CHAPTER XII.

Return to Canada-Death of Bishop Stewart-Statistics of the dioceseParochial 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. also understood that on the occurrence of a vacancy to assume the charge of the whole diocese.

It was

he was

During his stay in England, which lasted till the end of July 1836, he was constantly engaged in efforts for the advancement of the interests of the Church. He addressed the Colonial 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. Propagation 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

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 correspondence 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 Canadian 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 affording some aid to Lower Canada, for many years. The Bishop of Montreal had a great objection to the unnecessary multiplication 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 difficulties, 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 Frampton. 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 assurance how much gratification your consecration had given to myself and my friends as a means of spiritual advantage to Canada."

"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 September, 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 proceeding 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 enfeebled, he at last 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.

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 act 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 procure the appointment of Mr. Mackie to the rectory, but 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 Marchmont, 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. Matthew's. These labours were continued during the three years of his residence 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

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 brethren 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 scripture 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