Protestant Clergy In Cana...
The subjoined iddr atcthe ;ing.was nove andcar- ried in. theflouse of Assembly of; eadi, in -their sitting of the 4th ult. 'TO. TnE XING2S MOST EXCELLENT YAiJsy, Mlost Gracious Sovereign, -We, your Majesty'rdutiful and. loyal subjects, your CoMmons of Lotwer Canada, in Provincial Pirliament amsembled,.hunil,iy No- l3cit your particular attention and paternal benevolence in favour of your.faithfulsubjects the clergyand peopleof the Est1iil,edChurch of Scotland and this province, -and in favour of yoifr.other faithfit't Protestant subjects, dissenting from the Established urch,es of' England and Scotland. We respectfully reprcsent to you, that since Canada his become a portion of the vast and flourishing empire over which long may your Majesty reign, enigration to this country has constantly been much greater from Ireland and Scotland than from the otbeh parts of the empire. Tbat the cause5which have-prodtuced that effct con- tinue, and will probably continue to act in future, and wiU proa.. the same result, so that there is every appearance that thesmembers of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the dissenters will con. tinue to be, as they are at present, mujch rmore numerous than the tmembers of the Church of England. That it is with lively satisfaction that your faitlhful Commains5 can assure your Majesty that no feeling of religious animosity has disturbed harmony and concord among your subjects of the various religious persuasions in thi province, and we are persuaded tlat the most efTectual means of perpetuating among all a spirit of peace and charity, and the same sentimnents of devotion and gratitude towards your Goveniment, is to extend your Royal favour and protection equally by just laws, the same for alL That the advanced state of civilization and know.edge has con- v.inced aU minds that the principles of religious toleration are an iln- prescriptible right of manklind, and ought to be exercised in the full- est manner. And we have seen, with sentimeits of tfhe liveliesr gratitude, those principles reduced into practicw in the province during the whole reign of your late august Father, of happy me- mory, and during your Mfajesty's reign, by several acts of the rmpe- rial Parliament, and especially by the act constituting the 6overn..; inent of this province. By this act one-seventh of aU the lands to be granted in the pro. viPce is reserved and set apart for the support of a Protestant clergv_ a proportion which, if it could be construed as being reserved for a single ecclesiastical establishment, would enrich that churcb in a far greater proportion than any other Christian church bas in any age or country been enriched. 'ilhat three reserves which Might hereafter become an endowment much too opulent for the support of a single ecclesiastical establish. inent, not having hitherto, from their situation in parts of the coun try as yet thinly peopled and unimproved, given a revenue, its dis- tribution has not as yet given rise to divisions and rivalships' among the Protestant churches in the province. But your faithful Com. nmons see with disquiet aad sorrow, that the time cannot be remote at which so happy an order of things must be disturbed, if the inter. pretation which some persons endeavour to give to the said act were supported by the constituted authorities in the provinces, and its li. beral provisions were construed in a narrowr unfavourable sense, as if what appears to have been enacted for the benefit of your Protest- ant subjects had been done exclusively in favour of the Anglican church, whose members in this province are, comparatively to those of other Protestant churches, among the least numerous. Tbat by the Act of Union between the kingdoms of England and Scotland their respective churches have been acknowledged as true Protestant churches in the territory of each of the said States-and the subjects of the two kingdoms were put upon an equal footing of reciprocity so as to enjoy in common the same rights, privileges, and benefits. That it results from that dispositios, that when your sub- jects of either kiRgdom emigrate into any of your colonies, some of them ought not to be entitled to civil advantages from which the others would be excluded, which would be the case if,our subjects of the Cburch of Scotland had no other resources than their personal and voluntary contributions for paying the Ministers necessary for their religious instruction, while your subjects of the Church of England would be freed from that expense by these re. serves, if by law they hae been set apart in their favour exclusively, out of the territorial property in this province. Your dutiful Commnons conceive that the true sense and meaning of the said act gives an equal right to the clergy of the Established Church of your kingdom of Scotland to participate, in common with that of the Established Church of England, in the aavantages and revenues which will arise from the seventh of the lands which have been reserved for the support of a Protestant clergy; and that ii' the Alinisters charged with the religious instruction of the very nume. rous class of your faithful Protestant dissenting subjects, haye not an equal right to participate in the reveRues which those lands might produce, they have equitableclaims for some participation in these revenues, in coasiderarlan of their utility with respect to the religi- ous instruction which it is just to facilitate to a class so numerous in this province, as that of your 4utiful Protestant subjects dis;ent- ing from the Established Churches of England and Scodtland, who, in consequence of that separation, a conscientious one on their part, justly authorized by the laws, ought not be excluded from citil ad- vantages, nor from any act of royal munificence and protection which other classes of your faithful subjects enjoy. ,PROTFSTAArT CLERGY II CYADd,-