ct of the Imperial and Canadian Governments towards the
Church of England.

4. The effect of the union of the two Canadas on the proceedings and
votes of the Legislative Assembly in regard to the Church of England.

5. Public grants to the Church of Rome, and the endowment of that Church
in Lower Canada.

6. The Toronto University and Public Schools.

I am to notice in the first place the statements of the Lord Bishop
respecting the circumstances and objects of the Clergy Land Reservation.
He speaks of it as having been suggested by the circumstances of the
American revolution, and as having been intended as the special reward
of those who adhered to the Crown of England during that seven years'
contest.

The Bishop says:--

At the close of the war, in 1783, which gave independence to the
United States, till then colonies of the British Crown, great
numbers of the inhabitants, anxious to preserve their allegiance,
and, in as far as they were able, the unity of the empire, sought
refuge in the western part of Canada, beyond the settlements made
before the conquest under the King of France. These loyalists, who
had for seven years perilled their lives and fortunes in defence of
the throne, the law, and the religion of England, had irresistible
claims when driven from their homes into a strange land (yet a vast
forest), to the immediate protection of government, and to enjoy
the same benefits which they had abandoned from their laudable
attachment to the parent State.

The Bishop subsequently states [See Chapter xxviii., page 219] that the
object of the Constitutional Act of 1791 was

More especially to confer upon the loyalists such a constitution as
should be as near a transcript as practicable of that of England,
that they might have no reason to regret, in as far as religion,
law, and liberty were concerned, the great sacrifices which they
had made.

Allusions of this kind pervade a considerable part of the Bishop's
letter, and furnish the first example, within my knowledge, of any
writer attempting to invest the dispute between the American colonies
and the mother country with a religious character; when every person the
least acquainted with the history of those colonies, and of that
contest, knows that the question of religion was never alluded to on the
part of the colonists--that General Washington and other principal