The final letter received from Mr. Higginson was dated Montreal, June 10th, 1840:--

I beg you to accept my cordial thanks for your very kind communication of the 30th ult. I am not insensible to the high honour that has been conferred upon me by our Sovereign--far beyond my humble merits; but I have great satisfaction in feeling that I won it fighting shoulder to shoulder with you and the other advocates of those great British Const.i.tutional principles of Government, for which we contended, and which were so fiercely a.s.sailed by the British Democratic party, who, I earnestly trust may never again be able to make head in Canada. That I, in the slightest degree contributed to the victory will be to me a source of pride. To the eminent Pilot who directed us no one knows better than yourself how much is due. Would that he had been spared to perfect the good work. My latest account of his health encourages the hope that I may yet be permitted to see him again.

We closed the session yesterday, which was got through with success, and I hope with some advantage to the public interests.

I regret very much that I have not had the pleasure of seeing you since your return from Europe. Farewell!

J. M. H.

The appointment which Mr. Higginson received from the Queen was that of Governor of Antigua. In his reply to an address from the Wesleyan missionaries of that island, on his arrival, he thus referred to his experience of that body in Canada:--

I have had frequent opportunities of witnessing in various quarters of the globe the untiring exertions of your brethren in the sacred cause of religion and humanity, and whether in the sultry heat of Asia, ... or struggling against the rigours of a Canadian winter, I have always found the Wesleyan missionaries animated by the same benevolent and philanthropic spirit, and undaunted by obstacles, however appalling, manifesting the same discreet zeal to spread far and wide the healing influence of the holy Gospel of Christ.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

1843-1844.

Clergy Reserve Question Re-opened.--Disappointments.

Extraordinary efforts were put forth (as shown in Chapter x.x.xiii., page 263) by the leaders of the Church of England party in Upper Canada to prevent the Royal a.s.sent being given to Lord Sydenham's Clergy Reserve compromise Bill of 1841. Equally strenuous efforts were successfully made to ensure the fulfilment of Bishop Strachan's prediction that the rejected Bill of Lord Sydenham would form the basis of an Imperial Act, which would secure to the national Churches of England and Scotland, for all time, the lion's share of the proceeds of George the Third's ill-fated gift to Canada of the clergy reserves. Lord John Russell, the pretentious and vacillating Secretary of State for the Colonies at the time, proved himself to be, in this matter, a pliant instrument in the hands of Henry of Exeter. This prelate endorsed, _con amore_, all the extreme views of the Bishop of Toronto; and with the aid of Lord Seaton (Sir John Colborne) and the Bench and Bishops in the House of Lords, compelled the Government to perpetuate an act of legislative usurpation and injustice, which even the tyros in const.i.tutional law, as applied to the Colonies, were wont at the time to instance in the press as examples of history repeating itself--quoting, as an ill.u.s.tration, the ill-advised Imperial legislation in the case of the Stamp Act, etc.

By a singular fatality, which often attends arbitrary and unjust proceedings, the success of the scheme, which had been so carefully prepared, and carried through the British Parliament in the interests of the Church of England, was destined to become a source of weakness to that Church, and a foreboding of financial disaster. On the 29th December, 1843, the Attorney and the Solicitor-General of Canada (as stated by the Bishop of Toronto in his pastoral letter of the 10th of December, 1844) reported that having attentively examined the provisions of the acts for this subject, it was their opinion that the proper construction of the law threw upon the revenues of Canada the burthen of making up any deficiency in the clergy reserve fund, in paying the usual and accustomed allowances and stipends to the Ministers, ... and, while that deficiency lasted, the Imperial Treasury could not be called upon to make any payments to the two Churches. (See page 4 of Pastoral.)

The Bishop then charges the Provincial Government with being the cause of this financial difficulty, and accounts for the deficiency in the fund by the mismanagement of that Government. He adds further on:--

But, alas! the mismanagement has increased, pending these difficulties; and while my clergy are left in a state of dest.i.tution, large sums continue to be wasted in remunerating services which are really worse than useless, and this to such an extent as to render hopeless the expectation that the clergy reserve fund will ever answer the wise and holy purpose for which it was established.

In this dilemma the Bishop states what he had done to extricate the Church out of its difficulty. In doing so, he uses language which partakes more of the character of a wail than of a simple statement of facts. He also draws a most gloomy picture of the prospective religious state of Upper Canada, should the dearly prized, and as dearly bought, Imperial Clergy Reserve Act prove, after all, to be an apple of Sodom.

It is curious to notice how the Bishop, in his despairing outburst, studiously ignores the active and successful labours of the several voluntary churches--whose claims to a share in the reserves he had so strongly and selfishly opposed--churches which were even then actively engaged in "spreading scriptural holiness throughout the land," without the aid of a penny from the State. In his Pastoral, the Bishop says:--

I applied to the venerable [Propagation Society] in England to advance, in the meantime, the salaries (only 100 per annum each) to my five suffering clergy,--a.s.suring the Society that I had the fullest conviction it would be repaid as soon as it was decided which Government was liable.... The Society paid the stipends for the year ending 30th June, 1843, but have declined since that time to continue the advance.... In consequence, my five clergymen have been left without their stipends since June, 1843 [to December, 1844], ... and this large and increasing Diocese [then the whole of Upper Canada], already so dest.i.tute of the means of public worship (if the statute be allowed to operate as it has done for the last four years), will, in a spiritual sense, become, through half its extent, a wilderness. Not only are five clergymen in a state of want, but two parishes are left vacant, and the process is unhappily going on.... I have brought this disheartening and deplorable state of things under the notice of the Provincial Government.... I have pressed [the matter] upon His Excellency the Governor-General.... But all that was in my power to do has been without avail (page 6).

I also quote the foregoing pa.s.sages from this noted Pastoral, as they throw a vivid side-light upon the course of the Bishop in so vehemently pursuing the shadow of a state endowment for the Church of England in Upper Canada. The subsequent utterances of the Pastoral show how persistently the otherwise clear-headed and practical chief ruler of that Church shut his eyes to the remarkable success and vitality of the non-endowed Churches in the Province, and how much he deplored the necessity of adopting their successful voluntary system in his own church.[128] He says:--

I represented to His Excellency, in May last, that, "on a review of this unfortunate subject ... the distress of my five clergymen, and the desolation with which it menaces the Church, it involves consequences so calamitous and imminent as to justify the representative of the sovereign in a.s.suming more than ordinary responsibility in arresting their progress...."

On the 31st October, I again brought this painful subject at great length before the Provincial Government, and stated that, having failed to receive relief, I could only see one way left of mitigating the evil, and that is by an appeal to my people on the present critical situation of the Church, and in behalf of my dest.i.tute clergymen. It is indeed a step which I take with extreme reluctance, and which, were it possible, I would most willingly avoid.... (page 6.)

In a remarkable doc.u.ment, which the Bishop published in 1849, on "_The Secular State of the Church in the Diocese of Toronto_," he furnishes a painful and striking commentary on the effect of his own teaching: that it was the duty of the State to support the Church, and thus relieve the people of the chief obligation of supporting the Gospel amongst them.

Speaking of "contributions to the Church within the Province," he says:

Till lately we have done little or nothing towards the support of public worship. We have depended so long upon the Government and the [Propagation] Society, that many of us forget that it is our bounden duty. Instead of coming forward manfully to devote a portion of our temporal substance to the service of G.o.d, we turn away with indifference, or we sit down to count the cost, and measure the salvation of our souls by pounds, shillings, and pence.... While we are bountifully a.s.sisted, and seldom required to do more than half; yet we are seen to fail on every side (page 19).[129]

On pages 34-40 of this pamphlet, Bishop Strachan is very severe on the clergy to whom Bishop Fuller refers, whom he accuses of putting forth efforts "to disturb the peace of the diocese--efforts which were rapidly being organized into something of a regular system of agitation, so common ... among the traders in politics" (page 34).

An agitation having been commenced by the Bishop and clergy in Western Canada, in 1843, for "better terms" and an amendment to the Imperial Clergy Reserve Act of 1840, the question was re-opened. The effect of this re-opening of the question was deprecated by Dr. Ryerson and others. Early in January, 1844, Mr. Surveyor-General Parke sent to Dr.

Ryerson the copy of a letter written by Rev. Prof. Campbell, of Queen's College, Kingston, in which Mr. Campbell sets up the claim of the Kirk of Scotland, having a branch in Canada, as such, to a portion of the Canadian clergy reserves. Mr. Parke says:--

The writer of the letter arrives at two other conclusions, which, I think, are based on error, and calculated to interfere materially with the rights of the other bodies of Protestant Christians: namely, that the Kirk in Canada partic.i.p.ate in the clergy reserves, solely by the right it has as a branch of the Kirk in Scotland; and that other bodies of Christians partic.i.p.ate in them merely as an act of favour. To the first of these conclusions I entirely object, on the ground that the Act confers the reserves, purely and solely, on Canada, and for the benefit of interests and persons, absolutely within Canada. To the second conclusion or statement of the Professor, that is, that other bodies partic.i.p.ate as a matter of favour, I object on every ground on which it is possible for equity to place the subject. What! shall the unexampled toils, and incessant labours of the early and later Methodists, and other pioneers of the christianizing of Canada, have doled out to them, as a matter of simple grace, and a body in Scotland, who never knew nor partic.i.p.ated in the labour of sowing the seeds of the Gospel through the length and breadth of the land, claim as a matter of absolute right, for one of its branches, a partic.i.p.ation in lands, purely Canadian in fact and law? This I can never a.s.sent to; it was the question on which, as a Methodist, I first became a Canadian politician, and it is the question on which I yet feel the keenest.

I desire to call your attention to the matter, and solicit a correction from you of errors which, I think, are insidiously calculated to mislead the public mind, and make uphill work in combating other questions which may arise in unfortunate Canada, bye-and-bye. Some of the Kirk folks would monopolize for themselves, as far as they dare, and the Church of England too; but the general community, who have borne the burden and heat of the day--fought and won the battle--should not in any way have their interests and feelings trifled with by the unreasonable claims of a few, who at comparatively a late day entered the field.

As the agitation increased, Dr. Ryerson, who was in England in 1845, addressed a letter to Lord Stanley, Colonial Secretary, in January, on the injustice to the non-episcopal churches of the Act of 1840. He said:--

There is a subject which, in connection with transpiring circ.u.mstances in Canada, deeply involves the future condition of the government of Canada, and which can be considered by your Lordship alone: I refer to the withholding, to the present time, from the Wesleyan Methodist body in Upper Canada all benefit of the Act pa.s.sed for the settlement of the clergy reserve question--a question which certain parties in Canada propose to re-open, with a view of depriving the Church of England of what is considered a disproportionate share of the proceeds of the clergy reserves. The advantage afforded by such a subject of agitation would be eagerly seized upon by the leaders of the opposition in Parliament. The Wesleyan Methodist body in Upper Canada (now numbering 131 regular ministers, and 24,000 communicants), has for many years possessed and does still possess the casting vote between the contending political parties in that country; and should they join in the agitation contemplated, nothing but military power will prevent the wresting out of the hands of the Church of England their--the chief--pecuniary advantages which it derives from public sources.

Hitherto the leading members of the Wesleyan Methodist body have declined any public agitation on the subject--though solicited by influential parties--contenting themselves with private communication to the Government until they should find them hopelessly unsuccessful. Should not their case be considered? I have reason to believe that they will at their next annual meeting, to be held in June, commence an appeal to the public and to the Local Legislature on the injustice done them; as they have ascertained that all the leading lawyers in Upper Canada of both parties, as well as three successive Governors considered them wronged in the manner in which they alone, of the four great leading denominations of the country, have been excluded from the benefits of an act, to the basis of which Lord Sydenham never could have obtained the consent of the Canadian Legislature without their most decided support.

I should deeply lament the re-agitation of the clergy reserve question in Canada. Such a step, on the part of the great Wesleyan body there, would doubtless be attended by the strengthening of the opposition in the Legislature, and to probable withdrawal of the support of several members from the present Government. In an interview with the official Committee of the Wesleyan body, shortly before I left Canada, I promised them to bring the subject before your Lordship during my stay in England. They, therefore, deferred appealing to the Local Legislature to interpose in their behalf, until they should learn the result of such an appeal to your Lordship....

I cannot suppose that it has been the wish of your Lordship, any more than the intention of the Crown officers, to perpetuate the exclusion of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Canada from their confessedly-just claim of which they have already been deprived for a period of four years. The amount of the claim is less than one-half of what has been secured to the Roman Catholic Church in Upper Canada--less than one-third of the amount paid the Church of Scotland, and less than one-tenth of what has been guaranteed to the Church of England. The Wesleyan body, whose members in Upper Canada have increased eight thousand during the last four years, will be satisfied on the payment of the sum admitted in their behalf. And I submit that the sanctioning of it by your Lordship will, in my humble opinion, be far better, even as a matter of policy--apart from higher considerations--than affording just ground for an agitation, the consequences of which cannot be easily foreseen.

No relief was, however, afforded by a change in the administration of the Act of 1840. The Act itself remained unrepealed until 1853.

FOOTNOTES:

[128] In process of time, the necessities of his Church compelled the Bishop to adopt a new financial scheme, which he laid before his clergy in 1841, one main feature of which was to incorporate the voluntary principle with a system of moderate grants--such as has been the rule adopted for some years by the Mission Board of the Diocese of Toronto.

[129] In sending a copy of this pamphlet some years ago to the Editor of this volume, Archdeacon Fuller (now Bishop of Niagara), said:--This able and interesting doc.u.ment ... was drawn out from the late Bishop by the growing dissatisfaction amongst the clergy and laity, in consequence of Bishop Strachan managing the whole of the clergy reserve fund, without consulting anybody, and managing to get several thousand pounds of arrears paid to himself, as Bishop, and his protege, the present Bishop [Bethune], made Archdeacon of York, with a salary of 365 a year as Archdeacon, while he could not find means to pay the missionaries more than 100 a year.

CHAPTER XLIX.

1846-1848.

Re-Union of the British and Canadian Conferences.

During and before the period of the Metcalfe Controversy events were transpiring in Methodist circles in which Dr. Ryerson took an active part, and in which he was deeply interested.[130]

Important correspondence on the relations to each other of the British and Canadian Conferences took place in 1842. But as the issue of the contest between these Conferences was so prolonged, and involved so many important questions--religious and public--I think it desirable to give a brief preliminary outline of the origin of the difficulties between the two bodies. This is the more necessary, as Dr. Ryerson's own personal history and conduct became, from a variety of circ.u.mstances, most prominently mixed up with these controversies. His letters to the Government on the subject, and to the Missionary Secretaries, now first published, are also valuable Methodist historical doc.u.ments--although they partake largely of a personal character--as he was the foremost figure in all of these connexional contests. They are highly characteristic of the courage and self-sacrifice of the writer.

Methodism, after its introduction into Upper Canada in 1790, was organized into a Church by preachers from the United States. In 1811, when Upper Canada was on the eve of being the theatre of war with the United States, several American preachers who had been appointed to Canada declined to come, while those here (Messrs. Roads and Densmore) applied to the Canadian Government in 1812 for leave to return to their own country.[131] Nevertheless, after the war, and on the representation of persons prompted by high churchmen, the London Wesleyan Missionary Society sent out missionaries to four of the larger towns in Upper Canada. This schismatical policy was pursued by the British Conference until 1820, when the American General Conference sent Rev. John (afterwards) Bishop Emory, as a deputation to that Conference to remonstrate. The result was that the following resolutions were pa.s.sed by the British Conference in that year (1820):--

1. That as the American Methodists and ourselves are but one body, it would be inconsistent with our unity, and dangerous to that affection which ought to characterize us in every place, to have different societies and congregations in the same towns and villages, or to allow of any intrusion on either side into each other's labours.

2. That this principle shall be the rule by which the disputes now existing in the Canadas, between our missionaries, shall be terminated.

In transmitting these and several other resolutions on the subject to the British Missionaries in Canada, the Secretaries (Rev. Joseph Taylor and Rev. Richard Watson) said:--

We know that political reasons exist in many minds for supplying even Upper Canada, as far as possible, with British Missionaries; and, however natural this feeling may be to Englishmen, and even praiseworthy when not carried too far, it will be obvious to you that this is a ground on which, as a Missionary Society, and especially as a Society under the direction of a Committee which recognizes as one with itself the American Methodists, we cannot act.