my contempt and detestation of a religion, which sinks and
debases the human mind, and which is a curse to every country where it
prevails." Nay, he laid it down, as a principle, to undermine the
authority and influence of the Roman Catholic Priests. It was or should
be the highest object of a governor to crush every papist scoundrel.
Following the line of conduct which had so widely established the
authority of the Popes of Rome, it was the duty of governors to avail
themselves of every possible advantage, and never to give up an inch
but with the certainty of gaining an ell. He lamented that the seminary
and perhaps some other estates had not been taken possession of by the
crown, incorporated, and trustees appointed, out of which incorporated
estates a handsome salary might have been paid to the King's
Superintendent and Deputy Superintendent of the Romish Church! but the
proceeds of which should principally have been applied to the purposes
of public education. And he was deeply mortified that "a company of
French rascals" had momentarily deprived the country of any hope of
such a destiny of these estates. The private and confidential remarks
of the secretary were not altogether without effect. His Grace of
Portland, then His Majesty's Secretary for the Colonies, peremptorily
ordered Governor Milnes to resume and exercise that part of the king's
instructions requiring that no person whatever was to have holy orders
conferred upon him, or to have cure of souls, without license, first
had and obtained from the Governor, and Lord Hobart, the Duke's
successor in the Colonial Department, intimated to Sir Robert Milnes
that it was highly proper that he should signify to the Catholic Bishop
the impropriety of his assuming any new titles or exercising any
additional powers to those which he had as the Vicar of the Holy
Apostolic See. The French Priests were also to be reminded that their
residence in Canada was merely on sufferance, and that it was necessary
for them to behave circumspectly, else even that indulgence would be
withdrawn. Greatly alarmed at these proceedings the Bishop of Rome
respectfully remonstrated. He humbly reminded His Most Excellent
Majesty, the King, that nineteen-twentieths of the population were of
the Roman Catholic religion; that the humble remonstrant was himself
the fourteenth bishop who had managed the church since Canada had
happily passed into the hands of the Crown of Great Britain; that the