Letters and Journals of James, Eighth Earl of Elgin

by Earl of James Bruce Elgin

[Sidenote: Feeling in the Province;]

You require, if I rightly understand your letter, that I should state, in the first place, whether I believe that the sentiments of the community in reference to the subject-matter of this Address are faithfully represented in the votes of the Assembly. I cannot answer this question otherwise than affirmatively. Not that I am by any means disposed to under-rate the importance of the petitions which may have been sent home by opponents of the measure. The clergy of the Church of England and of that portion of the Presbyterian Church which preserves its connection with the Established Church of Scotland, are generally unwilling that the question of the reserves should be left to the decision of the Local Legislature. They are, to a considerable extent, supported by their flocks when they approach the throne as petitioners against the prayer of the Assembly's Address, although it is no doubt an error to suppose that the lay members of these communions are unanimous, or all alike zealous in the espousal of these views. From this quarter the petitions which appear to have reached Lord Grey and yourself have, I apprehend, almost exclusively proceeded. Other bodies, even of those which participate in the produce of the reserves, as for example the Wesleyans and the Roman Catholics of Upper Canada, have not, that I am aware of, moved in the matter, unless it be in an opposite direction.

[Sidenote: in Upper Canada;]
[Sidenote: in Lower Canada;]

Can it then be inferred from such indications that public opinion in the province does not support the cause taken by the Assembly in reference to the 'Clergy Reserves'? or, what is perhaps more to the purpose, that a provincial administration, formed on the principle of desisting from all attempts to induce the Imperial Government to repeal the Imperial statute on this subject, would be sustained? I am unable, I confess, to bring myself to entertain any such expectation. It is my opinion, that if the Liberals were to rally out of office on the cry that they were asserting the right of the Provincial Government to deal with the question of the 'Clergy Reserves' against a Government willing, at the bidding of the Imperial authorities, to abandon this claim, they would triumph in Upper Canada more decisively than they did at the late general election. I need hardly add, that if, after a resistance followed by such a triumph, the Imperial Government were to give way, it would be more than ever difficult to obtain from the victorious party a reasonable consideration for Church interests. These remarks apply to Upper Canada. It is not so easy to foresee what is likely to be the course of events in Lower Canada. The party which looks to M. Papineou as its leader adopts on all points the most ultra-democratic creed. It professes no very warm attachment to the endowments of the Roman Catholic Church, and is, of course, not likely to prove itself more tender with respect to property set apart by royal authority for the support of Protestantism. The French- Canadian Representatives who do not belong to this party are, I believe, generally disinclined to secularisation, and would be brought to consent to any such proposition, if at all, only by the pressure of some supposed political necessity. They are however, almost without exception, committed to the principle that the 'Clergy Reserves' ought to be subject to the control of the Local Legislature. While the battle is waged on this ground, therefore, they will probably continue to side with the Upper Canada Liberals, unless the latter contrive to alienate them by some act of extravagance….

I am aware that there lie, beyond the subjects of which I have treated, larger considerations of public policy affecting this question, on which I have not ventured to touch. On the one hand there are persons who contend that, as the 'Clergy Reserves' were set apart by a British Sovereign for religious uses, it is the bounden duty of the Imperial authorities to maintain at all hazards the disposition thus made of them. This view is hardly, I think, reconcilable with the provisions of the statute of 1791; but, if it be correct, it renders all discussion of subordinate topics and points of mere expediency, superfluous.

[Sidenote: In the Church;]

On the other hand even among the most attached friends of the Church, some are to be found who doubt whether on the whole the Church has gained from the Reserves as much as she has lost by them—whether the ill-will which they have engendered, and the bar which they have proved to private munificence and voluntary exertion, have not more than counter-balanced the benefits which they may have conferred; and who look to secularisation as the only settlement that will be final and put an end to strife.

Up to this time Lord Elgin appears to have entertained at least a hope, that, if the Colony were left to itself, it would settle the matter by distributing the reserved funds according to some equitable proportion among the clergy of all denominations. But as time went on, this hope became fainter and fainter. In his next letter he recounts a conversation with a person (not named) 'of much intelligence, and well acquainted with Upper Canada,' not a member of the Church of England, but favourable to the maintenance of an endowment for religious purposes, who, after remarking on the infatuation shown by the friends of the Church in 1840, expressed a decided opinion that the vantage ground then so heedlessly sacrificed was lost for ever, so far as colonial sentiment was concerned; and that 'neither the present nor any future Canadian Parliament would be induced to enact a law for perpetuating the endowment in any shape.' The increasing likelihood, however, of a result which he regarded as in itself undesirable could not abate his desire to see the matter finally settled, or shake his conviction that the Provincial Parliament was the proper power to settle it. With his correspondent it was not so; nor can it be wondered at that the organ of a Tory Government should have declined to accede to the prayer of an Address, which could hardly have any other issue than secularisation. But the decision was not destined to be left in the hands of the Tories. Before the end of 1852 Lord Derby was replaced by Lord Aberdeen, and Sir J. Pakington by Lord Elgin's old friend the Duke of Newcastle, who saw at once the necessity of conceding to the Canadian Parliament the power of settling the question after its own fashion. Accordingly on May 21, 1853, Lord Elgin was able to write to him as follows:

[Sidenote: Empowering Bill passed.]

I was certainly not a little surprised by the success with which you carried the Clergy Reserves Bill through the House of Lords. I am assured that this result was mainly due to your own personal exertions. I am quite confident that both in what you have done, and in the way you have done it, you have best consulted the interests of the Province, the Church, and the Empire. I trust that what has happened will have here the favourable moral effect which you anticipate. It cannot fail to have this tendency.