house ; I wish it had
pleased God that I could have seen all (the servants) before
I die. I commend them all, and all the children, to God's
blessing and guidance, through Christ." He was then moved
back to his bed, and soon afterwards told me to read the
twelfth chapter of Isaiah, after which he lay for several hours
without speaking, with very little suffering, and engaged in
peaceful meditation. About half-past one, a.m., on the feast
of the Epiphany, the cold hand of death was laid upon him.
He said, " Lift me up." We raised him in our arms, and I
felt no more movement than if an infant had fallen asleep
upon my shoulder, while those who were in front of him saw
him gently close his own eyes. His family and diocese
were fatherless. But they can still celebrate the feast of
the Epiphany with sacred joy, for they believe that through
the merits of Him Whom he knew here by faith, Whose he
was, and Whom he served, his spirit then entered on so much
of the fruition of His glorious Godhead as is permitted to the
.saints in paradise.

424 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER XXIX.
Funeral — Testimonies to his character.
One of his last wishes was that there should be " no super
fluous expense at his funeral:" and it would have been in
accordance with our own feelings to have conducted it with
privacy. But we felt that he belonged to his diocese nearly as
much as to ourselves, and were willing therefore to yield to the
wishes of the many who expressed their desire to share with us
the privilege of doing honour to his remains. The wardens and
vestry of the cathedral charged themselves with the necessary
arrangements for the procession, which were left entirely in their
hands. We selected the six senior alumni of Bishop's College
for the mournful task of carrying him. I had indeed some
scruple in bringing some of them from a distance on account
of the expense to which they must be subjected : but I am
sure they all shared the feeling which one of them expressed
Avhenhe said, " The question of expense is nothing, for which
of the clergy would not deny himself almost anything, to
pay this last tribute of affection to him who was ever kind
and gentle, and loving as a father ?" Thirty-eight cler
gymen walked in their surplices (besides four who followed
as private mourners), preceded by the male and female
orphans of the two asylums. The Governor General and
his staff, the Judges, members of the Executive and Le
gislative Councils,, the Bar, the City Corporation, the dele
gates of the Synod, the wardens of the cathedral and
chapels, the Corporation of Bishops' College and of the Church

G, J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 425
Society, the officers of the garrison and the St. George's
Society followed, as well as an immense concourse of persons
of all origins and denominations, many of whom were unable
to restrain their outward demonstrations of heartfelt sorrow.*
The procession moved on foot from the cathedral, where the
first part of the service was performed, to the cemetery, a
distance of three miles. Business was suspended in the city
at the suggestion of the mayor (a Roman catholic, though once
of the Church of England), and scarcely any one left the
ranks of the procession before the cemetery had been reached.
It had been the wish of some persons that he should be laid
with his fatherf under the altar in the cathedral, but we
knew he would have preferred a humbler resting-place in
his mother-earth, and we laid him to rest beside her who had
been dearest to him in life. The City Council had adjourned,
and unanimously resolved, on motion of a Roman catholic
member, seconded by another of the same persuasion, " as
a well-deserved mark of the deep respect of all denominations
and classes of citizens," to attend the funeral in a body. The
mayor, in his proclamation for the suspension of business, said :
" In requesting the citizens of Quebec to give expression, by outward
demonstration, to the profound sorrow and regret which they feel at the
great loss which the entire community has sustained by the lamented
demise of the universally revered and respected Lord Bishop of Quebec, I
am satisfied that I only anticipate their desire to evince another mark of
respect for the memory of the distinguished deceased."
In putting the resolution of the Corporation, he had said:
" The painful event is mourned by all as an irreparable loss to the com
munity and it will be difficult indeed to fill his place by a successor who
will approach his talents and his virtues."

* A clergyman who officiated at St. Michael's chapel on the feast of the
Epiphany was so overcome by his feelings that he was unable to go through
the service.
f It was erroneously stated in a Quebec paper that his mother had been
buried in the cathedral also. CC

426 MEMOIR OF
The Bar of Quebec passed similar resolutions, one presby-
terian and three Roman catholic gentlemen being among the
movers and seconders, while among the bodies more imme
diately connected with him, the same marks of respect were
overflowing. The Church Societies of Quebec, Montreal,
and Toronto, the vestry of the cathedral of Quebec, the con
gregation of St. Matthew's chapel, the Corporation of Bishop's
College, the St. George's Society of Quebec, have all placed
on their records their strong sense of their loss. The cathedral
vestry recommended the members of the Church to wear
mourning for a month, which in Quebec, and probably in
Montreal* also, was generally done by persons of all classes.
There is one resolution which I must place on record here.
When the diocesan synod met to elect his successor, before
proceeding to business, it was,
" Moved by H. S. Scott, Esq., seconded by Rev. H. Roe, and carried by
all the members of the synod standing in solemn silence, That this synod
desires to express its sense of the great loss which this diocese has sus
tained by the removal of the late beloved and lamented Lord Bishop, whose
patience and urbanity as its president, his devotion to the advancement of
the interests of the Church and the personal sacrifices he was always ready
to make in its cause, had secured for him the affectionate reverence of all
who had the happiness to be placed under his charge."
Far, far better than any official pageant and ceremony were
all these entirely spontaneous demonstrations. Many who
took a leading part in them were personally unknown to him,
but they prove how wide-spread is the effect of a holy life,
though exhibited by one who never mixed in public or politi
cal affairs, except so far as they directly concerned the duties of
that sacred calling to which his whole self was devoted. It
had been proposed by some of the military authorities that
the troops should line the streets on the day of the funeral,
but some recent military rule was found to interfere with this,
* Many churches in the city and diocese of Montreal were hung in
mourning.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 427
and occasion was thus given for what was infinitely more
gratifying, the volunteering of men of the Royal Artillery
and 60th Rifles to keep the ground for the procession to the
cathedral. The newspapers, in mourning, were full, from
one end of Canada to the other, of expressions of veneration,
affection and sorrow, as well as of long biographical notices.
From these I make three brief extracts. The first is from a
journal conducted under wesleyan auspices, which had often
been made the vehicle for pouring out the complaints of dis
contented people in Church-matters, and had been regarded
as strongly opposed to the Church, and not friendly to her
chief pastor. Yet now it was
" Believed that it may be safely asserted that throughout the roll of
existing Anglican bishops, whether metropolitan or provincial, * there are
none who have surpassed him for untiring zeal in performing the duties
of the episcopal office, or for the true christian urbanity which marked his
intercourse with the people over whom he was placed. His loss is deeply
regretted by our community generally. **»*»*
" The ceremonies of yesterday were demonstrative of the extraordinary
amount of respect entertained by our citizens of all classes and creeds, and
must have been gratifying to his bereaved family as well as to the attached
members of his flock."
Two French Canadian papers furnished similar testimony,
the first (the organ of the R. C. clergy,) saying :
" He was universally esteemed by the catholics for his deeds of charity,
as. well as for the high tone and nobleness of his character. All catholics
who had occasion to live in communication with him recognize these his
eminent qualities."
- The other :
" Mardi, les fune>ailles du venerable Eveque Anglican de Quebec
avaient lieu avec grande pompe : le clerge' Anglican, venu de loin et de
pres, entourait avec recueillement les restes mortels de son £veque. Le
nombre des citoyens de toutes les classes et de toutes les croyances qui
assistaient aux funSrailles 6tait immense. Le Lord Bishop Mountain avait

* These words are not used in an ecclesiastical sense, but denote British
and colonial.

428 MEMOIR OF
conquis par sa bienveillance, sa charite", et ses nombreuses vertus sociales
et religieuses, le respect et l'estime de tous, et aussi cet homme de bien
emporte avec lui dans la tombe le regret universel."
I abstain here from extracts from Canadian papers con
ducted by members of the Church of England, as they
were more universally circulated among those who are
likely to read these pages, and by many of them have been
doubtless preserved. It shall suffice to quote the words of
one of them :
" Independently of the loss which the Church has sustained by the
removal of its chief pastor, every one feels that a father, a friend, a com
forter and an adviser, has passed away from among us."
The New York Church Journal said :
"None who have enjoyed the privilege of knowing the Bishop per
sonally will ever forget his tall and slender form, reverend with meek
dignity ; his singular modesty and courtesy of demeanor, the gentleness of
his voice, the kind considerateness of his thoughts for others, his ready and
unaffected hospitality, and the ripe scholarly tone that was apparent in
all that he said and all that he wrote. Unselfishness was never more
strongly marked in any character, and those who know his life-long labours
 in short, his faithful and quiet devotion to duty at all times — none
who have known all this will ever cease to remember the departed Bishop
as one of the rarest examples of the Christian, the scholar and the gentleman
united, as they always ought to be, in the person of a Bishop."
The more private testimonies which I possess from Bishops,
priests, and deacons in England, in the United States, and every
part of British North America ; from officers in the army, and
from men and women of every class, are almost without num
ber. Some of them have already appeared in the course of
this narrative, and I will not add here more than two or three,
selecting them as proofs of the wonderful manner in which
his light shone even upon short acquaintance. A lady who
had never known anything of him till about fifteen months
before his death, and had enjoyed but few opportunities of
intercourse, thus writes :
" I was always so much struck by his wonderful energy in all his
workings for God's cause. He seemed to me never for a moment to forget

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 429
that ' the night cometh when no man can work,' and to consider this world
as only a sphere for doing God's work. And how he did it ! What an
example he has left I May God assist those left behind to follow it '
Though my acquaintance with him was but short, it had grown with me
into a most sincere friendship. To me his loss is very great  I pray that
God will never let me forget his example, short as was the time it was
before me. His ' virtuous and godly living ' taught even more strongly than
his words."
A clergyman of the diocese of Toronto, who had laboured but
a few years in that of Quebec, expresssd himself as follows : —
" That goodness, the constellation of so many excellences, which shone
so brightly in your dear and blessed father, and which others beheld afar
off with love and admiration, you felt, I know, in its most cheering
warmth : and while never christian son had more cause to rejoice in the
assurance of glory won by sainted father, you have, alas 1 in the loss of
even his bodily presence, much to sadden you. But your father's God will
strengthen and sustain you, and enable you to walk in his footsteps ; the
best prayer of your best friends. You will be strengthened, too, in the
remembrance of so great an example, and you cannot but be in some
measure consoled by the universal affection in which the Bishop's memory
is held everywhere ; — in these parts, I assure you, most strikingly 
I thank God most fervently that I have ever known him. My little
knowledge and memory of him will be ever reckoned among my choicest
treasures." Another clergyman, of the diocese of Montreal, who had
been for an exceedingly short time missionary of the Colonial
Church Society at Stanstead, gave vent to his feelings in the
following verses.* A short biographical sketch was subjoined
to them in which he said,
" The author of these memorial lines will never forget the savour which
this man of God left behind him after remaining a few days beneath his
roof, on the occasion of a confirmation in his parish."
* Eleven years earlier a clergyman of the diocese of Quebec addressed
his Bishop in the following lines :
To G. J. Mountain, Bishop of Quebec, our good Ruler in Christ.
Prelate, who on Quebec's steep rock enthroned,
Rul'st o'er a land from savage hordes reclaimed,
With that "new law" of love which oft hath tamed

430 MEMOIR OF

IN MEMORIAM.
THE MEMORY OF THE JUST IS BLEST. Prov. x. 7.
Father of Bishops ! ripe in years —
Vacant the father see
Of this our land, and now with tears
The Church, 'mid many doubts and fears,
Feels her deep debt to thee.
Now with the sainted Stewart, thou
Art glorified, art blest:
All earthly care, all sorrow now,
Fled from sad heart, and furrowed brow,
Thou art at peace, at rest.
Yes, thou art happy, happy there,
Where oft thy soul did soar,
Thy cross, no lightsome one to bear,
Thy mitre, an unceasing care,
Weary, oppress no' more.
E'en in the rising fane of fame,
In this yet infant land,
Thy name amid the wise and great,
Who shed a lustre on the State,
In honoured niche shall stand.
But in that living temple reared
By Him all-wise, divine,
Thy name, uncarved, unlimned by art,
On " fleshly tables of the heart,"
Shall ever brightest shine.
Rebellious souls, under whose sway had groaned
The weak and helpless multitudes of earth ;
Now that the world is wild, and hearts grow cold,
Shaken by winds of doctrine manifold,
Bear living witness to thy heavenly birth !
Thy gentle tongue, dispensing rules of love,
Thy care-worn brow, and aspect mortified,
Give ample proof of what by faith we hear ;
— The voice of that mild Judge, Who does approve
His lowly servant ; owns him close allied ;
Clasps to His heart His faithful shepherd dear !
21st January, 1852. H. B.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 431
Not thine the dignity alone
By men all wiselygiven,
A mitre from the Church and throne,
And earthly honours thickly strown : —
But thou wast owned of Heaven I
Thine were the vestments, graces, He
Alone can give and shed ;
That meekness, zeal, fidelity,
That tenderness, that purity,
Which graced the Church's head.
And she, with mingled pride and pain,
Shall mark where thou hast trod ;
Where thou dids't prayerful sow the grain,
She joyful reaps the fruitful plain,
And binds rich sheaves for God.
Departed saint ! there need is none
The grieving Church should raise
Memorials of brass or stone,
Recording all thy triumphs won,
In strains of fulsome praise.
Thy name is mirror'd on each lake,
Stamped on each silent shore ;
Souls won to Christ have marked thy way,
From solemn shores of Thunder Bay
To bounds of Labrador.
Where'er Canadian forests wave,
Thy name shall honoured be ;
And many a convert Indian " brave,"
In light canoe, or sounding cave,
Shall drop a tear for thee.
Safe shall thy fragrant memory
Be held in faithful trust,
Till this fair land shall cease to be
Home of the true, the brave, and free,
Her altars laid in dust.
I mi^ht fill another volume with similar testimonies, from
the sermon of his successor preached before the synod whose
proceedings resulted in his own election, or from his first ad
dress to that body ; from the sermon preached at his conse-

432 MEMOIR OF
cration, or from a biographical notice, by the same hand,
published in the Colonial Church Chronicle ; * from the
reports of the different institutions already mentioned ; from
the address of the Bishop of Montreal to his synod in 1863,
or from the charge of the Bishop of Rupert's Land in the
following year. Or I might refer to many casual instances of
mention of his character, which have accidentally reached me,
by persons unknown to myself. But I confine myself to one
from the other side of the Atlantic. In the report of the
S. P. G. for 1863, it is said,
" The venerable Bishop of Quebec, who for a period of twenty-seven
years presided over this diocese, and during the early portions of his episco
pate over the whole province of Canada, was called to his rest on the
morning of the Epiphany ' full of years andhonours, bearing with him the
esteem, the affection and' the regret of all members of the community.'
Never was there a Bishop of a more saintly life, of a gentler spirit, or of
more self-denying habits. Like the first missionary Bishop of the Church,
he was ' in labours more abundant ;' and those who know how simply and
how cheerfully he exposed himself to privations and perils of every sort,
will not consider it an exaggeration to say that he counted not his life dear
unto himself, so that he might finish his course with joy, and the ministry
which he had received of the Lord Jesus."
It was proposed in the cathedral vestry to call a public meeting
of churchmen, to consider what form the memorial, which all
desired to raise, should take, and the meeting resolved to fill
the large east window of the cathedral with stained glass,
which has accordingly been done, and the subscription list
left a balance of upwards of two hundred dollars to be added
to the Labrador mission fund. This was scarcely six months
after the foundation of the jubilee scholarship, and this, again,
had followed at no long interval on the subscription for the
execution of his bust. The following is the inscription on the
cathedral window : —
" To the glory of God and in grateful remembrance of G. J. Mountain,
D.D., sometime Bishop of this diocese, whom the grace of Christ enabled
* The feelings of this writer are expressed in an extract already given in
this volume.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 483
to fulfil the duties of a long ministry to the advancement of His Church
and the lasting benefit of many souls."
A similar project is on foot among the congregation and
friends of St. Matthew's chapel, as well as one for an enlargement
of the chapel of Bishop's College. His children erected, as a
memorial of both their parents, a schoolhouse (the designs of
which were taken from»'Instrumenta Ecclesiastica,') near
St. Michael's chapel, where a simple brass plate in the chan
cel records his name. Close by are two graves, at the head
of each of which, side by side, stands a plain stone, sur
mounted by a simple cross.

434 MEMOIR OF

CHAPTER XXX.
Conclusion.
I have finished the task imposed upon me,. and I can have
satisfied no one less than myself, in every way, with its
execution. Those who have seen the accumulation of mate
rials which I have left untouched will perhaps acknowledge
that I could not have made the volume smaller, while not a
few will regret the absence of much for which I thought
I could not find a place. It has been indeed a most difficult
task, for while I wished to " avoid those exaggerations into
which the biographers of good men are tempted to fall," I am
conscious that I may appear to have often failed in doing so,
at least to those who did not know him : and for this reason I
have inserted, in proof that the picture is, as I hope, not over
drawn, more of the testimony of others than might have
otherwise been thought necessary.* For the same reason I
have generally abstained from attempting anything like a
description of his character, preferring to let it be judged of
by his own words and deeds, and by the impression it made
upon others. Yet, before I part with my reader, I cannot
forbear from quoting Dean Goodwin's description of Bishop
Mackenzie, which struck me, and I doubt not will strike
others on reading it, as if it might almost have been written
of him :
* I have to crave the indulgence of those whose private letters have
been made use of for this purpose without their permission.

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 435
" Utter unselfishness and thoughtful kindness in small things, and imper
turbable good temper, were perhaps the features which chiefly made it
difficult or impossible to know without loving him. Then, too, he was
thoroughly humble ; he never put himself forward, and, even in giving up
his home for foreign service, apologized as it were for his presumption
by saying that nobody else would go, and therefore he would. I have said
nothing respecting a point which suggests itself in these days very promi
nently to many minds, viz., the school of religious opinions to which he
belonged. Was he High Church or Low Church, or what was his school ?
I shall be very glad if, after perusing this volume, the reader should
declare himself unable thoroughly to answer this question. To say the
truth, he could not be identified with any party :' his doctrinal views were
in loyal and affectionate conformity with the Book of Common Prayer ; but
I do not remember to have heard him discuss with earnestness any of the
controversial questions of the day. The view of religion which commended
itself to his mind was the practical application of the Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ to the wants of men ; and the best method of doing this was,
in his opinion, a simple and faithful adherence to the principles and rules
of the prayer-book. I never met with a more sincere Christian or one who
had less of the spirit of party.* I never met with a man whose religious
system seemed to be more completely within the four corners of the Book
of Common Prayer. For religious speculation he had little taste — for
religious eccentricities he had an utter abhorrence ; but if there was any
deed to be done, any work of mercy to be performed, either for the bodies
or the souls of men, then his whole heart was engaged. To go about
doing good was the only employment that he thoroughly and unreservedly
loved." The latter part of this extract is especially applicable. The
text, " There is joy in the presence of the angels of God
over one sinner that repenteth," was constantly in his thoughts,
and he seldom transcribed it without writing the whole in
capital letters. He made many efforts to establish a Mag
dalene asylum at Quebec, and almost the last words he ever
* In describing the proceedings of a successful meeting in aid of the objects
of the Church Society, the Bishop of Quebec once wrote : "I did not quite like
some portion of them ; they jarred, at all events, against my taste : but it
is not my business to be over-nice, and so to repress a zeal and activity
exercised under the regular auspices of the Church, which, by God's
blessing, may do good in an unobjectionable way, and set an encouraging
example to the diocese."

436 MEMOIR OF
spoke were expressive of a wish that such an institution might
be established. And though he was never able to accomplish
it, he defrayed, for upwards of ten years before his death, the
cost of maintaining such subjects from Quebec as were found
fit for it, in an asylum at Montreal. These, with scarcely
an exception, were discovered and provided for through his
own ministrations to the prisoners in the jail and house of
correction. Preaching the Gospel to the poor was his delight.
And he had a reward which he deeply valued, even in this
world, in the love and gratitude of those who were the objects
of his own love. In a letter written from Grosse Isle, in 1848,
he said, in reference to the light nature of the work then to be
performed there : " I have been thinking how wrong it would
be to regard the hospital duty here as trifling or unimpor
tant, because at present there are only about half a dozen
patients. Half a dozen souls which will be saved or lost, and
of which the welfare may be promoted, — not to speak of the
present comfort given to them, — by the instrumental labours
of the clergy."
Five and twenty years ago one of my sisters wrote out for
me Southey's description of " the Doctor," ending with these
words : His sweetest mind,
'Twixt mildness tempered and low courtesy,
Could leave as soon to be as not be kind.
Churlish despite ne'er looked from his calm eye,
Much less commanded in his gentle heart,
Nor could he cloak ill thoughts in complimented art.
My sister added, " You will be at no loss to apply this."
A few years later a friend, who then filled the post of
organist of the cathedral at Quebec, sent me an extract,
headed, " A picture, (the Bishop) "
" I have bsforemy eyes at this moment his slender and spiritual figure,
his calm but most subtle glance, and the incomparable expression of his
smile. His face is classic, the ideal of thought. Where art thou, 0 Ca-
nova, that thou mightest transfer - portrait like this to marble ? it is so
intensely pale, pure and profound."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 437
The same friend, to whom, in an illness, I was reading one
of his manuscript sermons, observing a few wor,ds introduced
in the margin, remarked, " Whenever he dives, he brings up
a pearl." A writer in the Quebec Mercury (January, 1863), testified
" How completely the carrying out of the one idea of duty has been the
sole purpose of his life ; how it shone through all his daily actions, through
his courtesy, his charity, his mirth, his comfortings, his journeyings, the
application of his vast literary attainments, his preaching and his praying ;
indeed, if we may attribute the heavy blow which has fallen upon us to
any worldly cause, we may, it is said, trace it to his resolute persistence in
the discharge of a fatherly duty which he had undertaken towards some
humble members of his own household."
And in the same paper a biographical sketch appeared, from
which I make the following extract, though I had forborne
from doing so,* as it seems wanting to make my work com
plete :
" The Bishop was most accessible, and consequently his time was very
much broken in upon by persons calling continually upon all sorts of busi
ness, to whom he never refused a kind and courteous attention. His lord
ship's charities were very large, and well known to be so ; applications for
relief, therefore, were unceasing ; but none was ever refused without the
most apparent proof of its imposture. The writer of this notice remembers
well how forcibly he was struck with the genuine christian kindness of the
Bishop's own heart, when once, in speaking affectionately of an old and
faithful servant whom the writer was enquiring after, the Bishop said,
among other things, ' that he had noticed with admiration that W 
never spoke crossly nor impatiently but always gently and kindly to the
poor, who were incessantly calling at the door.'
" The late Bishop of Quebec was universally known as a learned theolo
gian, an elegant classical scholar, an able writer, an eloquent and, in the
best sense, powerful preacher, and a most polished gentleman. Within the
sanctities of his domestic life we ought not, perhaps, to enter ; suffice it to
say that it was a life of great beauty ; and, notwithstanding several very
severe domestic trials, of great happiness. Among his friends he loved to
unbend and he made all around him delighted with his playful sallies and
his unbounded store of curious anecdotes. But in his most genial moments,
you could never forget that he was a christian and a christian bishop, for

* See page 428.

438 MEMOIR OF
there was a savour of piety and of genuine christian kindness about every
thing that proceeded out of his mouth. His sweetness and gentle tenderness,
so unusual in a man, were wonderful ; his smile was enough to shew it ;
hundreds of mourners can testify to it from his sympathy in the hour of
need.* Children were the objects of his regard and notice everywhere;
even the merest strangers, French Canadians for example, at whose houses
he had called but once casually in his ' journeyings often,' would years
afterwards speak of him, 'he was always so kind to the little children.'
The manner in which on his visitations he used to enquire after all the
members of every family, was constantly remarked upon.f His thoughtful-
ness and consideration for the feelings of others, the very poorest and
meanest, were only equalled by his forgetfulness of himself. In him
' patience had,1 indeed, ' her perfect work.' In travelling he was con
tinually subjected to the most vexatious detentions and difficulties, but was
always patient and cheerful. He could never bear to hear a loud word
spoken that seemed to betoken impatience. The only thing that seemed
to vex him was persons putting themselves or others out in the very least for
his personal comfort or convenience. His kindness and tenderness to his
servants no one could help remarking ; never servants had such a master.
Such was the tenderness of his sympathy that the poorest and lowest could
feel towards him as a friend.
" The late Bishop of Quebec was what would be called in England an
evangelical High Churchman — such as have been all the great lights of
the English Church from the days of the Reformation. In the mainten
ance of the distinctive doctrines and observances of the Church he was
thoroughly uncompromising. He never gave way a single step to popular
clamour, nor did he ever hesitate to come forward in defence of his clergy
when unjustly assailed. He met with several very severe trials of his
principles as a Churchman, but in every instance he calmly stood his
ground, fought the battle and won it. Yet he shewed in his whole life, as
every one here knows, how those principles can be held consistently with
the truest universal christian charity.f * * *
* I possess very many written proofs of this, and I remember a lady, who
became a widow shortly after his death, saying to me, " This is the time
when I miss the Bishop."
f See page 339 (first extract from Bishop Anderson).
t A member of the Church Society, at a meeting held at Quebec early
in 1863, related an instance of this which had occurred some thirty years
before, when he had accompanied him, at the close of a Sunday's work, to
visit a poor family in the suburbs of Quebec who had solicited his help.
On his desiring them to come to his house for relief, his companion men
tioned that they did not belong to the Church. " Never mind," he replied,
" they are God's creatures."

G. J. MOUNTAIN, D.D. 439
" Though methodical and exact to an extraordinary degree, he was not
supposed very greatly to excel as a man of business, a, financier, or a
manager of other men — he dwelt too much in the higher regions of the
christian life for that'. But the writer of this notice is deeply persuaded
that the diocese is now in a far more healthy condition, and that the episco
pate of the late Bishop of Quebec has been far more successful, than if the
ratio of these qualities had been reversed in his character, and he had been
more of what the world calls an administrator and less of a saint." *
* With reference to this extract, see 2nd note at page 21.

APPENDIX.

COMPOSED FOR THE USE OF PARTICULAR PERSONS, OR ON PARTICULAR OCCASIONS.

FOB A SCHOOL OF YOUNG CHILDREN OF THE POORER CLASS.
Opening. — 0 gracious God and heavenly Father, bless us, we
beseech Thee, in our task this day. Grant to us who teach,
patience and skill in conveying knowledge ; and to these little ones
who learn, a willing, dutiful, humble and diligent spirit. Grant
that the knowledge which they gain may be for their good in this
world, and may help them in the knowledge which is above all
price, even the knowledge of Thee and of Thy Son Jesus Christ,
to Whom, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, be glory for evermore.
Amen. Close. — 0 God, Whose only Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, did bless little children, and when He was a child Himself,
sat in the temple to hear the doctors of the law, and to ask of
them questions, and Who also has taught us by His holy Apostle
St. Paul, that those who know the holy scriptures from childhood
may thence be made wise unto salvation ; bless the instruction
which has been here given this day : set forward these children in
the way of eternal life : let their souls be precious in Thy sight :
keep them by Thine own power, and prosper them both here and
hereafter, for the sake of the same, Thy Son Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Amen.
DD

442 APPENDIX.
FOR OPENING A SUNDAY SCHOOL.
0 Lord God, Who deignest to look down with favour upon the
humblest efforts made in Thy service, and without Whose grace and
blessing nothing can prosper that we do; vouchsafe, we beseech
Thee, to bless the work in which our hands are here engaged : give
to these children willing hearts and teachable minds : give to those
who instruct them an affectionate concern for their spiritual good,
and grant that the seed which is here sown may spring up unto
life eternal. Thou, 0 Lord, out of the mouth of very babes and
sucklings hast perfected praise : Thou hast caused it to be recorded
in Thy holy word, that Thy servant Timothy from a child had
known the holy scriptures which are able to make us wise unto
salvation, and above all that Thy blessed Son, when He took our
nature upon Him, was engaged, while yet a child, in the temple,
both hearing and asking questions concerning Thy holy law ; grant
that with these examples and encouragements before their eyes,
both teachers and scholars may be diligent and persevering in
thejr respective duties, and let Thy blessing more and more rest
upon them, for the sake of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ. Amen.

Jamilj} laaw.

1. — FOR PLAIN PEOPLE.
0 God, we praise Thy name for the mercies of the past day, and
we pray Thee to keep us in peace and safety through the night.
Forgive all our sins : comfort our hearts : enable us to serve Thee
in pureness of living and truth: to walk in love, and to keep
always a conscience void of offence towards Thee and towards
man. Bless and protect this house, 0 Lord, and preserve both us
and all belonging to us in health and godliness, and grant that we
may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. Bless this land and all the dominions of our Queen :
prosper and extend the work of Thy Church upon earth, through
the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

APPENDIX. 443

0 Lord God, Whose tender mercies are over all Thy works, we
pray Thee to bless all the members of this family, present or absent,
both spiritually and temporally ; to sanctify to us all the dispensa
tions of Thy fatherly hand ; to relieve us in our sorrows, and teach
us to trust always in Thy goodness. Keep us, 0 Lord, in body
and in mind ; do for us according to our several necessities ; pre
serve us in all dangers ; succour, comfort, and direct us m all our
ways ; make us happy, if it please Thee, in this world, and bring
us to thine everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen. 3. — BEFORE THE HOLY COMMUNION.
0 Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of sinners, Who didst com
mand us to remember Thy body broken and Thy blood shed for
our sins by the tokens of bread and wine, and Who by Thy holy
Apostle hast taught lis that we should examine ourselves before we
eat of that bread and drink of that cup; give us grace so to
cherish the remembrance of Thine unspeakable love, that we may
always be prompted to partake thankfully of this instituted memo
rial and blessed means of union with Thyself ; and so to prepare
ourselves by devout meditation, serious consideration of our
ways, and faithful inspection of our hearts, that we may come to
Thy holy table with penitence and faith and love, feeling the wants
of our perishing souls, and finding them supplied in Thee, Who
livest and reiguest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one
God, world without end. Amen.
4. — ANOTHER FOR THE SAME.
0 God, who in Thy great mercy to sinners, didst give Thy Son
Jesus Christ to die upon the cross, and there by one offering to
perfect for ever them that are sanctified, grant that we, being now
invited to that holy sacrament in which we shew forth the Lord's
death till He come, and partake of the bread which, being broken,
is the communion of the body of Christ, and of the cup which,
beino' blest, is the communion of His blood, may indeed spiritually
eat His flesh and drink His blood. Give us a deep sense of our
own sinfulness, with a full reliance upon the all-sufficiency of Him

444 APPENDIX.
for our salvation, Who, knowing no sin, was made sin for us that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Penetrate
us with a sense of His love : wash us from all our stains in the foun
tain opened for sin and for uncleanness ; and impart to us both in
this holy ordinance, and in every other method which is agreeable
to Thy Divine wisdom, such a measure of Thy grace that we may
walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, and bring
forth all the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to
the praise and glory of Thy holy name. Amen.
5. — IN TIME OF AFFLICTION.
0 Lord God, Whose care is over all Thy works, and Who art able
to bring good out of evil, and to turn sorrow into joy ; we beseech
Thee to make us deeply and constantly to feel that all which
befalls us is directed by Thy hand and designed for our good.
Give us under our trials grace to draw closer to Thyself; grant
us a spirit of patience and faith and of conformity to the meek ex
ample of our suffering Lord. Protect this day and visit with Thy
grace and favour all who belong to this family, far off or near :
shew mercy to all according to their respective needs, and if it be
Thy gracious will, grant that all may be blessed together in peace,
health, and comfort, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
6. — FOR THE SAME.
0 God, Who layest low and liftest up, and from Whose hand we
receive both evil and good, we pray that Thou wouldst sanctify to
us whatever affliction it is Thy will that we should suffer, and en
able us to bear it with faith and resignation : remove it, if it please
Thee, in Thine own good time, and where the stroke has fallen,
there let Thy mercy restore ; where Thou hast sorely smitten,
there let Thy healing power be shewn, that the bones which Thou
hast broken may rejoice, and that we may all be re-united to praise
and magnify Thy blessed Name together, through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Amen. 7. — FOR THE SAME.
0 blessed and compassionate Saviour, merciful High Priest, Who
canst be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and Who, in

APPENDIX. 445
the days of Thy flesh, didst relieve many sufferers in body and
mind, and restore them whole and sound to their afflicted friends ;
work the like mercy now for us : Thine arm is not shortened that
it cannot save, nor Thine ear heavy that it cannot hear. Stretch
forth Thine arm, then, to deliver, and open thine ear to our hum
ble prayer. Lord, we believe ; help Thou our unbelief. Speak
the word, and Thy servant shall be healed. 0 heavenly Father,
let not our faith or patience fail, though Thou shouldst seem long
in granting our prayer ; but teach us in all things to tarry Thy
leisure, and give us grace and wisdom, whatsoever Thou seest
good to do, to say, it is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him
good ; though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him. Hear us, 0
Lord, for Thy dear Son Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

FOR A PERSON IN AFFLICTION.
0 God, Who art the God of the spirits of all flesh, and the
Father of all the whole family in heaven and earth, look upon Thy
poor sinful creature and give me grace to profit by all the dispen
sations of Thy hand. Thou, 0 God, makest all things to work
together for the good of them that love Thee : 0 give me a thank
ful heart for all the earthly blessings and comforts which Thou
hast heaped upon me, and wisdom to use them to Thy glory.
And now in the hour of my affliction teach me to remember that
Thou dost not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men, but
chastenest them in love and causest them often through much tri
bulation to enter into Thy heavenly kingdom. Grant to me, 0
Lord, a perfect submission of heart and an unreserved conformity
to Thy holy will. Grant me grace to say, in the sincerity of my
spirit, it is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good. The
Lord o-ave, and the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the Name of
the Lord. Grant me grace, not only now, but in whatever suffer
ings or trials, however sharp, Thou mayest ordain for me, to con
form myself to the example of my suffering Lord, and cheerfully
to carry my appointed cross, remembering that the disciple is not
above his master, nor the servant above his lord ; make me, 0
Lord, to turn this visitation to account by communing with my
own heart, and in my chamber and in stillness ; reviewing my past

446 APPENDIX.
improvement of the talents committed to me, judging myself that I
be not judged by Thee, and setting my house in order, that I may
be ready also, not knowing when my soul shall be required of me.
Extend the same mercy, gracious Lord, to all those dear relatives
and connections who are now my fellow-mourners, that the living
may lay to their hearts the lesson of death, and may be weaned
more effectually from the world, and prompted more earnestly to
lay up their treasure in heaven. And 0 Thou Who art the God
of all consolation, comfort us, I beseech Thee, by the succors of
Thy heavenly grace ; kindle in us a more lively faith, and teach us
to press forward more intently to the prize of our high calling in
Christ Jesus ; to look, as to a reality which is to be our own, to
that blessed time when the Lord God shall wipe away all tears
from all faces. Hear me, 0 Lord, for the sake of Thy Son Jesus
Christ, that great High Priest Who can be touched with the feel
ing of our infirmities, and Whose own holy words which He has
taught us to use we couple with all our feeble prayers, Our Father,
&c. FOR A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER IN PRIVATE.
0 Almighty God, Who, through Thy Son Jesus Christ, hast
taught us to care one for another, and hast encouraged us by de
claring that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way
shall save a soul from death ; have compassion upon the poor and
feeble endeavours of Thy most unworthy servant : give me a fer-
vant concern for Thy glory and the spiritual welfare of my fellow-
creatures ; give me more zeal and wisdom, and a more patient and
persevering spirit, that I may promote these ends in the task of
instructing the children of the poor. Take away from me all
indifference and languor, all hurtful distrust of the possibility of my
success on account of the deficiency that is in me ; enable me,
through faith, to keep in my mind that Thy strength is made per
fect in our weakness, and to hope that Thou wilt deign to use me
as an instrument of good. Thou, 0 God, Who biddest us not des
pise the day of small things, bless the seed which is sown in this
little field,* that it may bring forth fruit unto life eternal, for the
sake of Thy dear Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
* This prayer was prepared for a teacher in a very small school.

APPENDIX. 447
FOR CHORISTERS.
(Partly adapted from a form drawn up by the Bishop of Newfoundland.)
I.
0 Most merciful God, Who deignest to accept the homage of
Thy poor servants upon earth, and hast taught us that we should
pray and sing with the spirit and with the understanding, grant
Thy grace, I beseech Thee, to us who are permitted to lead the
songs of praise in the assembly of the faithful, that we may come
with prepared minds and sanctified thoughts to our task. Teach
us, 0 Lord, to reverence Thy sanctuary and the place where
Thine honor dwelleth : remove from us all vain, worldly, wandering
imaginations or concern for the applause of men : enable us, while
we lift up our voices, to lift up also our hearts : and vouchsafe to
us a spirit of fervor, faith and love, that, knowing ourselves to be
temples of the Holy Ghost, we may duly set forth the glory of
Thy great Name and help to edify our brethren, through Jesus
Christ, Who with Thee and the same Spirit liveth and reigneth
ever One God world without end. Amen.
II.
0 gracious God, Whom the holy angels worship continually in
heaven and Who deignest to accept the homage of Thy poor ser
vants upon earth, grant Thy grace, I beseech Thee, to us who
are here joined together in this blessed work, that we may sing
Thy praises with the spirit and with the understanding : and so
prepare our hearts that we may engage with all reverence in the
services of Thy sanctuary, and duly set forth the glory of Thy
great Name, to the edification of our brethren and the comfort
of our own souls, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
III.
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we who are about
to enlace in singing Thy praises in the assembly of the faithful,
beinc filled with all reverence, and preserved from worldly and
wanderino- imaginations, and(enabled to lift up our hearts in sin
cerity and love, may minister to the edification of Thy Church and
the °-lory of Thy great Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

448 APPENDIX.
TEXTS FOR A BELIEVER SUBJECT TO DEPRESSION AND
TIMIDITY IN HIS RELIGION.
Psalms xxx. 5, cxxvi. 5, 6, (6, T, Prayer-book,) xxvii. 14, (16 p. b.)
xxxvii. 5, li. 8, xlii. 11, (14, 15, p. b.) ciii. 11-14; Isaiah xl. 1, xxxv. 10,
lxi. 1, 2, 3, xlix. 15, lxiii. 15, 16, Ivii. 15, lxvi. 2, liv. % 8 ; Hosea, vi. 1, St.
Matthew, v. 3, 4, xi. 28, xii. 20, xv. 21-28, xxvi. 41; Romans, x. 12; Heb.
iv. 15, 16, xiii. 5 ; i. Peter v. 1, 10 ; Rev. xxi. 3, 4; cf. Isaiah, xxxv. 8 ;
Ecclus, xxviii. 10.
MAXIMS AND MONITIONS DRAWN UP FOR HIS SON UPON HIS
LEAVING CANADA TO PREPARE FOR THE UNIVERSITY.*
Aboard, aboard  ,
The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail,
And you are staid for : There — my blessing with you,
And these few precepts in thy memory
See thou character. 
1. Never suffer any interruption of the habit of prayer, and
always remember that special object of prayer which is intimated
in St. Luke xi. 13.
2. Make it a point to read some portion of scripture every day.
3. Make it a rule to practice self-examination, comparing your
self with the Word of God. and the example of Christ, in point
of temper, sincerity, diligence, improvement of time, purity of
thought, government of appetite, conformity to the divine will,
thankfulness for mercies in providence and grace, kindness and
(according to opportunity) beneficence to your fellow-creatures, as
well as willingness to make sacrifices for them.
4. Particularly examine yourself thus before receiving the Lord's
Supper, and avail yourself of all opportunities of doing this. And
when the examination brings your deficiencies to light, make them
matter of repentance before God.
5. Recur frequently to the nature and extent of your promises
in confirmation.
6. Make yourself fully master of the distinctive principles of the
Church, and you will not compromise them. While you would
tremble- at the idea of priding yourself upon your privileges as a
Churchman, and while you cultivate the utmost charity of judgment
* See page 225.

APPENDIX. 449
and of feeling towards all the members of irregular bodies in reli
gion, you will understand at the same time the inconsistency and
ill-consequence of mixing the Church with those bodies in religious
proceedings. 7. Endeavour to keep constantly in mind a sense of the imme
diate presence of God.
8. In hard temptation pray the harder.
9. Let the distribution of your time be as methodical as possible ;
yet avoid being such a slave to method, that if you are put out
of your established time you are unsettled and incapable of
acting to good purpose.
10. Where you are a guest (and certainly with equal care, where
you are a pupil,) conform with readiness to the habits of the
family ; observe their hours with unfailing punctuality ; and never
assume the liberty of judging anything to be unworthy of your
attention respecting which they are particular.
11. Never give a rough or short answer to any person in any class
of life. Generous and obliging manners constitute a marked feature
of the christian character, and promote to an incredible extent the
happiness and comfort of human life. Remember that next to being
good it is important to be agreeable ; and to gain others to what is
good being a great branch of christian duty, the christian is defec
tive in a point of much consequence who does not recommend his
religion by his deportment and address. Carry into the daily
intercourse of life, domestic, social and civil, the spirit of Gen.
xiii. 8, 9 ; St. Matth. v. 41 ; Rom. xii. 10 ; i. Pet. iii. 8.
12. Avoid in religion all approach to exhibition or obtrusive-
ness, and repudiate all party-phraseology or party distinctions in
things indifferent ; but take heed that you do not, under this plea,
appear to belong rather to the world than to God. Never dare to
be ashamed of Christ. Never shrink from discountenancing irre-
ligion. Never miss a fair opportunity (regard being had to age,
station and other particulars) of being instrumental to promote a
right knowledge of Him and advance the interests of true religion.
— -Ps. cxix. 51 ; Prov. xxix. 25 ; St. Mark, viii. 38 ; Rom.
xii. 2.
13. Cultivate cheerfulness of mind and manner, and do not fear
to indulge in a playfulness which may comport with the character of

450 APPENDIX.
a gentleman and a Christian ; but abominate buffoonery or noisy
mirth. 14. Strictly preserve the refinement of a gentleman as well in
your private habits as in all the varied usages of good society ;
but, of all things, avoid piquing yourself upon your gentility, being
ostentatious in refinement, or contracting a dangerous fastidious
ness which cannot accommodate itself to the varieties of human life.
15. In perplexity and difficulty, especially if conscience be con
cerned, go straight to God and try the question first of all by His
Word ; but take counsel also, and that with all humility, from
those upon whose advice you can wisely lean.
16. Avoid irresolution: but avoid also what some men are guilty
of, a hasty adoption of your decision, or a determination to stick
to your point from the fear of being thought or thinking yourself
undecided. 17. Do not be satisfied with any Christianity, nor think it safe
or genuine, which would seek to stop short of the principles laid
down in Gal. ii. 20, and ii. Cor. v. 14, 15.
18. In provocations, vexations, sufferings, and trials, have recourse
to the lessons presented in i. Peter ii., 21, and Heb. xii. 3.
19. If you are familiarly in contact with youths of great worldly
expectations, enjoying command of money, do not for an instant
allow yourself to be mortified because you cannot do as they do,
nor be ashamed to say plainly and decidedly that what may suit
them will not suit you, because you cannot afford it. After doing
this once or twice, you will probably have no occasion to do it
again. 20. There is a vast gain, in many ways, in cultivating a habit of
systematic early rising, and it saves the hurtful necessity of sitting
up late. If ever you feel in the morning such a struggle between
the love of bed and the desire of entering upon the proper work of
the day, as is described in Persius, Sat. V., 132, 3, between the
former propensity and the desire of wealth ; and if, so feeling, you
suffer the worse desire to prevail, that defeat may lose more for
you than the bare time which you lose upon the occasion itself.
21 . Works of imagination should be sparingly read, and only pour
dilassement d] esprit. The moment that they engender a distaste
for studies practically useful, the danger of them should be seen

APPENDIX. 451
and shunned. But you must have already drunk too deeply when
you have suffered your head to be thus affected.

When his younger son left him in 1842 (see page 224) to
enter the army, the Bishop wrote out for him the foregoing
maxims, from 1 to 19 inclusive, with some trifling adaptations,
adding the following :
— Haec genitor digressu dicta supremo
Fundebat 
When your dear brother left us, in 1840, I gave him a little
book, in which I had written down certain maxims and rules for
his guidance in life. They had relation to his religion, his man
ners, his habits, and his pursuits. The rough draft of them being
still in my possession, I copy it for you, my equally dear son,
making some few adaptations and additions, on account of the
difference in the way of life which is before you.
If you remember, as I believe you will, the foregoing rules, and
sincerely endeavour to follow them, there will be no fear of your
being enticed into any habits of dissipation or excess, gambling,
profaneness, or loose conversation, for your mark will be much
higher than mere abstinence from these destructive vices, all
plausible attempts to colour which may well be met by Ephesians v.
6. And when you are with your uncle, he, who will be a father
and a pattern to you in all things, will also be a protection
against any bad influence or dangerous attraction. But you are
very young, and you will be thrown into scenes very new to you
before you can join him ; and besides your recourse generally to
religious principles, motives, and means, to keep you from perilous
deviations, it will be necessary for you to lay down certain fixed
and invariable rules, among which are these :
Never to drink more than a specified and very moderate quantity
of wine (which I leave it to yourself to prescribe,) and never to
acquire the habit of drinking any mixtures at night. I recom
mend also a "total abstinence " from smoking.
Never to play for money at any games of chance, however
small the sum.
Never to bet ; nor to be concerned directly or indirectly with
horse-racing.

452 APPENDIX.
Never, if it can by possibility be avoided, to remain in company
where obscene language or obscene songs are introduced.
It is matter of thankfulness that, in the present day, the army
will everywhere, I apprehend, afford some choice of correct and
desirable associates; and there are, I believe, many messes in
which nothing offensive will be heard.
Respecting the men, you will learn, I hope, the art of combining
with the inviolable maintenance of discipline and authority, the
fullest exercise of kindness and consideration, and attaching those
poor fellows to you without suffering them for an instant to take
liberties inconsistent with the relation in which they stand to you.
When your duty obliges you to cause them in any way to be
punished, I am sure that you will be merciful to the utmost extent
which that duty will permit. Opportunities will present them
selves, and particularly after you rise to higher grades in the
profession, of promoting the best and highest interests of them,
their wives and their children.
I would say nothing upon those points if it were certain that
your whole military training would be under the eye of your uncle,
but nothing is certain in this world, except that we must go out
of it, and that our preparation for the state beyond can only be
made while we are in it, and only in the way indicated in the
Book of God. And since a soldier, by his profession, may be
called into danger of going out of it suddenly by the hand of man,
he should, of all men, never allow himself to be unprepared for
the summons. And so God keep you, in soul and body, through
Christ Who died for you !

The following are two or three passages from letters to his
children, not referring always to his work, but characteristic of the
tenderness of his affection, as well as of his cheerfulness of heart
in his intercourse with them :
" Riviere du Loup en bas, 17th August, 185T.
" My Dearest A  ,
11 1 am, thank God, quite well and strongnow, with the exception of some
slight remaining effects of the injury in the back,* which is growing daily
* Caused by a, fall in trying to reach too great a distance to gather
some flowers for an invalid child.

APPENDIX. 453
less. It would therefore be ridiculous, and something worse, that I
should abstain altogether from the public duties of Sunday ; and what a
familiar lecture, to between thirty and forty people in a private room, is to
do in the way of harming me, compared with some occupations of another
kind, in the way of correspondence, which I have had to undergo here
c'est ce que je voudruis Men savoir. Yesterday I preached in the little
Riviere du Loup church, and read the ante-communion service. * * *
I went out the other day with all the N  s on a pic-nic to Cacouna,
and we opened our baskets of provender not far from the Indian encamp
ment, below the bank which is between the village and the St. Lawrence.
We got near a little rill of water for convenience, and seats were arranged
by means of the waggon-cushions, with the aid of large stones. As to myself,
however, I was regularly enthroned or ensconced in a bushy cedar-tree,
a horizontal branch affording me facility for sitting, and « perpendicular
stem supporting my back, while I was completely " o'er canopied," not
" with luscious woodbine," but with the verdant sides and head of the little
tree. James and the horses were duly cared for, and the children gave
the relics of the feast to the Indians.
" The learned and ingenious principal tried the experiment the other day
(unwittingly, however,) of making tea. with salt water for breakfast.
The servants and children, from some hindrance of bathing, or other cause,
were slack in appearing, and he undertook to go into the kitchen, where
he laid hold of the first hot water which came to his hand, and this
happened to be a provision of the marine tide, which was in process of
heating, to temper the tub-full designed for little A  , who was to be
dipped in the house. The mistake was only discovered after the milk
and sugar had been put into the cups.
" On Saturday I took little K  and G  , by turns, before me on
the mare, and rode down to the beach with them, through those beautiful
fields which are at the back of Judge M  's lodgings. The delight of the
children was not small ; and such delight, if anything in this world, has a
reflecting power. . . Thus I have given all that occurs to my recol
lection of incident worthy of note, and have scribbled it off as it came up
before me. We shall, if it please God, meet this week, and I must shape
myself for town-life, and buckle to for my work. I should, beyond all
comparison, prefer travelling in September, to the arrangement for visiting
Mr. Kind's mission in October ; but the latter month will, as you say,
be probably more convenient for the people, on account of harvest in the
former, and so must be chosen. (29th July, '51.) Mr. W—
lent me a number of the "Anglo-Saxon," in which Lord Napier's speech
at Harvard University is given at length — really an extraordinarily clever
performance. The speech of Mr. Dallas, the American Minister at home,
at a meeting of the humane society, is given in the same paper — a clever
and apposite speech enough.

454 APPENDIX.
Proximus illi tamen occupavit
Dallas honores.
But we must add a quotation from Virgil to that from Horace —
Proximus hinc — longo sed proximus intervallo.
11 Last, but not least, as your dear K  's birthday is registered, I believe,
on the 28th, but she thinks she remembers being born on the 31st, the
point at which we stand between the two may not be improperly chosen to
wish her many happy returns of the day, and all blessings, earthly and
heavenly, still growing, especially the latter, as she advances in her
pilgrimage." " Quebec, 5th Oct., 1854.
(In expectation of the return of two of his children from England.)
" 0, the last time of writing ! The next thing is to see you both.
What a comfort in all our troubles, perplexities, vexations, exposures to
misconstruction, and bad feeling, &c, to preserve true love and affection
among members of the family and the circle of chosen friends, however
far ! After the hope of being accepted, for Christ's sake, before God,
what is there like the confidence and love of those justly dear to our
hearts on earth?" " Bishop's College, 3rd June, 1856.
. " My natural feelings, which circumstances have tended to
deaden, have been unwontedly called into life by the baptism (of the first
of his grand-children bearing his own name) of Sunday, and the sight of
your sister and her children here. The blessing of God, I trust, will rest
upon the heads of all my children, grand-children, and children by
marria,ge." I might give numerous other proofs, and stronger even than
these, of the depth of his domestic affections, particularly such as
are contained in birthday letters. But these must suffice. I add
one extract, of a different kind, from a letter written in 1854.
" I hope you will not allow my letters to communicate any gloom to
you. My whole heart is in the Church, and the work which I have to do
for God upon earth, and I cannot fail to be anxious when difficulties
and perplexities arise ; exigencies are to be provided for with inadequate
means ; and declension to be seen in some departments of my charge.
But in my settled and deliberate thoughts and feelings, I endeavour to
separate myself from the Church; i.e., that I know God will take care of
His own cause, and if I do my part, however poorly, with a single eye, it
matters little what may befall which affects myself."

APPENDIX. 455
A good deal of what follows is taken from a packet of papers,
on which was written —
" I have put together here a quantity of rubbish, the great proportion of
which can only be food for the flames ; but I have not found time to examine
it, and there are some poor flowers to be preserved, when the weeds shall
be doomed in which they are buried."

WRITTEN AT A TIME OF SEVERE DOMESTIC AFFLICTION,
WHICH WAS ALSO ONE OF TROUBLE IN THE CHURCH :
0 Saviour, they were bitter things
Thou didst as man endure ;
But ah 1 Thou knew'st no sinful stings ;
Work, work of mine the cure !
Yes ! Saviour, yes I a sinner calls,
Who, while beneath his woes,
Redoubling still, he prostrate falls,
The sense of mercy knows.
Weak heart of man, if wounded deep,
At once in home-felt joys,
And stabbed by those- who hate the sleep
Of envy, strife, and noise,
Turn thee to Him Whose power alone
Can heal thy festering sore,
Can bid the sufferer cease to groan,
The mourner weep no more.

THE MOURNER OF THE WILDS.
(Written about 1810.)
It was upon a wild and desolate shore,
While night, in her wide grasp, embraced the world,
A maid, whose inborn loveliness and grace,
Would not yield all, though much, to withering grief,
Strayed forth unsheltered, and exposed to all
The rudeness of the time, and thus she moaned —
(It would have grieved the veriest hardened heart
That ever lodged within a human breast,
To hear her plaints — ) I know not what the cause
Of her deep sorrows was — but thus she moaned :

456 APPENDIX.
Alone ! I am alone upon the world,
There is not one to pity me, not one
That will be kind to my sore-wounded heart ;
And I shall know no more the interchange
Of love — no more the smile of tenderness —
The gentle and endearing offices
Of friend to friend ; 0, I could bear to meet
The evils of man's lot, labour and pain,
And penury's freezing hour and drooping grief,*
Had I but one to stay me in the storm,
One on whose bosom I could lean my head,
One that would sooth me with the face of love,
And say, " thou'rt dear to me." I could bear all
Tf I had this, — but now ! — I am not formed
To front the " hard unkindness" of the world
Alone and unsupported — I shall sink.
Little, ye prosperous ones, ye little know
The treasure of a friendly countenance ;
Nought while ye meet but smiles and gracious eyes
Responsive to your own, ye little think
What solace to my inmost soul would bring,
In this sad hour, one kind benignant look.
0, I have not deserved a fate like this.
Chastise me, Heaven, but let Thy chastisements
Be suited to my strength. I am but weak,
Thou know'st, and all unused to woes like these ;
I once had fairer hopes, and happier thoughts,
Happier indeed ! yet I must not repine.
Forgive the murniurings of a broken heart ;
And if it be Thy will inscrutable
My sins to visit with a hand severe,
Eternal Power ! support me with that hand,
And lead me to Thy peace, and heal my soul.
TO HIS BROTHER ROBERT, ON ENTERING THE ARMY, (1811) :
Go, generous youth, an English heart is thine,
Go forth, and foremost in the battle shine ;
Go, deal to Gallia's sons the deadly blow,
And help to lay her proud oppressors low ;
* Man's feeble race what ills await,
Labour and penury, the racks of pain,
Disease, and sorrow's weeping train. — Gray.

APPENDIX. 457
Go, and may He, Who that fair spirit gave,
Mild as the dove, yet as the eagle brave,*
In glory guide thee, and in danger save.
Awhile our tenderness may blame thy choice,
'Tis thou shalt quickly teach us to rejoice ;
0 how our hearts shall glow some future day,
To learn thy courage in the dubious fray ;
While England hails each brave defender's name,
To find our Robert in the list of fame.
0 how thy father's eye shall light with joy,
Thy mother yearn to clasp her gallant boy ;
Think, think on this, and let it cheer thy heart,
'And mitigate the pang we feel to part.
Farewell, my brother, that I call thee so,
I count among my chiefest joys below ;
Farewell, my Robert, and whate'er betide,
Return unchanged, and we are satisfied.

TO THE SAME,
(With a copy of Anacreon, 1809) :
Accipe quem mitto, frater carissime, librum,
Parvum non parvas munus amicitiae.
Vellem equidem majus donum et te dignius esset ;
Sed quod amor jubet id saspe crumena vetat.

TO HIS FATHER,
(1st January, 1813) :
How shall the hand, benumbed with cold,
Awake the warbling wire ?
What thoughts can scenes that but unfold
One waste of snow inspire ?

* It was rather remarkable that a distinguished general officer, Sir F.
Robinson in whose division R. M. served in the Peninsular war, described
him as an excellent young man, " very diffident, but as bold as a lion."
EE

458 APPENDIX.
0 where the circling snow-storm flies,
Or trackless plain wide-glittering lies,
Or where the solid stream along *
My steeds, impetuous, whirl the sleigh,
Some theme is there for fancy's play,
Some images of song.
Away ! no outward aid I ask,
The heart shall prompt the easy task ;
The chorus of your offspring hear,
For you they rend the frosty air
With song — for you, with early prayer,
Inaugurate the year.

AN ADAPTATION OE HORACE, ODE I. BOOK I.
(To describe the pursuits of a portion of the community at the University
of Cambridge : about 1809) :
" Now blame we most the nurslings or the nurse ?" — Cowphr.
Miller, my tutor and my friend,
From northern names whose sires descend,
Of Granta's sons some take take their pride,
Tandem or curricle to guide,
To raise a smothering dust, and boast
Within a hair to pass a post.
They tell of racing victories,
And puff their merits to the skies ;
One piques himself on social powers,
Pleased if the friends of festive hours
Enjoy his wit, and honour still,
With three times three, his toasting skill ;
Another aims, with worthier toil,
Whate'er, on Granta's learned soil,
Of prize or honour may be reaped,
To feel on his own person heaped.
* Virgil's description of a Scythian winter (Georg. iii. 352,) is in some
of its point3 correctly applicable to Canada, though, by his account, the
Scythians used wheels upon the ice. His " caiduntque securibus humida
vina" may be matched by the solid milk sold in the Canadian markets.
The " solid' stream " is introduced by Horace in his description even of
Italian winter in his day — " geluque Flumina constiterint acuto."

APPENDIX. 459
Yon Mopus, of his garden fond,
Its small square space ne'er goes beyond ;
Nor would he take a thousand pound
To run the risk of being drowned
In light canoe, where students gay,
Cleave Ely-ward the watery way ;
While others, skilled the boat to guide,
And not unused to wind and tide,
Who yet have somehow been such luck in,
As once or twice to get a ducking,
Vow, when they gain their rooms so snug,
And all their fireside comforts hug,
They'll waste no more their time and money ,
Upon an execrable funny ;*
But soon their art they ply again,
Nor from loved habit can refrain.

There are, it must be owned, a few
Who not dislike. a glass or two,
Nor scorn long afternoons to sptend
O'er the brisk bottle with a friend,
Whether in college-rooms reclining,
Or at some jovial tavernf dining.
While some to blow the horn delight,
Sonorous through the streets at night,
And with the fierce bargee to fight,
Or raise still wider rows, and greater,
Deaf to the prayers of Alma Mater.
Heedless of gentle admonition
For absence long, or imposition
From anile dealer in tuition,
The sportsman spends the wintry day.
In following fox-hounds far away,

* The kind of small boat in vogue upon the river Cam.
f As the Bush and the Fountain are both among the customary ensigns of
venal hospitality, it is peculiarly unfortunate that neither of these should
have been adopted iu Cambridge. (This refers to the corresponding lines
in Horace : Nunc viridi membra sub arbuto
Stratus, nunc ad aquas lene caput sacrse.)

460 APPENDIX.
Or seeks, with gun across his shoulder,
The timid hare, and birds not bolder.
You,* whom those classic wreaths have crowned,
With which the learned head is bound,f
May sit by Honour's sacred side.
Me, with small cause alas ! for pride,
Yet from the coarser crew divide
Some social joys more choice of means,
Some taste, perhaps, for rural scenes ;
While, now and then, the obliging nine
Encourage weak attempts of mine.
If really poet named by you,
I shall grow higher a yard or two ;
Shall swell, my own importance feeling,
And strike my head against the ceiling.
EPIGRAMS.
(About 1809.)
Why do you, in this favoured nation,
Still rail at those who hold the helm ?
Spit venom on exalted station,
Jeer at the pillars of the realm ?
These once made cheap and vile to sight,
Society's a broken frame.
Sir, 'tis our country's free-born right,
Source of our pride and envied name ;
Aye ! that's indeed another story,
But do you not the thing misplace ?
That you may do so is your glory,
And that you do so your disgrace.
" He that will pun will pick a pocket."
George, erst that fished at sea,
Is turned a shepherd lad ;
By hook or crook, says he,
A living must be had.
* I have adopted the reading Te, instead of Me, because it suited ray
purpose better.
t Miller obtained Sir W. Browne's medal for Greek and Latin epigrams
in 1805, and again in 1806. He took a wrangler's degree, was first
Chancellor's medallist, and became a fellow of Trinity college.

APPENDIX. 461
TRANSLATION OF ENGLISH INTO LATIN VERSE.
(Examination for Trinity college scholarship, 1808.)— See page 18.
Orpheus with his lute made trees
And the mountain-tops that freeze
Bow themselves when he did sing ;
To his music plants and flowers
Ever rose, as sun and showers
There had made a lasting spring.
Everything that heard him play,
E'en the billows of the sea,
Hung their heads and then lay by ;
In sweet music is such art,
Killing care and grief of heart
Fall asleep ; or, hearing, die. Shakspere, Henry VIII.

Arbores Orpheus sonitu canoree
Flexit auritas* citharae, geluque
Montium obstrictos apices amceno
Carmine movit ;
Protinus Mores varias videres
Crescere e terra viridesque plantas,
Prsebet et sol haud alias et imbres
Tempore verno.
Quicquid audivit stupuisse vocem
Dicitur vatis : neque non frementes
Ille pacavit maris aurea. tes-
tudinet fluctus.
TRANSLATION OF GREEK INTO LATIN VERSE.
(On the same occasion.)
Oiidev iv avQpis-Koiai pkvei XPW' iuiredov aiei.
§v 6e to koKKlgtov Xaoc htnev avi/p'
din irep tyvXhjuv yever/, rotfd'e aal avdpuv.
* Blandum et auritas fidibus canoris
Ducere quercus.
f 0 testudinis aurese
Dulcem quae sonitum, Fieri, temperas !

Hor.

Hor.

462 APPENDIX.
'Travpoi jiiv bvnruv ovavL Se^dfisvoi
orepvoic eyKaridevTo. irapeart yap £2.nrlc indarci,
av6pdv fj re viuv 0T7]6cclv efipverai.
Bvtitov 6' b<j>pa rig avBog i>xy wo'kvfipaTov ijfSriq,
icov<t>ov i%(jv dvubv, crd/U' aTeXeara voei.
oire yap i\iri&' exel yvpaaae/iev, ovts Bavsiadai,
ovff byir/g orav i} , typovTid' ixSi itafiarov.
irfirtoi dig Tavry Kelrac v6oc, bvde r' iaaaiv
uc xp&voS eaQ1 yfiqg icai fiidrov okiyoc
dvnrolc. alXix av ravra fiaOibv (3i6tov ttotI rkpua
tyvxy ruv hyaddv rXijdi xapi&p-evoc.
Nil homines inter firmum manet atque perenne.
Nee leviter Chii verba notanda viri ;
" Haud secus ac frondes semper mutamur in annum."
Auribus acceptum non tenuere diu
Mortales monitum : nam spes non deserit ullum,
Spes adolescentis pectore blanda viget ;
Dumque brevi fruitur mortalis fiore juventae
Multa agitat nunquam perficienda sibi
Nee mortem exspectans obrepentemve senectam :
Nee morbi sanus credit adesse malum.
Insipiunt tales, et quam pede prseterit aetas
Veloci haud ndrunt, temporis immemores:
Tu tamen haec animo digne prascepta recondens
Supremum degas laetus ad usque diem.
ON THE EXAMINATION OF FRESHMEN AT TRINITY COLLEGE,
(1807.)
0 vere miseros ! nova.
Quos asstate furens exanimat metu
Arcti rixa mathematos ; *
Solvendos tibi Sphinx altera callide
Nodos objicit Algebra,
Durajque insequitur calcibus Algebrae
Viva voce Menexenus : f
Eheu quam tremulos.dentej: petit fero.
Atqui hie, nescio quomodo,
Valde visus erat dissimilis sui
* Mathematics rather preponderate in the examination.
f Construing and questions viva, voce in the Menexenus of Plato.
X This part of the examination was conducted by Mr. Tooth.

APPENDIX. 463
Multo nempe minutias
Verborum studio, et vel minimas quidem,
Sectabatur ineptias.
Post hunc Euripides in medium tibi
Phcenissas agit aequior.
Quis digno poterit carmine dicere
Turmam quae sequitur trucem ?
Exercet miseris quasstio te modis ;
Per tres ah I miseros dies
Aut plumam geris aut labra moves male.
Romae non aliter, ferunt,
Pallentes agitant haereticos pii
Quaesitoris opuscula ;
Nigra non aliter pontifices stola
Vultuque incutiunt metum
Verborumque dolos et laqueos parum
Vitandos pariter struunt.
charade (about the same date.)
Oui primum dixit quivis non optat ut hie sit ;
(Quid sit mente capis si vel iota sapis)
Pauci per mundum ceperunt mente secundum ;
Miris res nodis ilia referta modis :
Credo magis duram tibi nodosamque futuram
Volvas qui ista duo pectore juncta tuo.
ENIGMA (ditto.)
Canis capillis, crede, candescens caput
Canis carebat crinibus.
PROPOSITION VII. (ditto.)
Circuli in extrema corpus se parte revolvat,
Tendentis quasrenda tibi est atque invenienda
Ad punctum quodcunque datum vis centripetae lex.
ENIGMA (ditto.)
Primum arcere decet multis totidemque secundum
Obicibus, curae cui bona sunt et opes ;
Deque mola totum, necnon de mole licebit
Sumere, sed pecori si sapis abjicies.

464 appendix.
EPITAPH ON PRIOR (ditto.)
Horatianus Stoicus hie credo jacet,
Regum ipse princeps atque sutorum fuit ;
Quemvis enim si conferas mortalium,
' Noster pbeta semper evadet Prior.
PLAUTINI ET NUMERI ET SALES (ditto.)
Vos nomen olim quibus Hibernis inditum
Potius aestivi debuistis dicier,
Ita pol calente et fervida estis indole
Nisi a procella forte dicti et turbine.
GOOD ADVICE (ditto.)
My dear youth, I must blame that extravagant dress ;
With fashion comply in a certain degree,
But yield not, I pray, to such foolish excess,
For est modus in rebus in Horace you'll see.
HOW THROWN AWAY.
In one's things there's a mode, that's the way to translate it,
Sir, I see we agree, let's no longer debate it.
To  Esq., of Quebec, (with a christening-fee returned.)
Old acquaintance works wonders, we well may agree,
When 'tis cause, who would ever believe it?,
That a lawyer insists upon giving a fee,
And a parson declines to receive it.
For his father's birthday, 1824, (when his youngest brother
was daily expected from New Brunswick, via Temiscouata.)
Le voila mon jeune soldat, *
— Ah qu'y penser le cceur me bat I
Qui, marchant d'une ardeur non feinte
Do ses raquettes, a travers
Les lacs gele"s, les bois deserts
En long sillage, laisse empreinte :
Mais il va toujour en chantant,
Et de ses chansons le refrain
De sa famille e'est le sein :

APPENDIX. 465,
0 le bon pere,
La tendre mere,
Mes soeurs, mon frere,
Famille chere,
Que d'y aller je suis content !
La nuit descend, pour tout couvert
D'un toit de neige l'on se sert,*
Dessous il n'y a point d'autres planches,
Pour lit, rnanteaux, fourrures, branches,
Aux pieds force bois fait chaleur :
11 dort — aucune dans son cceur
Crainte n'6meut ni ver le ronge,
" Je les connais, — c'est lui, — c'est elle,
" 0 le bon pere,
La tendre mere,
Mes soeurs, mon frere,
Famille chere,
Heureuse maison paternelle."
Regarde sur l'amas de glace
Sa route ce canot qui trace :
Sautez dedans I vite ! on reprend
Les avirons, — le fleuve on fend :
Parmi ce monde qui traverse
De le trouver l'espoir me berce :
Que de plaisir pour nous, pour lui,
S'il pouvait venir aujourd'hui I
Pendant que ce'le'brant la fete
De ce bon pere,
Famille entiere,
Avec la mere,
Encore un frere
N'y mettrait pas de trop sa tete.
For the 11th March, 1824, by Captain A. Mountain.
Alia Signora Mountain.
Ecco quel di felice,
Quel di si caro a noi !
Madre, dei figlj tuoi
Come '1 pensier spiegar ?
* This is a mistake, for in camping out there is no covering overhead
whatever, unless a snow-storm arrests the march of the party, in which
case a wigwam is constructed.

466 appendix.
Pieno di affetto il core
Vorria parlar d'amore :
Ma non sa dirti il labbro
Quanto sappiamo amar.
Se tu de' pargoletti,
Gia tanta cura avesti,
Deh ! soffri almen, che questi
Curia omai di te,
Soffri ch'a te d'intorno
Lodiamo sempre il giorno
II qual, pel nostro bene,
La cara madre die.
TO MRS. MOUNTAIN.
What in Italia's liquid tongue
Your soldier boy so well has sung.
Let his grave brother's priestly muse
More rudely to our own transfuse.
TRANSLATION.
This is the day, — the honoured day,
But, mother, as they ought,
How shall thy grateful children say
Each true and tender thought ?
Our filial love I fain would speak,
But speech, alas ! is all too weak.
0 if thy hand did gently rear
A helpless infant set, ,
To them the task shall still be dear,
To render back the debt ;
Forbid not then that still they press
The day that gave them thee to bless.
Written in Beattie's Minstrel, (given to his sister-in-law on
her leaving Canada, 1824.)
Ainsi la maison paternelle,
Vous redemande, aimable sceur ;
Partez, mais portez dans le cceur
Qu'on ne vous cede ici qu'a elle :

APPENDIX. 467
Que Dieu vous conduise sur l'onde,
De vos souhaits vous guide au but !
Et par les flots de ce bas monde
Vous mene au havre du salut I
Written for one of his children as addressed from herself
to a cousin on leaving Canada, 1833 :
Cousin, we have riot known you long,
Till lately saw you never :
And here we sing our farewell song
Farewell, perhaps, forever!
God bless you, cousin, — words are these
Too oft but lightly spoken,
Yet can we, if the heart agrees,
Exchange a dearer token ?
God bless you, then, and not for aye
We part, if He shall guide us ;
No — to one Home we bend our way,
Where nought shall more divide us.
TO THE REV. S. MOUNTAIN, WITH A GREEK TESTAMENT.
Moribus et lingua pariter quo praecipis uti '
Hunc a me librum tu precor accipias.
TO BISHOP STEWART, WITH A COPY OF BISHOP HALL'S
WORKS. 1835.
Hie tibi quern mitto, prassul carissime, librum
Fratris in officio est, corde ita fratris opus :
Norvicensis opus : mente est Quebecensis eadem,
In Christum, haud scribens, ardet amore pari.
Unus utrique labor, gregis inservire saluti :
Sors itidem in coelis una duobus erit.
ON THE NOMINATION OF DR. FULFORD TO THE SEE OF
MONTREAL.
Ecce vadum plenum : pons hie ut fiat, opinor,
Plane opus est: opus est jam tibi pontifice :
Nonne vado e pleno res est jucunda, sodales,'
Ipsum si potero fingere pontificem ?

468

APPENDIX.

On sending the above to his brother, he received the following :
The Bishop of Montreal is reported to have replied to your admirable
epigram by a very poor one :
Ecce vadum plenum, conclamant, siste viator !
Non ego : planitiem spernens celsum petam Montem.*

Here's a full ford : we can no farther go,
Then stay below ;
I'll climb beyond that ford's o'erflowing fountain
The lofty mountain. ENIGMA.
Beginning of eternity,
And end of time and space,
Beginning, too, of every end.
And end of every place.
CHARADES.
My first is a bird,
My second a fish,
An insect my third
Whose destruction you wish.
* A similar play on the name of Mountain is found in the following
epigram written by Archdeacon Lower, in 1855, (as well as in a well-known
one in Camden's Remains, "Defensor Fidei," &c.)
In reverendissimum Patrem in Deo, G. J. M.
Monti olim montem audivi cumulare gigantes :
Scandere regna adeo non potuere Jovis.
Complures capiant coelorum regna fideles,
Te duce, vi sacra., Mons Reverende, precor.
ANGLICE.
Mountain on mountain, poets tell, was piled by giant force,
Nor even then could mortals scale the citadel of Jove.
More happy now, taught, Mountain, by thy words and faithful course,
May thousands overcome, and gain the paradise above.
In the year 1836 the Bishop attended the consecration of a church, which
was so crowded that he was obliged to sit on the pulpit steps. The
preacher, immediately after passing him as he so sat, gave out as his text
the words of Zech. iv, 7, "Who art thou, 0 great mountain V

APPENDIX. 469
First ornithology,
Next icthyology,
Then entomology,
Triple zoology :
— Range through philology
Where will be heard
So learned a word ?
Natural history
Dressed up in mystery,
Happy conjunction of sciences trine I
Never, 0 never,
Charade was so clever,
Never charade was so clever as mine.
A lato charade touched, part by part,
Three orders scientific :
This, in three tongues, with noble art,
Proceeds from brain prolific.
My first shall be a Latin word,
And French shall be my second —
But, gentles, I will have a third
Among plain English reckoned.
My Latin first, a little foe,
Delights in household spoils,
Remorselessly you doom his woe
If caught within your toils.
My next, in French, describes but ill
The lively sons of France,
It pictures what is sluggish still,
Unready to advance.
My English whole lies oft beside
Old England's roasted beef;
In some disorders, too, applied,
It gives a sharp relief.

THE SPELLS OF IMAGINATION.
Unreal mockery hence !
Inveni portum; spes et fortuna valete. (1833.)
The flowers of life are withered,
Its fire poetic dead,
Its fond romance for ever,
Like morning vapours, fled.

470 APPENDIX. 2.
Adieu, deceiving visions I
I loved you once so well,
E'en yet a sigh to lose you,
Will this weak bosom swell.
3.
I mean not of ambition,
The darkly thrilling game —
Vain chance of glittering riches —
Mad pleasure's lawless aim :
4.
No — though for things polluted
No sigh should stain the soul ;
Still, sorceress, all too slowly,
We break thy " soft control."
5.
Strange power of soothing fancies,
Thou yet cans' t lead astray
The heart which godless passions
No longer make their prey.
6.
Tell how thy morbid musings,
Thy brilliant, shifting dreams,
Thy proud chivalric phantoms,
Can blend with Gospel themes.
1.
0 Man of many sorrows !
And disciplined in grief —
Scourged, spit upon, insulted,
For our, for our relief!
8.
0 sufferer in the garden,
And martyr on the tree !
Thy life was rudely taken —
And was it done for me ?
9.
It was — I read it written,
I feel it in my breast :
I know the pain which only
In Thee can find its rest.

APPENDIX. 471
10.
Then, if I cannot serve Thee,
As should be man's delight :
If man can nothing render
God's mercy to requite ;
11.
If love, if best devotion,
111 do their bounden part,
Yet this, great God, vouchsafe me,
To have a lowly heart.
12.
Chastised each wayward impulse,
Each thought be captive led ;
Quelled each vain fluttering fancy
That revels round the head. ,
13.
What ! would the worthless servant
Be greater than his Lord ?
And holds th' unskilled disciple
His Master's lot abhorred ?
14.
Like Him, indeed, Who bought thee,
Thou art not called to grieve ;
What share of earthly blessings
Thy God has given, receive :
15.
Serene the charms of nature,
Sooth are the joys of home ;
Sweet oft the social converse
That cheers the way we roam.
16.
Of taste, of fair refinement,
The pleasures not refuse, —
Nor spurn the gentle solace
Of her we call the muse.
17.
But oh ! thy Master's glory
Be still thy ceaseless aim :
Thy pearl of price His Kingdom,
Thy hope His saving name.

472 APPENDIX. 18.
Yes, keep thy course, believer,
Thy Saviour is thy strength ;
And if the road be weary,
Home, Home is reached at length.
MELANCHOLY MUSIC, (about 1836).
I'm never merry when I hear sweet music. — Sha/cspere.
How through the heart will sweep
With hidden spell and strong,
Those notes of sadness deep,
That swell of mournful song !
0 still the charm prolong :
It touches on some tender string,
Akin to pain whence pleasures spring.
Stay, sweet vibration, stay,
To very soreness thrill :
Ah, has life's little day
Too small a share to fill
Our hearts, of real ill?
To quell its brightness must we borrow
A shade of artificial sorrow ?
Oh no I in this lost world
Sad scenes and foul are rife ;
Man from his glory hurled,
Breathes now a sickened life ;
Lust reigns, with woe and strife :
And they who conquer in the Cross
Mourn still their sins and others' loss.
'Tis strange that so we love
Each melancholy air ;
Sure in the choir above
No plaintive voice will share ;
All is triumphant there :
The chants on high to joy are sung,
The harps of heaven to rapture strung
Seraph and saint around
Pour hallelujahs high,
The praise of God to sound

APPENDIX. 473
All with each other vie
The legions of the sky :
Rolls ever through the lengthened throng
The thunder of immortal song.
From rank to rank it rolls,
From side to side it rings,
And still from ransomed souls,
To God made priests and kings,
Redoubled tribute springs :
Glory to Him Who in the flood
Hath washed them of His blessed blood.
Before th' eternal throne
The prostrate orders cast
Their golden crowns, and own
Through present, future, past,
God ever first and last :
Lord God omnipotent, supreme,
Thrice holy, holy, holy theme.
ON A WATCH BEQUEATHED TO HIM BY BISHOP STEWART.
(1833.)
Golden gift bequeathed by one
Numbered with the holy dead ;
Marking still the hours that run
Swiftly by with noiseless tread.*
Precious gage, memorial dear,
Be my monitor and friend' :
Moments make at last the year,
Warn me moments how to spend.
Wisely to redeem the time
He who wore thee once was skilled ;
So was passed his early prime,
So his closing hours were filled.
Moments lost and wasted years,
Ah I who now can call you back ?
Travellers through this vale of tears
Must not measure twice their track.
* The noiseless and inaudible foot of time
Steals on us unawares. FF

474 APPENDIX.
Heed not, then, the things below,
Reach to those which lie before ;
Onward, onward press to find
Christ, alive for evermore.
ON BOWING AT THE NAME OF JESUS, (1841).
Prompt at the bidding of the soul,
Th' obedient body bends and plays :
Unseen, unheard, unfelt control
Which every spring and engine sways.
Unconscious of the power we ply,
Unskilled by deepest search to find
On senseless matter how and why
Can act this magic force of mind.
We rest, we move ; we sit, we rise ;
We guide the pen, we touch the lute,
We feed the mouth, we turn the eyes,
We lift the flail, we drive the brute.
Nor thus alone ; for gestures mark
The movements of the soul within,
Paint thought or purpose bright or dark,
Impulse to seize or prayer to win.
We raise the brow, we wave the hand,
We bow the head, we bend the knee,
The bosom press, the arms expand,
'Tis language read by all who see.
'Tis this to forms and signs prepared
In social life has led the way ;
The palm is grasped, the hand is bared
Good will to speak or reverence pay.
Ah I if the flexion of the frame
What stirs the inmost soul can shew,
How gladly at Thy glorious Name,
My Saviour, will I bow me low I
My Lord, my God, my life, my hope,
In darkness and in sin I lay,
With foes from hell unfit to cope, >
And but for Thee their certain prey.

APPENDIX. 475

0 didst Thou look on one like me,
King as Thou art of saints above,
And wert Thou lifted on the tree
To draw me by Thy boundless love ?
I yield me then — my heart is Thine,
(Would it were less a heart of stone I)
And still by each appointed sign
Thy sovereign claim I joy- to own.
I thank the Church who early stamped
Her holy token on my brow :
Oh never be the memory damped
Of that my sacramental vow 1
Taught by the Church, I duly kneel
To pour my prostrate soul in prayer ;
I rise when rising thoughts I feel,
And in the song of glory share.
I stand, with champions of the Cross,
Erect, aloud with one accord
To speak our faith : 'twere little loss
To lose our lives for Christ the Lord.
Thine is my soul, my body Thine,
My own I am not, would not be ;
I serve in all a Lord Divine,
I mark in all a homage free.
WRITTEN IN A CHILD'S ALBUM, (1836).
Sickness comes and sadness too,
Now to me and now to you ;
Praise the Name of God above,
Who afflicts us but in love.
Good, in time, from evil springs,
Blest effects from bitter things :
Those who suffer like their Lord
Gain, through Him, their high reward.
And the lesser ills of life
Fit the soul for sharper strife :
Sharper strife may be in store
Ere we reach the promised shore :
Grief and pain are there no more.

476 APPENDIX.
TO MRS. MOUNTAIN.
(Written in the canoe, on the return from Red River, 2nd August, 1844.)
My Mary, we are growing old,
And many a change have seen ;
The world should have but slender hold
On hearts like ours, I ween.
Yet not less truly knit than when
We pledged our mutual vows ;
Though years this day thrice numbered ten
Have silvered since our brows.
Oh no I each added year but draws
More close the hallowed bond,
And we for love have deeper cause
Than youthful partners fond.
Long since the tribute I have paid,
And bear thee record still ;
Each blessing thou hast better made,
And lightened every ill.
Mary, no poetry is here,
If poetry be feigned ;
'Tis language of conviction clear,
And feeling unconstrained.
0 varied track of thirty years !
— Of small avail to count
Their tale of earthly smiles and tears ;
No — let our musings mount.
The Lord forgive our frailties past,
And in the narrow space
Between this moment and our last,
Bestow more ample grace !
Forget we all the things behind
And press to those before ;
Intent the glorious prize to find
Through Christ reserved in store.*
* Phil. iii. 13, 14.

APPENDIX. 477
Yet not insensible our souls
Of earthly good must prove,
Each year, each, day, each hour that rolls
Our thankfulness should move.
Of blessings here our children chief,
Though some sweet babes we mourn ;
And sharp and sore domestic grief
Our human hearts has torn.
Yet God Who gave with gracious hand *
Has marked them all his own ;
0 lead we still their faith to stand
On that fast rock alone 1
NUNC DIMITTIS.
(Composed while lying awake at night, in illness, 1857.)
When Simeon in his aged grasp,
The Christ is privileged to clasp,
His hope is crowned, he asks no more ;
And thus his thoughts their language pour :
Lord, 'tis Thy pleasure to release
Thy servant, and I part in peace :
Thy word a faithful pledge has been,
These eyes have Thy salvation seen.
The gracious purpose long in train
To every people shall be plain ;
Make Gentile darkness gladly shine,
And Israel boast in being Thine.
* Gen. xxxiii. 5.

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