ecclesiastical concern, is an object of very great importance, and it will be your indispensable duty to lose no time in making such arrangements in regard thereto, as may give full satisfaction to our new subjects, in every point in which they have a right to indul. gence on that head, always remembering that it is a toleration of the free exercise of the religion of the Church of Rome only, to which they are entitled, but not to the powers and privileges of it as un established Church: for that is a preference which belongs only to the Protestant Church of England." P. 21.

Of the manner in which his Majesty's instructions are observed at Quebec, some idea may be formed from the following paragraph in a Colonial newspaper.

"Hier, sa Grandeur l'Evêque Catholique de Quebec assistè de Messeigrs. les Evêques de Salde et de Rhésine, donna, en présence d'une nombreuse assemblée de Clergé et de peuple, dans l'Eglise du Faubourg St. Roch, la consecration épiscopale à Monseigneur Bernard Angus M'Eachern, titulaire de Rosen et son suffragan pour la province de New Brunswick, et pour les Iles du Capt. Breton, du Prince Edouard, et de la Madeleine. On n'avoit pas encore vû quatre * evêques réunis dans une même Eglise en Canada. La ceremonie fut exécutée à la satisfaction de tous les assistans. Lady Dalhousie l'honora de sa présence, et l'on assure que son Excellence le Gouverneur en chef y auroit aussi assisté s'il n'eût été engagé à un voyage depuis long temps prémedité et qui ne souffroit point de délai." Appendix, p. 69.

And of the gratitude with which such favours are received, and of the admirable effects of the conciliatory system a pretty correct notion is derived from a passage in a letter addressed to the editor of a Quebec Journal, by a Roinish priest, with at least the tacit sanction of his Bishop.

"Les Canadians s'instruiront à la fin, si ce n'est d'une façon, ce sera d'une autre; et en s'instruisant, ils apprendront qu'on n'a consenti à leur vendre l'éducation civile qu' au prix de leur principes religieux, ou, au moins, de leur libertè de conscience. Dejà même un jour nouveau commence à dissiper les ténébres, plus vîte qu'on ne l'imagine; et, j'ose en avertir, les circonstances locales de leur position politique doivent nous faire croire qu'on n'exercera pas toujours sur eux l'oppression que maintient l'intolerance legale dont l'Angleterre seule, aujourd'hui, de tous les pays Européans mi-partis des deux religions, nous offre l'example aussi étonnant pour notre siècle qu' affligeant pour l'humanitè. Si l'Irlande etoit aussi voisine que nous des Etats Unis, il y auroit long tems que les Catholiques n'y

A few years ago there was but one Roman Catholic Bishop in all North America. ED.

seroient plus forcés de payer la dixme au clergé Protestant, &c. Appendix, p. 56.

This is speaking out; and it fòrms an admirable example of the effect of concession in gaining the affections and soothing the discontents of the Papists. It closely resembles the tirades of orator Hunt, and the anathemata of the society for protecting religious liberty; and it is an emanation of the same spirit, fostered by the governors of Canada, which is working the downfall of the Church of England in that Colony, and the consequent separation of the Colony itself from the mother country. He who will not (for there is no man who cannot) see this tendency, is in the last stage of mental ophthalmia.

Strong as the statements in this letter appear, we are in possession of facts and of documents which, if it were expedient at this moment to produce them, would greatly heighten the astonishment and the indignation of our readers; but we forbear for the present to enter further into this painful subject, in the hope that the bill for consolidating the two provinces, which is said to be in progress, may provide some remedy for the impending evil. That the charge of bigotry and intolerance on the part of the government, made by the Roman Catholics, is wholly unmerited, need hardly be repeated; and the conduct of the Protestant Bishop and of his clergy has been uniformly guided by a spirit of liberality and forbearance, which for many years (previous to the consecration of the present Romish Bishop,) insured them the esteem and gratitude of the then happy and contented Papists. We have heard that when his Lordship returned to England for a short period, after a residence at Quebec of more than ten years, he received numerous addresses from the Roman Catholic inhabitants of the province, lamenting his departure, and praying for his prosperous and speedy return; and that he was accompanied to the quay where he embarked by nearly all the Catholic, as well as Protestant gentlemen of the capital, who bade him farewell with tears.

This amiable and really conciliatory temper is strongly displayed in the letter to Mr. S. C. Blyth, by a Catholic Christian, who is evidently a Divine of no ordinary talents and theological learning, and whom, from internal evidence, as well as from common report, we suppose to be the Archdeacon of the Lower Province. Mr. Blyth, it seems, is a gentleman, of a description too common in these days, who has tried all religions, and no religion; who has been Deist, Mahometan, Baptist, and what not?-and who has, at last,

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found the haven of his rest under the wing of the Church of Rome. For the benefit of his fellow wanderers in the wilderness of error, he has thought fit to publish the narrative of his last conversion, as a sort of Ductor Dubitantium" adapted to modern times; and he has made it the vehicle of a furious attack upon the Church of England and her members. His able antagonist replies in a tone of great moderation and inexhaustible good humour; but at the same time with a force of argument, a power of style, a fund of ancient and modern erudition, and a chastised vein of pleasantry, worthy of the best period of the Reformation. The letter is indeed evidently written, as it professes to be, in great haste, and is consequently wanting in arrangement and condensation; but this very circumstance tends to shew that the resources of the writer are all impromptu, and his acquaintance with the deeper studies of his profession as intimate and familiar as it is with the lighter branches of literature. But whatever may have been the excuse for the haste of the author, there can be none for the reprehensible negligence of the printer. There are nearly four pages of errata, and those such only as materially affect the sense, in a pamphlet containing less than three hundred pages. We have seen some very creditable specimens of typography from the press at Quebec, but really Mr. Nahum Mower, of Montreal, deserves the severest reprehension.

As we have noticed this little publication chiefly to shew the spirit which prevails in the Protestant Episcopal Church at Quebec, we shall content ourselves with one or two short extracts, and with a recommendation to the author that he will allow it to be re-published in this country, revised and corrected by himself, and printed where its sense will not be impaired by the inadvertence or by the intentional blunders of a Nahum Mower.

In opening the controversy, the Catholic Christian avows the principles upon which he is induced to act, in language which amply justifies the title he has assumed.

"GOD above knows I am far enough from wishing to molest the prevailing religion of the inhabitants. The first planters of the Gospel had a special commission-were miraculously gifted-and made their experiment necessarily upon Jewish and Heathen subjects. The Reformers were groaning under an intolerable load of spiritual tyranny, and of conscious corruption; and by the exercise of lawful authority they relieved themselves from both. Neither precedent applies, therefore, to prove it our duty to interfere with you, if you abstain from interfering with us. We may be thankful if it shall please GOD, at any time, to take the veil off

your hearts, but it is not for us to know the times and the seasons which the Father has put in his own power.' I am not one of those proselyting zealots who, for the chance of gaining some few scattered converts, will risk the exacerbation of bigotry and prejudice, the mere unsettling of many minds, the interruption of domestic harmony, the violation of social peace, the infringement of religious order, the contravention of views obviously entertained by his Majesty's paternal government. These are things not lightly to be meddled with-barriers not unadvisedly to be thrown down. I conceive it to be the part of a Christian to balance, in these cases, both the certain and contingent harm against the probable degree of good. And there are other considerations of a local nature which strengthen these remarks. In this country, where there are many individuals of the Romish Church, whom I sincerely esteem, and where the general character of the people is entitled to the praise of all parties, I should, for one, be very slow to recommend any schemes of conversion, and backward to concur in them. We can employ our resources better in the correction of our own faults; in the promotion of the Gospel among ourselves ; or in contributing to its diffusion among the heathens, by connecting ourselves with the operations of the mother country in that ample field. But if the very reverse of these maxims be found to guide the proceedings of many eager partizans on the other side; and if they are only encouraged, by our 'abstinence from retaliation, more frequently and more boldly to make their incursions among the fold to which we belong; then it is time for them to learn that our moderation has not been cowardice, or consciousness of a weak cause." P. 5.

But though the author of this excellent letter writes thus suaviter in modo, he argues fortiter in re; and, in touching upon the various points so long and so often debated between the Reformed and the Romish Churches, if he advances little that is positively new, there is at least great originality of style, and a liveliness of manner which beguiles the dryness of a worn-out but not exhausted subject. The severer part of his charges are drawn from the acknowledgments of the Romanists themselves, and given in their own words.

"Je vois tous les jours que la religion Romaine fait de mauvais sujets, en reconnoissantune puissance etrangere, supérieure, a celle du pays; Nos Evêques ne sont pas François, mais sujets du Pape." P. 33.

"Let us hear the opinion passed upon the last-mentioned author (St. Augustine,) by Pope Paul V. He has indeed some

good sermons, but bad ones withal: he stands too much upon Scripture, which is a book that if a man will keep close to, he will quite ruin the Catholic Faith." Father Paul's Letters. Letter xxvi.

"Vanus est labor,' says Cardinal Rosius, a legate of his Holiness, and a President in the Council of Trent, qui Scripturis impenditur: Scriptura enim creatura est, et elementum quoddam egenum.'

"Scripturæ,' says Cardinal Cusanus, 'adaptatæ sunt ad tempus, et varié intelliguntur: Ita ut uno tempore secundum curren tem universalem ritum exponantur: mutato ritu iterum sententia mutetur. Cusan ad Bohom. Ep. ii.' Sylvester Prierias, Master of the Pope's Palace, says, A doctrinâ Romanæ Ecclesiæ et Romani Pontificis, Sacra Scriptura robur trahit et auctoritatem--and again- Indulgentiæ auctoritate Scripturæ non innotuêre nobis: sed auctoritate Romanæ Ecclesiæ, Romanorumque Pontificum quæ major est. Sylv. Prier. Cont. Luth.'" P. 229.

The subject of the idolatry of the Church of Rome is taken up with a very masterly hand.

"Let it then (if you will) be repeated for the millionth time, that the Romanists do not worship them at least in the Protestant acceptation *. We say that you do worship the Saints and Angels, and above all the Virgin, in an acceptation which is not only unauthorized, but expressly forbidden,-for this it is to worship them at all. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve +', is a text which, added to the foregoing authorities, imperatively excludes, not only that extravagant adoration which is offered to the Virgin, but all those modifications of worship-those evasions and subtle distinctions, little calculated for the mass of mankind, with which your Latria, and Dulia, and Hyperdulia involve the sacred simplicity of Christian homage.

"But what is the voice of remote antiquity? Will that venerable matron be found to testify against herself as having deviated from the injunctions of Holy Writ ?

'Once again my call obey,

Prophetess, arise, and say

"The invocation of any other being than GOD is a strange sound to her ears. We pass the middle of the fourth century before we reach any trace of it. We find at that very point the clear, though incidental, disclaimer of the practice. And Eusebius has preserved, in his Fourth Book, the letter of the Church of GOD, which is at Smyrna, unto the Church at Philomilium,' &c. upon occasion of the martyrdom of Polycarp her Bishop, who was the disciple of St. John, in which letter the following passage occurs. But many pricked forward Necites, the father of Herod, and his brother Dalcis, to move the Proconsul not to deliver unto the Christians his body, lest that they, leaving Christ, fall a worshipping him. This they said when the Jews egged and urged them forwards, which constantly watched us lest we snatched him + Matt. iv. 10.

*P. 55, of Mr. Blyth's Narrative.

Vide Appendix.