sooner was he employed as a minister
of the Crown to pacify the discontent which the Presbyterians, the
Methodists, and the Roman Catholics had expressed very openly, and no
sooner did he, by an equal exertion of his intellect, point put the
most feasible method of solving the difficulty, than a storm of abuse
most lavishly bespattered him, and he was called a seceder from the
High Church principles, an abandoner of the High Canadian Tory ranks,
or anything else the reader may fancy. Now, those who know this
gentleman best are of opinion that he never was a very violent
partizan either in politics or in religious matters, and that to his
moderation much of the good that has unquestionably resulted from Lord
Metcalfe's government may be ascribed.

The chief justice and the bishop, against whom the tirade of the
revolutionary press is constantly aimed, may both have once, by their
position in the Upper House, had much to do with political matters,
but that either of them has ever had in view so absurd a notion as
that of governing Canada by their local influence, and of thus
overawing the Crown, is too ridiculous to be believed.

The chief justices and the bishops, in all our colonial possessions,
are now most wisely debarred from exercising political sway in the
legislative council, over which, some years ago, they no doubt
possessed very great influence in many of the colonies.

In Canada, where one half and even more of the population is Roman
Catholic, it cannot be believed that a Protestant bishop, or a
Protestant head of the civil law, can exercise any other powers than
those which their offices permit them to do; and by the British
constitution it is very clear that any attempts to subvert the
established order of things on their parts would inevitably lead to
deprivation and impeachment.

If, therefore, they were really guilty of an endeavour to rule by
their family connections, is it probable that 600,000 Roman Catholics,
and a vastly preponderating mass of Presbyterians, Methodists,
Unitarians, and the endless roll of Canadian dissenters from the
Church, would permit it?

That the bishop and the chief justice possess a considerable share of
personal influence in Upper Canada, there can be no question whatever;
but, after the statement of the former, in his annual visitation
published in 1841, that out of a population of half a million there
were only ninety-five clergymen and missionaries, where there shou