and will continue to redeem. Do you doubt it? Will you (I speak it not irreverently) erect this Parliament into the Chancery of Heaven, and issue a commission of lunacy in the case?-It sounds, indeed, so profane, as much to need an introductory apology. But does it not savor of the same profanity, to talk of building christianity, not on "the rock" with the "chief corner stone," but on acts of parliament, clergy reserves, and state patronage? "If it be of men, it will come to nought; but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it." Admit, then, of no ecclesiastical treason; sanction no usurpation; attempt not to pass the baser currency of the world in His spiritual kingdom. But fearlessly leave the church to her King, with such ministers as shall hear and obey His voice, "take up your cross and follow me"; and believe that the free-will offerings of every grateful convert, being all that is asked, will under his providence, flow into the sacred treasury with enough wisely to supply all temporal wants without the fear of poverty, or the greater fear of those superabundant riches,with which "even a rich man can scarcely enter into Heaven."

What then are Kings and governments to do for christianity? Let them conduct the affairs of the people in such a manner as will yield the greatest degree of general intelligence and pros perity, faithfully extending equal religious and civil rights to all. Truth and error will then, politically speaking, be put upon their respective resources; and there can be as little fear that the former will not prevail over the latter, as that God will not prevail over Mammon.

The divine language addressed to multitudes of people, is surely applicable to a limited few of that number, engaged in the management of their common affairs. Let your light so shine before men,that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven."

Governments will most substantially promote and enrich the christian church, by exemplify ing in their private relations and in their public deportment, the graces of the gospel. But the government which puts "its candle under the bushel," and is seen in its principles and its

The SOLICITOR GENERAL-Mr. Chairman:All parties, I doubt not, will readily admit, that if there be one subject more than another, the discussion of which, should be approached with calmness and solemnity-that should be investigated in the spirit of forbearance and candour, with minds earnestly bent on coming to a decision consistent with truth and justice-it is the question under consideration. It will, I trust, be borne in rememberance, that this Assembly was con. stituted and organized for the purpose of legis. lating for the peace, welfare, and good-governs ment of the inhabitants of this Province, and that, in the performance of this all-important duty, we are now about to determine a question which may be truly said to involve the highest interests and future happiness of the people we represent and their descendants; it, therefore, becomes an obvious and imperative duty to take

results, by that glimmer, which barely renders "the darkness visible," affords by its political patronage a shameful and unprofitable substitute for those more spiritual endowments.

To what purposes, then, ought these reserves to be applied? To the general education of the people. Philosophy has been well styled "the handmaid of religion:" and while the general diffusion of knowledge will augment the happiness of the community, it wil at the same time enrich the corroborative testimonies in favor of divine truth, and diminish that ignorance and error which have herertofore rendered it less accessible to mankind.

If our religion has in past times triumphantly prevailed against the powers of this world and of darkness too, how incalculably we may facilitate her conquests by merely levelling, as it were, the theatre of her operations, and giving freer scope to her spiritual warfare-Altho many great men have brought all the force of their minds to bear against christianity, and have thrown over it the clouds of infidelity, yet those clouds have served to give greater refraction to the truth shining through them, & thereby enhanced and enlightened what they were intended to darken and enshrowd-just as the moon rising in an evening fog seems really the nearer and the greater for the very mist about her-Thus Gibbon is converted into a commentator upon the fulfilment of prophesy. If such has been the course of christianity under multiplied disadvantages, the abatement of those will contribute to mature its medisadvantages ridian, and usher in the approaching millenni

um.

With these views, Sir, it is my intention, should the motion for the adoption of the preamble of the bill before you be lost, to move the following resolution:

"That it is expedient to provide for the sale of the Clergy Reserves, and the application of the proceeds to the purposes of General Education, as one of the most legitimate ways of giving free scope to the progress of religious truth in the community."

care that no rancorous feeling of personal dislike, or party animosity, should betray us into a departure from that course of conduct, which, as men and christians, we are called upon to pursue, and which the deepest obligations of duty to those who have intrusted their dearest and most important interests to our hands, require us to follow. In this temper, and with these impressions, I shall now proceed to offer to the consideration of the committee the obser vations it is my intention to make-and I hope that if, in the course of my remarks, I should fall into the repetition of some arguments and statements that have, on former occasions, been advanced by me in the presence of some hon. gentlemen now here, I shall be excused, and not thought to be designedly as well as unnecessarily trespassing on their time-especially, when it is recollected that I have so often expressed

I

my sentiments, in public, on the question before ns, that it is almost impossible to avoid repeat. ing some remarks employed on previous occas sions. It will, I am sure, be generally conced. ed that the speech of the hon. and learned mem. ber for Norfolk (Dr. Rolph) stands pre-eminent among those delivered in favour of the alienation of the property of the church to purposes of general education. The character which the hon. and learned gentleman has justly acquired for eloquence and classical knowledge was am. ply sustained in the speech alluded to; but can. dour requires me to declare, that I failed to dis. cover any solid argument throughout the whole of his address by which to sustain his conclu. Bions. If I understood the hon. and learned gentlemen correctly, his design was to prove1st. That the connection of Church and State was and had ever been destructive of religion2d. That religion would more surely prosper without the aid of State or public support for its ministers-And 3d. That the Reserves set apart by the Constitution for the support of a Protes. tant Clergy in these Provinces should be taken away and disposed of for general education, because no dominant or Established Church should be suffered to exist. I shall offer some observations on each of these propositions. own I was a little surprised to hear the hon. and learned gentleman attempt to sustain his first position by asserting that the Polytheism of the ancients was overthrown and owed its destruction to its connection with the State! Sir; I have been taught to ascribe the regeneration of the heathen world to a very different cause, namely, to the diffusion of the light of the gos. pel through the instrumentality of the Saviour of mankind. I have been led to believe that the divine light of truth which by his visitation was shed abroad in the world, taught the then pow. erful and, in some respects, enlightened natives of the earth the folly as well as wickedness of their form of worship, and led them to abandon the profane adoration of their idols, and bow the knee to the previously unknown, but true God. It may be, however, that I have misunderstood the hon. and learned gentleman, and, therefore, I will proceed to consider the less questionable authorities which he has called to his assistance. When the hon. and learned gentleman quoted the learned and pious Dr. Moshiem to prove that the christian religion degenerated, and its ministers became corrupt and wicked from the time that religion was identified with, and was taken under the protection of the State, I felt satisfied that he was not justified in using the name of that eminent historian of the church for any such purpose-for, although my literary attainments and knowledge of books are far inferior to those of the hon. and learned gentle. man, I had not forgotten the numerous author ities that exist to prove that long prior to the days of Constantine, the first monarch that em. braced the christian religion, its ministers had sunk into a state of voluptiousness and debauch. ery, disgraceful to them as followers of their di vine master. I therefore cannot but thank the hon, and learned member for having quoted from Dr. Moshiem in support of his assertion, that from the time the christian religion was identified with the State, its ministers became corrupt and profligate, and religion itself fell in

to disgrace and disreputo-because, he cannot now object to my citing the same author to prove the very reverse of this position, and clearly to show that more than a hundred years before the Emperor Constantine proclaimed himself a convert to christianity, and extended his protection to the christian religion, its ministers had become depraved and wicked, and that from the time the christian religion became the religion of the State, it flourished and extended in a manner almost miraculous. About the commencement of the second century the minis. ters of the christian religion introduced exten. sive changes in the ecclesiastical government Dr. Moshiem says that

"These changes were followed by a train of vices, which dishonoured the character and authority of those to whom the administration of the church was committed.For, though several yet continued to exhibit to the world illustrious examples of primitive piety and christian virtue, yet many were sunk in luxury and voluptuousness, puffed up with a spirit of contention and discord, and addicted to many other vices, that cast an undeserved reproach upon the holy religion, of which they were the unworthy professors and ministers. This is testified in such an ample manner, by the repeated complaints of many of the most respectable writers of this age, that truth will not permit us to spread the veil, which we should otherwise be desirous to cast over such enormities among au order so sacred." -Vol. 1, page 266.

In this condition the christian church is represented to have remained until when? Why, Sir, until the time it became identified with the State: until the period of the accession of Constantine the Great, who became a convert to its doctrines, through the miraculous interposition of Providence, as he declared, and forthwith extended to it his protection, and declared the christian religion to be the established religion of the Empire. And in what manner does Dr. Moshiem speak of this auspicious event? would be led to imagine from the remarks of the hon. and learned member, and from the passage cited by him from the same author I am now quoting, that this learned and pious man denounced it as fatal to the prosperity and stabili ty of the church and religion-far otherwise is the fact. Hear what he says upon the subject:

One

"The divine providence, however, was preparing more serene and happy days for the church. In order to this, it confounded the schemes of Galerius, and brought his counsels to nothing. In the year 306, Constantine Chlorus dying in Britain, the army saluted with the title of Augustus, his son Constantine, surnamed afterwards the Great, on account of his illustrious exploits, and forced him to accept the purple."-Vol. 1, page 318.

"After the defeat of Licinius, the empire was ruled by Constantine alone until his death, and the christian cause experienced, in its happy progress, the effects of his auspi cious administration. This zealous prince employed all the resources of his genius, all the authority of his laws, and all the engaging charms of his munificence and liberality, to efface, by degrees, the superstitions of paganism, and to propagate christianity in every corner of the Roman empire."-Pages 326-7.

Dr. Moshiem further informs us that to the zeal and diligence with which Constantine and his successors exerted themselves in the cause of Christianity and in extending the limits of the Churches is to be ascribed the number of barba rous and uncivilized nations which received the gospel-theAbyssinians, the Georgians, the Goths, the Gauls, and other then barbarous races of men became converts to Christianity, and from that period is to be dated its greatest prosperity. In no instance has any monarch, since the days of Constantine, separated from the Christian Church, with the exception of the Roman Em

tion by no other means than applying to the works of those who have been more fortunate in their means and opportunities of drinking deep at the great sources of knowledge, and who have published to the world the results of their laborious investigations. Will the truth of this be denied by the missionary and minis. ters of the many christian sects not of the Established Church? Quite sure I am that it will not: they will be the last to desire to see over. thrown the venerable parent to whose heavenly instruction they are so largely indebted; and if I be right, then sir, let me ask whether this world is now so enlightened, whether it has attained that degree of perfection that it is no longer necessary to hold out extraordinary inducements to mankind to investigate the deep and all-important truths of religion, and the yet hidden secrets of nature? If it be necessary that we should continue onward with unabated vigor in the acquirement of knowledge, on no account let us disturb those institutions, (the most prominent of which, is the Established Church of England) from which we have already derived so many blessings, and which, if we will permit them, will continue to render their powerful aid in making us wise unto sal. vation.

means are we indebted for these "fit abodes of hopes of immortality"?-The reply I know must be, to the christian adoration and benevolence of pious men, and the funds provided by State endowments. In like manner let me solicit the hon. & learned gentleman to recal to his recollection to what cause or source we are indebted for the many noble seats of learning that are dispersed throughout the world, and which have supplied us with those streams of knowledge he so well understands, and I doubt not fully ap. preciates to what do we mainly owe these vast advantages but to State endowments? take them away and what would become of those illustrious Halls which now adorn the Classic banks of the Cam and the Isis-the pride of Englandthe admiration of the world? can the hon. and learned gentleman contemplate with complacen. cy the overthrow of institutions that were once, I have no doubt, the objects of his veneration, and which I hope are still cherished in his grateful remembrance?-Did he ever contemplate the possibility of his revisiting the University in which he received his Classic honours, and where had he remained, he might have attained additional well merited distinction, and finding its halls desolate and deserted-no longer the seat of science the fountain of wisdom-the dispenser of learning and religion? Surely the bare idea would fill him with horror; and yet such must be the result, if the doctrines he now advocates are those which ought to be adopted in furtherance of true religion. It might be argued that if it be wrong to provide for the sup port of Ministers of the church, when ordained, from public funds, so also is it improper to provide for their education preparatory to their or. dination from the same means, and if this posi. tion were acted upon, then would there be an end of one of the chief inducements for endowing and maintaining public Seminaries of learning. No person knows better than the hon. and learned member, that the Universities, Colleges, and public Schools, of Great Britain and Ireland have for centuries been thronged by young men, who are anxious for church preferment, it may be that some of those who sought ordination were not originally actuated by that pure and single motive which impels some men to advance the spiritual welfare of their fellow mortals; but whether this be so or not, no one will deny that mankind is deeply indebted to those institutions for a large proportion of the religious knowledge it possesses. If public provision for the support of Ministers did not exist, we may with too much reason fear that numbers of those pious and learned men who, educated at public Seminaries, afterwards adorned and promoted religion by the purity of their lives and the soundness of their doctrines, would have devoted their commanding talents to other pursuits; and if this had been the case, would the Church of England have been the only body of christians that would have suffered? Far otherwise; the pious, zealous, and humble missionary is oftentimes, nay, generally taken from that class of men who never had the advantages of the higher orders of education within their reach, how then does he prepare himself for his holy and deeply important duty? The days of inspiration it is admitted have passed away, and therefore he can obtain the necessary informa.

I will now advert to the last position of the hon. and learned gentleman, viz: that the Re. serves set apart for the support of Protestant Clergy should be otherwise disposed of because no dominant, or Established Church should exist. My hon. and learned friend from Lenox & Addington, whose excellent speech I listened to with the greatest satisfaction, has already shown the absurdity of calling the Church of England in this country, a dominant Church: the term is either misunderstood, or misapplied by those who use it. There is not any dominant Church here-the Church of England pos. sesses no power to coerce or controul any other body of christians-it has it not in its power to enforce the payment of tithes, and the people are not subject to any exactions for its support; if contributions for the support of its ministers be made, they are as completely voluntary as are the contributions of Presbyterians, Methodists, or any other sect whatever.

With respect to the Church of England being the Established Church, I will merely ask the hon. and learned gentleman, to consult but for a moment his legal knowledge, and ask himself whether the Church of England would be less the Established Church of this Province, if not one acre of land had been reserved for its support, than it is with the appropriation that has been made for that object? Unquestionably not -it is not the possession of land that renders the Church of England the Established Church; if that were so, then would the Presbyterians, Methodists, and other religious sects, be Established Churches, as they all possess or may possess lands under the authority of an Act of the Provincial Parliament, and it signifies not whether these lands were acquired by gift from the Crown or by purchase. That the Church of England is the Established Church of this Province, and of all His Majesty's other dominions, Scotland excepted, is unquestionably true; although the fact has been by some persons oc casionally denied. Upon a former occasion

felt it expedient to bring forward the authorities by which this point was placed beyond dis. pute: I will not cite them at length now, but if there be any who desire further investigation of the subject, I will briefly refer them to 1st Eliz. chap. 1, where they will find it enacted that the ecclesiastical jurisdiction that had previously been exercised by the Pope was for ever extinguished, and annexed to the Crown, throughout the dominions and countries then belonging to, or which afterwards should belong to, or be an. nexed to the kingdom of England, and the Pro. testant Episcopal religion was thenceforth es. tablished throughout the realm. This Statute is expressly recognized in the Act of Union with Scotland, and again made applicable to every part of the British dominions then belonging or which might afterwards belong to the Crown of Great Britain, Scotland excepted. That it was considered binding, and in fact expressly mado binding on this Province, will be found by reference to the 14th Geo. 3d, chap. 88, the first Statute that conferred a settled form of govern. ment on the Canadas, and is further recognized in our own Constitutional Act; as well as in nu. merous Provincial Acts scattered throughout the Statute book. As a further practical proof of the correctness of the position I have advanced, I will call the attention of the hon. and learned gentleman to the fact, that a Bishop has been appointed to these Provinces who exercises all the spiritual functions of a Bishop in England, such as ordination, confirmation, and the like. Ministers of the Church of England are also permitted to marry and perform all the duties of clergymen, and these several acts are done and admitted to be legal, on no other ground than that the establishment of the Church of Eng. land being co-extensive with the British dominions, Scotland excepted, its clergy have an original legal right to act as such wherever they may reside within the limits of their Sovereign's dominions. I will notice another evidence:The hon. and learned gentleman will recollect, that to libel or bring into contempt or derision the Liturgy of the Church of England, is an in. dictable offence, while so to treat the Confession of Faith, or any other book of a like descrip. tion, is not punishable, unless indeed, the offence includes some outrage of the christian reli. gion. And now I must confess that it would gratify me to hear from the hon. and learned gentleman, any argument he can advance against the usefulness and necessity of main. taining an Established Church. Will he venture to argue that it is not the duty of every govern. ment to shew reverence and maintain respect for the holiest and highest duties imposed on man by his Creator; will he maintain that the condition of that people can be happy or their institutions secure, who live in such a state of moral and religious degradation so as to be without laws for the punishment of blasphemy, or which, if any do exist, are so feeble that no one dares or thinks of enforcing them? That such a state of things have existed, and I fear do still exist, is most true. France for a short period exhibited one example, and a neighbouring Republic presents us with another, the former has passed away, and the latter continues for our instruction, and what are the lessons it teaches? Do we not hear of their public halls in their principal

cities being occupied Sabbath after Sabbath with the consent, as it is to be presumed, of their Magistrates, with bands of profane and mis. guided beings who openly inculcate the doctrine that the christian religion is a cheat, and the Saviour of mankind an imposter; that man is not accountable to his Creator for his conduct, and that he is bound by no other rule of action than such as his own vicious and corrupt nature may suggest; scouting and treating with utter derision and contempt the holy Scriptures, as well as all those institutions, human and Divine, which we have been accustomed to regard with veneration, aud upon which we have been taught to build our hopes of happiness here and hereafter? Ilave we not seen it announced that in the city of Rochester, not one hundred miles from our own shores, a public meeting of 700 persons were employed in discussing the following propositions :

"That it is an infringement of national and constitutional liberty for the legislature to require one day in seven to be kept holy; and also that it is an infringement of liberty to require any witness to give his evidence upon oath, inasmuch as the tendering him an oath requires from him, by implication, an avowal that he believes in a Supreme Being and a future state, which belief though it is desirable ail men should entertain, yet none should be required to declare"?

If such be the consequences of being without an Established Church, and as a consequence without laws for the punishment of outrages such as I have noticed, will the hon. and learned gentleman say that an Established Church is not worth upholding? I trust he will not say. that it is not at all events, I am sure it will re. joice every well-regulated mind, and be a source of pride and thankfulness that the christian religion is identified with the common law of our land-that our institutions are based on the laws of God-and that by reverencing and protecting them as far as human means can, from insult and profanation, we hope for protection to our King and to our government. But, as connect. ed with this branch of the subject the hon. gentleman says that there not only ought not to be any Established Church, but that all the ministers of religion should be left to the voluntary contributions of their congregations for support

and to maintain this latter position, he has employed many words and much eloquence -but, Sir, I cannot admit that he has advanced any solid argument, any more than that he has quoted one single authority to which any impor tance can be attached to support his opinion: indeed, it would be surprising if he had done so, inasmuch as all those illustrious men, whose opinions he has cited with so much and just approbation, would, every one of them, give evidence against him. The learned and pious Dr. Mosheim, whose work was the first the hon and learned gentlemen called to his aid, was a member of an Established Church, and a distinguished member of several literarary institutions sustained by public funds. Burnet and Newton, it it is unnecessary to say, were Bishops of the Es. tablished Church, and to these names the hon. and learned gentlemen might have added Taylor, Hooker, Horne, Porteous, Berkley--celebrated for his peculiar philosophy -Payley, and a host of others, each of whom would have furnished him with arguments convincing-if human argument could convince any one-of the error of his opinions. There is one other authority which has