cotch communion. Their protest
against the bill, and a renunciation of their claims would, he affirmed,
at once fix the establishment principle. Had the proportionate numbers
of the two churches been reversed, he believed that, rather than endow
the Romish priesthood, the Anglican communion would abandon all further
competition for the favours of the state. To this the minister of St.
Andrew's retorted, that the responsibility lay wholly with the state;
and that, if sincere, the English clergy might, by withdrawing their
own, remove the pretensions of all.

The archdeacon, and his clergy[222] of the English church, united in a
petition, presented by the chief justice, against the provisions of the
act. They complained that its principles were a compromise of truth,
since they not only assumed that the religious "sentiments of the Roman
catholics are equally entitled with those of the protestant to the
support of government, but that every variety of religious sentiments,
which is to be met with amongst the various denominations of Christians,
is entitled to support, without any reference whatever to the conformity
of those sentiments to the word of God."

The law was scarcely in action, when one of its clauses was found to
operate against its professed design. A church and a house were required
before a minister could be salaried; but the settlement of a clergyman
was in fact a necessary preliminary to the erection of a church. An
amendment gave the governor a power to issue a salary on a requisition,
on condition of a small local subscription (1838). But this relaxation
proved mischievous in another direction: the salary was paid, but the
church was not erected. This required a third law, and it was therefore
enacted, that if a religious edifice were not in progress within six
months from the issue of a stipend, payment should be discontinued
(1840).

The colony, on the passing of the church act, was an open field. The
first clerical candidate, because he was such, engrossed a large
proportion of the available signatures. The people, generally anxious
for some form of worship, both as a moral agency and from its tendency
to raise the respectability of a township, gave their names freely as
_bona fide_ members of either protestant church. The inevitable result
was, an eager competition by the more zealous members of the rival
communions. The meaning of _bona fide_ membership of this or that
church, was brought into c