CHAPTER V.

WORK IN AMERICA—(continued).

QUEBEC TORONTO-MONTREAL-HURON- -ONTARIO.

CANADA was first discovered by John and Sebastian Cabot in 1497. In 1525 it was visited by Verazani, a Florentine, who took possession of it for the King of France, and ten years later it was explored by Jacques Cartier, who bore a commission from Francis the First, and penetrated as far up the river St. Lawrence as the present city of Montreal, then called Hochelaga. Several voyages hither were afterwards made by Cartier, and others; but it was not till the year 1608 that the city of Quebec was founded by Champlain.

In 1612 four Recollet priests were brought from France to convert the Indians, a college of Jesuits was established in 1635, and other religious institutions from time to time, and in 1670 the Roman Catholic Bishopric of Quebec was founded. These facts show a zeal for the propagation of the faith which may well shame the indifference and neglect of our own government and people.

The war which broke out between the French and English in 1759 was terminated by the capture of Quebec, under General Wolfe, and at the treaty of peace in 1763, Canada was ceded to the English. The towns of Quebec and Montreal contained

at that time 14,700 inhabitants, of which nineteen families were Protestant; the remainder of the province was divided into 110 parishes, containing 54,575 Christian souls.

The first English clergyman who officiated in Quebec was the Rev. Mr. Brooke, who is supposed to have arrived directly after the conquest; but little is known of him except the fact that his wife was the authoress of the novel called "Emily Montague," the scene of which is laid in Canada. Three other clergymen, of Swiss extraction, were afterwards appointed by government to minister here. The first mission of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was established in 1784, at Sorel on the river Richelieu (now in the diocese of Montreal), which contained about seventy Protestant families; and here the first English church was erected. In 1789 the Bishop of Nova Scotia called the Canadian Clergy to the first Visitation held by a Bishop of our Church in Canada.

In 1793 Canada was erected into a separate diocese, and Dr. Jacob Mountain, Prebendary of Lincoln, was consecrated Bishop of Quebec, at Lambeth, on the 7th July. At this time there was neither church nor parsonage at Quebec, and in the whole province of Lower Canada only six clergymen, whilst the total number in Upper Canada (Toronto) was three, and of these nine, five were missionaries of the Society, and the remaining four were maintained by government.

In 1794 Bishop Mountain made his first Visitation, and held Confirmations along a line of country extending from Quebec to Lake Erie, 800 miles, and in another direction to Gaspè, 450 more. In 1802 the Bishop, unable to meet with a sufficient number of properly qualified clergymen from England, selected for ordination such young men of good promise as he might find in the diocese. The cathedral of Quebec was built in 1804, by King George III., and the Bishop introduced the choral

service, and imported from England the first organ ever heard in Canada. Bishop Mountain died at Quebec, on the 16th of June, 1825, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, and the thirtysecond of his episcopate.

At the time of his death there were from twenty to twentyfive churches in each province, and twelve more had been commenced. The number of clergymen in the two provinces was fifty-three, forty-eight of whom were missionaries of the Society. Besides these there were two military chaplains, and one visiting missionary,-the devoted Charles Stewart, who eighteen years before had left behind him all the manifold advantages of his lot in England,―aristocratic connexions (he was a younger son of the seventh Earl of Galloway) and independent means, in order to give himself up to the self-denying labours of a missionary amid a rude and untaught people. The Mission of St. Armand was for many years the scene of this rare instance of self-devotion; afterwards he was, as we have seen, visiting missionary to the diocese, and on the death of Bishop Mountain, he was consecrated second Bishop of Quebec at Lambeth, on the 1st January, 1826.

The vast influx of emigrants into Canada began now to be sensibly felt in the altered state of the population, and the increased want of spiritual ministrations in all parts. As early as the year 1819, 12,000 emigrants had arrived, but from 1825 to the end of 1848 as many as 767,373 persons went out to our North American Colonies, of whom all but a very inconsiderable portion proceeded to Canada.

Bishop Stewart was unwearied in visiting his immense diocese, consecrating churches, and holding confirmations wherever he went. But after a few years, his health, never strong, failed altogether; and at his earnest request, Dr. G. J. Mountain, the son of his predecessor, who had for fifteen years held the Arch

deaconry of Quebec, was appointed his coadjutor, with the title of Bishop of Montreal, and consecrated at Lambeth on the 14th of February, 1836.

Directly after this, Bishop Stewart went to England in the hope of repairing his shattered health; but he never rallied, and after some months of gradual sinking and exhaustion, this good Bishop fell asleep in the Lord, on the 13th July, 1837. His last days were spent in the house of his nephew, the Earl of Galloway, free from intrusion, and affectionately tended, and he was buried in the family vault at Kensal Green.

In the rebellion of 1837 it is worthy of remark that the members of the Church of England to a man stood true to their Sovereign, not one of those taken with arms in their hands being of that communion ;-a significant fact, surely, and when viewed in connexion with the loyalty of the native Christians in the Indian Mutiny in 1857, one most eloquent to prove that churches and clergymen are a better safeguard to a country than military forts and garrisons.

In 1839 the division of the diocese, so long and urgently recommended, took place, and the province of Upper Canada was formed into the diocese of Toronto.

A Diocesan Church Society, similar to that established in Nova Scotia, was first organized in 1842. Various endowments in land have been conveyed to it, and in the year 1861 its annual income amounted to $5,920.

In 1844 Bishop's College, Lennoxville, was established by charter from the Provincial Government, for the education of candidates for the ministry; the Society granted the sum of 1,000l. towards the endowment, and in 1851 the further sum of 1,0007. for the endowment of Scholarships for poor students to be afterwards employed as missionaries.

In 1847 a dreadful fever broke out amongst the emigrants,

who in this year thronged the shores of Canada to the enormous number of 109,680 persons. Five clergymen, three of them missionaries of the Society, fell victims to their active sympathy for the sick emigrants, and seven other missionaries took the fever, but recovered. Grosse Isle, the quarantine station, thirty miles below Quebec, was the principal scene of this visitation. In the course of three months there died not less than 5,424 persons, who all lie buried in the small burial-ground on the island. A recent traveller says, "Now the island is like a little paradise, and it is hard to believe that it was once the scene of such a dreadful visitation."

In 1850 this diocese was still farther diminished by the erection of Montreal into a separate see, and Bishop Mountain resigned the title of Bishop of Montreal, which he had hitherto borne, to the new bishop, Dr. Fulford, and resumed that of his predecessors, the Bishops of Quebec.

At the close of 1854 the alienation of the Clergy Reserves of Canada (of which more full particulars will be given in the account of Toronto) threw considerable gloom over the prospects of this diocese. About the same time the Society was compelled, by reason of pressing claims elsewhere, to commence the gradual withdrawal of the assistance which it had so largely and for so long a time afforded, and great efforts were made to provide from local sources for the wants of the Church in Quebec.

On the 6th of January, 1863, the venerable and beloved Bishop Mountain, who for a period of twenty-seven years had presided over the diocese, and during the early portion of his episcopate over the whole province of Canada, was called to his rest, full of years and honours. Never was there a Bishop of a more saintly life, of a gentler spirit, or more self-denying habits, and he bore with him to the grave the esteem, the affection, and the regret of all members of the community. The Rev.