The whole number of confirmations in the diocese had been sixty-four, and two thousand two hundred and eighteen persons were confirmed. The proportion of these belonging to the present diocese of Quebec was thirty-seven confirmations, and nine hundred and twenty-five persons. The contrast between it and the district of Montreal had already begun to appear, for there thirty-three confirmations had sufficed for nearly thirteen hundred persons.

The whole number of miles travelled in accomplishing the circuit of the diocese was three thousand seven hundred and fifty-two, exclusive of about four hundred on separate journeys for the consecration of churches in the year 1843.

CHAPTER XVI.

Visit to the Red River-Surplice question-Views on some other points— Manner of dealing with opposition-Corner-stone of Bishop's College laid-Visitation of the clergy-Fires at Quebec-Opening of Bishop's College-Pastoral letter.

THE desire which the Bishop had long cherished of visiting the missions in the Hudson's Bay territory has been already mentioned, and as soon as this visitation of his own diocese had been accomplished, he undertook a voyage to Red River. All necessary arrangements had been made with the Church Missionary Society, by which the entire expense of the voyage was cheerfully borne, as well as that of providing the services of an additional clergyman in the parish of Quebec during the Bishop's absence, and some remuneration to a clergyman who discharged, in addition to his own, the duties of one who accompanied the Bishop as acting chaplain. The Governor of the territory, Sir George Simpson, afforded every facility in his power, and though the degree of exposure and privation to which he would necessarily be subjected in a long canoe-voyage had raised some apprehensions on the part of some of his friends* (which he had effectually quieted

It was not often that those nearest to him grudged his yielding to higher claims than their own. One of my sisters writing to me from Quebec in 1847 (the year of ship fever) said, "My dearest father talks of going to Grosse Isle again. I cannot think he is called upon to do so, though, were the danger and labour greater, and it were his duty plainly to go, I am sure none of us would hesitate a moment."

by saying with St. Paul, "What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart?") the whole undertaking was regarded, in reality, more as a relaxation than anything else. Although he could not, of course, forget the cares and anxieties of the charge which he had left behind, yet the forced leisure, the constant familiarity with nature, the novelty of many of the scenes through which he passed, and, above all, the deep and lasting comfort which the exercise of his ministrations afforded him, formed a break in his life of continued toil, and presented opportunities of actual enjoyment which could not fail to produce a beneficial effect upon himself. He beguiled the time which he spent in the canoe by the composition of some small poems, which he afterwards published under the title of "Songs of the Wilderness," and which sufficiently serve to shew the spirit by which he was animated in undertaking the journey. An account of his visit, in letters addressed to the Church Missionary Society, was also published by that body.* He acted under a commission from the Bishop of London, who had a nominal jurisdiction over these extradiocesan regions. On the 12th May the Bishop held an ordination in the cathedral of Quebec, and preached a sermon, which was published by desire, from 2 Cor. x. 15, 16.

The first Bishop of Rupert's Land, writing to him soon after his arrival in his diocese, said, with reference to this journal, "It was from its simple and forcible statements that I felt so interested in the condition and prospects of the Indian that I at last determined to accept the call" to the bishopric. "The diocese owes so deep a debt of gratitude to your lordship for its formation, and for the interest with which it is regarded by the Church at large, that one of my first desires, on my arrival, has been to write to tender my thanks for all that you were enabled to do in 1844, and for that account of the condition of the people which drew the attention of the Christian world to the necessity of a resident Bishop." It appears, also, that it was the Bishop of Quebec who first drew (in 1850) the attention of the S. P. G. to the wants of British Columbia (see summary account of S. P. G., 1860, p. 13,) so that he lived to see six new dioceses to the westward of his own, which had either formed part of that of Quebec, or in the erection of which he had been himself concerned.

The next day he set out for Montreal, and on the 16th embarked in his canoe at Lachine, on his voyage of 1800 miles. The season during which it was safe to travel in bark canoes being very short, he was enabled to spend only eighteen days in the territory after the completion of his voyage. In these (which included three Sundays) he held two ordinations after examining the candidates, confirmed 846 persons, preached thirteen sermons, delivered five lectures to the candidates for confirmation in the different congregations, addressed the Sunday School children, and visited all the principal inhabitants of the settlement. The "Indian Settlement" on the Red River was reached by great exertions on the morning of Sunday 23rd June, and the Bishop preached twice to the Indians through an interpreter. One of the missionaries says:

"The Indians were quite delighted with the sermon, and said it was not the first time their Chief Praying Father had preached to Indians, for he appeared to know so well what suited them. The next day his lordship drew out a plan for the services during his stay. I am sure we ought to feel that we owe him a debt of gratitude which we can never discharge. After the hardships of a thirty-nine days' voyage, his lordship's plan looks little like one drawn up by a lover of ease. It reminds us very forcibly of the primitive ages of the Church."

Another writes of the effect of a sermon, into which the subject of confirmation was introduced, that "many persons who before had treated the rite with indifference, became interested in it, and his addresses to the candidates, male and female, married and unmarried separately, were in a similar strain." The episcopal visit greatly cheered the hearts and strengthened the hands of the missionaries, and expressions of gratitude abound in their communications. Thus Mr.

Cockran writes:

"We feel ourselves under lasting obligations to the Bishop for visiting us, and for the great effort which he has made, during his short stay, to make his visit useful to us. His amiable simplicity and fervent piety will be long remembered by us. Should it please God to raise up such a Bishop for Rupert's Land, we should then expect, under the Divine blessing, to establish a permanent Church here."

And in the same strain Mr. Cowley observes:

"His lordship was most gratefully received everywhere. He seems to have captivated the hearts, and called forth on his behalf all the best feelings and wishes, of our people. The good he has done is, I think, altogether incalculable. It may, indeed, be said of the Red River settlement, as it was of Samaria, when Philip went and preached Christ unto them, that there was great joy in that place."

Mr. Smithurst:

"His parting address drew tears from many eyes. He will long have a place in the affectionate remembrances of both clergy and people, and many, I trust, will be the prayers offered up at Red River on his behalf."

It was impossible that such feelings, to which a more formal expression was given in addresses from the clergy, the heads of British families, and the Indians, could fail to be mutual; and when to these was added the thankfulness with which he had witnessed the effect of the Divine blessing on the work of Christ, particularly as it was contrasted with the condition of the stray savages whom he had encountered on the route, the Bishop ever afterwards looked back to this visit with inexpressible gratification and interest. In a letter written on his return from Red River, he thus describes his feelings on first approaching it:

"To come upon such a settlement, and to see the Indian children all decently clothed, with their books in their hands, and in their deportment in school or church incomparably more quiet and reverent than I ever saw in an equal number of whites, after having come freshly from the naked or ridiculously tricked-out, and often dirty, heathens-the men sitting all day basking motionless in the sun, with pipes in their mouths-and after having seen some of their places for sorcery, &c., does indeed fill the mind with the most thankful emotions of delight and the most earnest longing for the extension, by God's good hand upon the laborers engaged in it, of so blessed a work."

The Bishop reached Lachine, on his return, in safety on the 14th August. He closed his letters to the Church Missionary Society with a strong and earnest appeal for the immediate establishment of a Bishopric in Rupert's Land:

*This was the text of the last sermon ever preached by the Bishop.