among fifty-one clergymen, most of whom I see only once in three years, amounted to no trifle. Many other persons have wanted me for other things, and I have preached six times besides delivering my charge."

One of these sermons was preached at St. Thomas' Chapel, then recently built.

At this visitation a large number of the clergy addressed the Bishop in favour of the adoption of a more distinctive clerical dress, which he was known strongly to approve. He referred the matter to the Archbishop of Canterbury; and his grace, though entirely concurring in their feeling on the subject, did not feel prepared to recommend the practice in the case of a single diocese, while the general custom remained unchanged.

In a letter written in the following November, the Bishop says, referring to the Church Society:

"We began well, but it has not pleased God that we should, as yet, proceed with a very prosperous course. The extreme commercial depression of Quebec and Montreal is against us very much, and we have had other difficulties too. There are also other objects which I have deeply at heart for the benefit of the Church, in which I have encountered great discouragement; but we must regard these occurrences as trials of faith, checks to presumption, and incitements to redoubled prayer and diligence. If it has pleased God to suffer me, in some departments of my charge, to be an instrument of good, I have been and am sufficiently schooled, on the other hand, to humility and watchfulness by mortifications and disappointments, in my career of labour, of no common kind."

One of the objects here referred to was, doubtless, the foundation of Bishop's College, already mentioned. So long before as in 1839 he had said to the S. P. G. that it "had long been his ardent wish and prayer to establish a college," and in December of that year the Society voted £200 per annum towards the maintenance of divinity students. In the following autumn he decided on placing all the recipients of this bounty at Three Rivers, under the charge of the Rev. S. S. Wood, M.A., of Corpus College, Cambridge, rector of that place, whose theological and classical attain

ments eminently qualified him for the task. In April, 1841, he informed the society of the completion of this arrangement, adding; "I have thus paved the way, I hope, for the establishment of that institution,-I shall be thankful if I can say that college, the rough project of which I communicated to you in November last."

The rectory-house at Three Rivers, which was originally a monastery, seemed to offer some peculiar facilities for this purpose, both from the general character of the building, and particularly from its connection with the parish church, which had been the chapel of the monastery. But before these arrangements were finally completed, the Rev. L. Doolittle came forward, on behalf of himself and several residents of Sherbrooke and Lennoxville, with the offer of large contributions in money and land if the site of the college were fixed in the neighbourhood of those places. The situation of Three Rivers had been considered sufficiently suitable for a theological institution, but it was proposed now to give the college a more general character, with the special object of affording the advantages of a superior education to the English families who were daily flocking in to the Eastern townships, and of retaining within the province, and so moulding in English tastes and principles, the young men of American origin who were in the habit of seeking those advantages in the United States. The Eastern townships being the headquarters of the English-speaking population of Lower Canada, and every day increasing in importance, the Bishop saw at once the benefit which the successful planting of such an institution among them would confer, not only upon the Church, but upon the country at large. There was no difficulty in his mind with regard to McGill College, already established at Montreal, partly because he foresaw that the day could not be far distant when the wants of the popula tion would equal the resources of both institutions, and partly because McGill College had been deprived of the religious

character which was a necessary feature of an establishment designed as a place of theological learning. The consent of Mr. Wood having been obtained to his removal to Lennoxville as principal of the institution, measures were at once put in train for the erection of the necessary buildings on the site which had been secured; and while the theological students, awaiting their completion, remained at Three Rivers, a preparatory school was opened at Lennoxville, under the charge of Mr. Edward Chapman, B.A., of Caius College, Cambridge. In February, 1842, the Bishop furnished the society with a detailed account of the proposed college at Lennoxville, of which he said he considered a chapel as a most essential part, in connection with the formation of the habits of the students, and he shortly afterwards published similar statements in Canada.

The year 1842 was also marked by an event of some importance to the parish of Quebec, the completion of the rectory house, under an arrangement with the vestry of the cathedral by which the Bishop engaged to pay rent during his incumbency of the parish. A wing of the building was fitted up as a chapel, which was consecrated on All Saints' Day, 1842, under the name of All Saints, when the Bishop of Vermont preached the sermon. This chapel was designed to be used for week-day services or minor festivals, as well as the performance of acts of occasional duty. Immediately after its consecration, the Bishop assembled in it regularly a class of candidates for confirmation, whom he was himself preparing, and the first person confirmed in it was his own son, who, being unexpectedly called to join his regiment on receiving a commission in the army, and being therefore unable to wait for the general confirmation, was not allowed to depart without the blessing of the Church conveyed in the laying on of his father's hands.*

The Bishop always looked back on this occasion with feelings of peculiar thankfulness. A person who was present described the scene as

The Bishop also established in All Saints' Chapel, a monthly service, with a lecture which he delivered himself, on the Fridays before the communion. The foundation-stone of St. Peter's chapel in Quebec, removed to its present site from a building which had been for some years used partly as a chapel, and partly as the Male Orphan Asylum, was laid in July of this same year. The orphans were then transferred to the National School building, which had been enlarged to receive them.

unusually striking, from her knowledge of the pains that had been taken to prepare the candidate, and his appreciation of them, when the Bishop armed the young soldier for the fight against sin, the world, and the devil. The son himself, writing to his father very soon afterwards from England, says: "I hope I shall not forget the day. I have felt much happiness ever since. I do not say this by way of boasting, but I know that it will be a comfort to you to know that I do not forget my vows." The Bishop furnished him with a most valuable manual of hints, drawn up originally for his elder son when leaving home to prepare for Oxford. See Appendix.

CHAPTER XV.

Third triennial circuit.

*

THE year 1843 opened with the first act in the Bishop's third visitation. On the festival of the Circumcision he confirmed two hundred and seventeen persons in the cathedral of Quebec, and the next day set off on a tour which occupied him till the 15th March. An account of this tour, together with that of some subsequent journeys to complete the triennial visitation of the diocese, was. published by the S. P. G. But it contains such striking proofs of the progress of the Church during the three preceding years, that this narrative would not be complete without longer extracts from it than it might otherwise be necessary to give. The first that I make describes a peculiarity of Canadian winter travelling; the others refer mainly to places where new ground had been broken for the Church, or her ministrations multiplied.

"In the tract of country in which we were now travelling, which is more or less rude and unfrequented, and in which the winter track (as is often the case in Canada East) was in many places carried through the fields, away from the summer road, we encountered brooks and ditches which had broken their confinement, and were so swollen with continued augmentations from the melting snow as to offer some obstructions to our passage across them. The driver of the sleigh which followed us would here go forward with a pole, to sound the depth; but when it was ascertained that we could pass, (which we did in every instance but one, when a circuit of some miles became necessary,) it was a matter of very nice man

* Church in the Colonies, No. ix.