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.) 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 history 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 Canadian 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 consider 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 proprietors 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 Quebec. 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 become 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 had himself been known to Mr. Pitt at Cambridge, where he had been a fellow of Caius College, and the Bishop's recommendation 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. Tomline'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 immediately 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 surrounding 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 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, containing 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 immediately adjoined those of Woodfield, being 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 Woodfield 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 friendship 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: O wherefore, but to leave a deeper gloom, -- Do these brief flashes pass before our eyes? • An allusion to fact. |