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performance and one recent exception in a more qualified form) naturally been continued in the dioceses which have been since created. Is this feature, then, of the American Church convention the special precedent which any of us can desire to single out for our own guidance?

"But here it is not unimportant to observe that this supposed American precedent does not after all (as I have intimated) go the length of divesting the Church of the episcopal control in legislation. For the Church in the United States provides, not only for the annual convention of each diocese, but for the supreme authority of a triennial convention of the whole Church throughout the Union. And in this general convention nothing can pass without the consent of the house of Bishops. It was not so originally; but it was made so, even in that land of democratic predominance, by subsequent legislation within the body, because in the working of the system its necessity was seen and felt. The case, therefore, of individual dioceses there, even if they could, under any circumstances, be made a warrantable pattern for ourselves in the point at issue, is not parallel to our own case here. We are proceeding to act in synod, not as one out of many dioceses which are all subject alike to the paramount authority of a general convention (or, according to older ecclesiastical language, of a Provincial synod) in which the ratification of the Bishops is required, but we are proceeding to act as a diocese, singly and independently; and we have no right to assume as a prospective certainty the formation of a Provincial synod in which we shall be comprehended. And therefore, it may safely be averred that, if the supposition of such a case could possibly be admitted as that of the disallowance of the episcopal privilege here in question, we should be doing what is unsustained by any single fair and full precedent in the whole world.

"It is farther to be observed, although at first sight we may receive exactly the opposite impression, that, in point of fact, any innovating surrender or diminution of the standing authority of the Church within our communion may with much less apprehension of dangerous consequences be ventured upon in the American republic than in our own colonies. For as there is in that country no Church-establishment or national religion, and nothing therefore in the way of prestige or association with the love of country or acquiescence in the transmitted system of privileged institutions, to bias or prepossess the minds of men in their adoption of one system of religion rather than another, the attachment of episcopalians to their own Church may generally be presumed to be founded upon their

In the learned work of Judge Hoffman, of New York, on the law of the Church, it will be seen that it was by the surrender, from the force of circumstances, of an inherent right, that the Bishops became divested of what is called the veto.

distinct and intelligent preference for the system of episcopacy and the usages connected with that system. It is well known that the class of mind in that country which has a love for order, reverence, and stability, and which encounters a shock in the religious fluctuations and distractions and the many unwholesome excitements prevailing on this side and on that, is seen continually to fall in, as with something satisfactory and congenial, with the episcopal Church, to which there are very large and frequent accessions both of ministers and people from this very cause. And the self-evident consequence of all this is a powerful infusion of what is called the conservative element into the system. Whereas, among ourselves, it is a thing familiarly observable, that a vast proportion of our people throughout the empire are churchmen, not properly from holding episcopal principles, but simply from an inherited and too often an unexamined conformity to the received institutions of their country; and having so many loose adherents, we are as a body less prepared than our neighbours to admit with safety any sudden removal of checks of standing authority in the Church and to open the door for the agitation of questions, without any such balancing weight, in which the distinctive principles of the Church may be compromised.

"I might say a vast deal more upon many points which have been But I have said already more than I originally agitated among us. intended, and have felt it thrown upon me by circumstances to touch upon points those especially connected with my own office-which it would have been far more agreeable to me to pass in silence. I do not want to bar the way, in any point, against freedom of argument here, but it never can be improper that, in presiding over an assembly met to frame a constitution for its future proceedings, I should indicate the necessity of our not violating the constitution of the very Church itself, of which that assembly avows that it is a part. It must be my duty to do what in me lies-I believe I have done too little-surmounting all reserve on account of considerations personally affecting myself, to make the real principles of the Church understood upon points to which the attention of her members is apt to be only called by some extraordinary occasion such as the present, and which in a multitude of instances are new to the habit of their thoughts. All which I have said, then, I commend to the candid acceptance and the serious consideration of minds-and I hope they are not few among us-which are accessible to arguments happening to jar against their own preconceived and perhaps very favourite impressions. Let it be seen that in entering upon the grave and important functions which are now before us, we do nothing against the truth but for the truth.' And let us be content if, among the principles to be now adopted for our guidance, we find one place reserved for the maxim of the wise King: Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.'"

The visit of the Bishop to the district of Gaspé, in 1859, was marked by an occurrence new to that part of the diocese. An ordination was held at Paspébiac, when a deacon was advanced to the priesthood. The Bishop had heretofore ordained only at Quebec and Lennoxville, except, in one or two instances, at Three Rivers and Sherbrooke. But believing that the edification of the people would be promoted, and their interest in him who was to minister among them increased by witnessing and taking their share in the ceremony, he this year held ordinations in rural districts on two subsequent occasions, on each of which one deacon only was ordained. One of them, who had laboured for many years with exemplary zeal and fidelity as a lay-reader, was ordained as a permanent deacon. In the course of his Gaspé visitation, which occupied six weeks, besides holding the ordination above mentioned, he confirmed 181 persons at fourteen places, consecrated two burial-grounds, and preached eighteen times. Two Sundays were unfortunately lost, so far as public duties were concerned, in going to and from the Magdalen Islands, the landing there being effected on the first, at too great a distance from a settlement and too late. an hour of the day to admit of any service being held, and the second being spent in the hold of the mail schooner, where he was glad to make his bed on the round stones that served for ballast, rather than continue to be drenched by the heavy rain which freely made its way into the berth which had been assigned to him. Other confirmations were held in the autumn in the neighbourhood of Quebec, as well as an ordination in the cathedral, at which the Bishop of Nova Scotia, who was on a visit (felt to be too short) to his brother-prelate, preached. Confirmations were held, in the places still remaining to complete the triennial circuit, in the earlier part, and some in the autumn, of 1860, making the whole number during the three years sixty-three, of which six were in Quebec, forty-four in country churches, eleven in

school-houses or private dwellings, and two in dissenting places of worship lent for the purpose. At three churches no candidates were presented. Nine hundred and eighty persons in all were confirmed. On three occasions the service was held in French. The ordinations during the same period were eleven, of eight deacons and nine priests. This was the last triennial circuit which the Bishop was permitted to complete. Before the next had been gone through his work had passed to other hands. In this year (1860) he established an annual gathering in the cathedral on Whitsunday of the Sunday schools in Quebec. Four hundred children were present on the first occasion, whom he addressed in a simple and affectionate manner. In the summer of 1860 he had also another opportunity of exchanging friendly offices with the sister Church in the United States, having visited Burlington, on the invitation of the Bishop of Vermont, to take part in the consecration of the chapel of the diocesan Theological Institute. He had also, during this summer, the pleasure of receiving at his house the Bishops of Newfoundland, Montreal, Rupert's Land, and Victoria, besides enjoying a brief visit from the Bishop of Michigan.

The year 1860 was rendered memorable in Canadian history by the visit of the Prince of Wales. The Bishop, accompanied by a large proportion of the members of the diocesan synod, presented and read an address to His Royal Highness. The Prince presented the Bishop with a handsome Bible for the cathedral, in memory of having attended divine service there, as well as a donation to Bishop's College of two hundred pounds, being part of a larger sum given to the principal colleges in Canada. With this sum a scholarship was founded, called the Prince of Wales' scholarship.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Second diocesan synod-Address on history of the diocese-Last triennial circuit-Visit to Labrador-Meeting with the Bishop of Newfoundland -Illness-Domestic bereavement.

THE second diocesan synod was held in July of this year. The deliberations of the first had been confined to the adoption of a constitution, and on this occasion, before entering upon the practical matters which seemed chiefly to demand attention, the Bishop thought it appropriate, at the marked period which had been reached in the history of the diocese, to give, in his opening address, a short sketch of that history, which it may be interesting to insert here in his own words, though the leading points of it have already been mentioned in these pages:—

"The first Anglican Bishop of Quebec, within the lifetime of the more aged men among us, began his task with nine clergymen for the whole of Canada, and after thirty-two years left the diocese, upon his decease, with sixty-one, having three archdeacons and two corporations of the clergy, in Upper and Lower Canada respectively, for the management of the clergy-reserves. His successor, whose diocese was also co-extensive with the whole of Canada, raised the number, in ten years of apostolic labour, to eighty-five. That was the state of the charge upon which I entered twenty-four years ago. Since that date Canada has been divided into four dioceses: Upper Canada or Canada West, now comprehending the two dioceses of Toronto and Huron, was under my episcopal supervision, as administering that of Quebec, for three years, during which I was enabled to add nineteen clergymen to the number of fifty-one which I had found within those limits. In that portion of Lower Canada which now constitutes the diocese of Montreal, the number was raised during its continuance under my direction for a space of fourteen years, from seventeen

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