[5] ’Perhaps I may see reason after a little more experience here to modify
    my opinion on these points.  If I were to tell you what I now think of
    the relative amount of influence which I exercised over the march, of
    affairs in Canada, where I governed on strictly constitutional
    principles, and with a free Parliament, as compared with that which
    the Governor-General wields in India when at peace, you would
    accuse me of paradox.’—­Letter to Sir C. Wood, December 9,1862.

[6] Vide infra, p. 159.

[7] In entire accordance with this view, Be recommended that Great Britain
    should take upon herself the payment of the Governor’s salary, ’with a
    view to future contingencies, and to calls which at a period more or
    less remote we may have to make on the loyalty and patriotism of
    Canadians.’

CHAPTER VI.

CANADA.

THE ’CLERGY RESERVES’—­HISTORY OF THE QUESTION—­MIXED MOTIVES OF THE
MOVEMENT—­FEELING IN THE PROVINCE—­IN UPPER CANADA—­IN LOWER CANADA—­AMONG
ROMAN CATHOLICS—­IN THE CHURCH—­SECULARIZATION—­QUESTIONS OF EMIGRATION,
LABOUR, LAND-TENURE, EDUCATION, NATIVE TRIBES—­RELATIONS WITH THE UNITED
STATES—­MUTUAL COURTESIES—­FAREWELL TO CANADA—­AT HOME.

[Sidenote:  The ‘Clergy Reserves’]

We have had frequent occasion to observe that the guiding principle of Lord Elgin’s policy was to let the Colony have its own way in everything which was not contrary either to public morality or to some Imperial interest.  It was in this spirit that he passed the Rebellion Losses Act; and in this spirit he watched the contest which raged for many years on the memorable question of the ‘Clergy Reserves.’

[Sidenote:  History of the question.]

By the Canada Act of 1791 one-seventh of the lands then ungranted had been set apart for the support of a ‘Protestant Clergy.’  At first these reserves were regarded as the exclusive property of the Church of England; but in 1820 an opinion was obtained from the Law Officers of the Crown in England, that the clergy of the Church of Scotland had a right to a share in them, but not Dissenting Ministers.  In 1840 an Act was passed in which the claims of other denominations also were distinctly recognised.  By it the Governor was empowered to sell the reserves; a part of the proceeds was to be applied in payment of the salaries of the existing clergy, to whom the faith of the Crown had been pledged; one-half of the remainder was to go to the Churches of England and Scotland, in proportion to their respective numbers, and the other half was to be at the disposal of the Governor-General for the benefit of the clergy of any Protestant denomination willing to receive public aid.