1791 the land reserved for the clergy was
to be equal to one-seventh of all grants made by the Crown. One-seventh
of all grants would obviously be one-eighth of the whole. Yet, instead
of acting on this self-evident proposition, it was the practice of those
to whom the duty of reservation was entrusted to set apart for the
clergy one-seventh of _all_ the land, which was equal to a sixth of the
land granted. The surplus thus unjustly appropriated on behalf of the
clergy had in 1838 footed up to a total of three hundred thousand acres.
The excess was confined to about two-thirds of the surveyed townships,
from which circumstance, as well as from the obvious construction of the
statute, it is to be inferred that the excessive reservations were made
deliberately, and not from mere oversight or inadvertence.[41]

As the Province increased in population, and as land advanced in value,
the grievance became more and more manifest. The growl of discontent
began to be heard, and the people began to combine against the
intolerable evil. This, at first, was chiefly due to the purely secular
reasons above indicated. By degrees, however, the sectarian element was
developed, and the growl of discontent became a roar of opposition. A
dominant church was not acceptable to the Dissenters[42] who composed
the bulk of the population; yet it was contended by those in
authority--all of whom were Episcopalians--that the Clergy Reserves were
the exclusive domain of the Church of England. It must be conceded that
there was some ground for this contention, and that the question was not
quite free from doubt. The Act authorizing the setting apart of the
Reserves had appropriated them for the maintenance and support of "a
Protestant Clergy." The word "clergy" was not commonly applied in those
days to dissenting ministers of religion. It had never been used in any
English statute to designate any ministers except those of the Church of
Rome and the Church of England. The Church of Rome being excluded by the
term "Protestant," it was contended that the provision had been for the
exclusive benefit of the Church of England, more especially as the
creation and endowment of parsonages and rectories--which are
institutions peculiar to the Church of England--had been expressly
provided for by the same Act. Such was the plea put forward on behalf of
the Church of England. Dissenters took a different view. They argued
that the term "Protestant Clergy" had b