ART. III. THE PROVINCIAL SYNOD OF THE PROVINCE OF CANADA.

THE assembling within the Cathedral of Montreal of five Bishops of the Province of Canada, and of the Clergy and Laity of five Dioceses, was a very grateful event to the Church in this Colonial dependency of the British Crown; and the solemnity was deepened, when the aged Bishop of Quebec said, in his truly evangelical Sermon,-" At the time when he who now addresses you first came into the world, there was but one (Colonial) Bishop of the Church of England, and that Bishop was the first; before him there was not one solitary example to be found, in the entire extent of the Colonial dependencies, throughout the empire. We now number upwards of Forty Colonial Bishops, and in Canada alone, with an approaching happy accession, we have five and six within a range of country, which, at one time, was traversed by the Episcopal Ministrations of one among us"-that one is the Bishop of Quebec himself. And again, "in that portion of America, which, while it belonged to us, we left unprovided for, the number of Bishops exceeds forty." So much accomplished under great discouragements within the life of one man in Canada, and of two generations in America. Surely the hand of the Lord hath done this! And, as if the time of the Church's refreshing had fully come, here we find assembled, in Montreal, the Provincial Synod of Canada, where, but eight short years since, the struggle first began on behalf of Diocesan Synods.

Whatever doubts existed to check the onward movement, they have been dispelled, and the Right Rev. Bishops give their testimony in favor of the revival of the Church's inherent rights, confident that Divine Order will never miscarry, when undertaken under Divine help. The vitality, of which the Church of England gives such marked evidence, has at no time, or in no place, been more striking, than in the large and important Province of Canada; and to those who have watched the action of Synodal assemblies convened in the several

Dioceses, it must be matter of sincere wonder and congratulation, that so much should have been accomplished at such little cost.

The Church in the States of America, when called to discharge her duty to the people, found that the great hindrances to be combatted and overcome, were poverty, and the national prejudices, which had, in consequence of Revolution, arisen between the late Colonists and the Mother Country. "The Church of England" was somehow so entirely associated with "The Government of England," that the popular voice condemned the one, in their condemnation of the other, and! conceived a prejudice for one because of similar dislikes to the other. But if, in the first out-burst of popular feeling, Amer-ican Churchmen were made painfully aware of the difficulties through which they would necessarily have to pass, they, nevertheless, exhibited a loyal devotion to principles, which were sacred, and, as written by the Law of God on their hearts, must be maintained and defended. The Episcopate secured! according to Apostolic and primitive usage, and from direct, unbroken Apostolic descent, through both branches of the Catholic Church of Christ in Britain, the inherent and Divine right of the Church revived, and, as separate from the State, congregated in Synodal Assembly, and unfettered, save by the Canons and customs of the Primitive Church, and by accepting the formularies and Articles of England's Church, the Episcopal Church of America began the warfare for CHRIST, which she, in common with the sister Churches of Christendom, has to wage. There were no local governmental privileges to overcome. The State had no claims to urge especially on her; no conflicting interests necessitated that the strong arm of power should seize by violence the heritage of the Redeemer. The contest was for Christ's heritage, for the very existence of His Church. The struggle has been a mighty one; but, depending on no earthly aid, and working out her system, according to the universal law, which a hallowed antiquity and the Word of God dictate, she now is rising, like a giant refreshed, and, with a mighty hand and stretched out arm, is gathering in God's people from all parts of the nation. If,

then, the Revolution took from England a goodly portion of her dominion, we may, nevertheless, now plainly discern, that God has enabled His people to build up Zion a fair habitation, that He may present her to the nations, as a bride for the Lord. The free and unrestrained development of the Church in America, governed by herself, doing her Master's work in the State, and not under the State, walking in dutiful allegiance to the powers that be, recognizing them "as rulers sent from God"has, day by day, won back the confidence of many, and has, certainly, not forfeited the respect due from all. Above all, by her course of action, by her patient continuance in welldoing, she has been teaching the Mother from which she sprang, "that it is better to trust in the Lord than to put any confidence in Princes."-We claim, then, for the Church in the States, the meritorious privilege of having proved to the world, that the promise of Christ is sure, and that His word is certain, for His kingdom must be established.

The growth of unbelief and of Dissent in Britain has for sometime inconveniently encroached upon the ancient forms and customs of the Civil Government, and a combination of factions, hostile to the interests of the national Religion, has served but to cripple that harmonious action, which, to be useful, should ever subsist between the State and any established form of Worship. According to the theory of the Government of England, the House of Commons is the Lay element of an Ecclesiastical Parliament, the proper Clerical element of which sits separately in two Houses. But when we come to examine closely the Constitution of this theoretical Assembly, we soon detect that the power of the State has, ab initio, most sadly marred the rightful constitution of the Church. Henry VIII, and it has been the same with his successors, aimed at a severance from the Roman yoke, not for the benefit of the Church of Christ, but to subserve purposes of State, and so soon as this purpose has been accomplished, the thraldom of the Church has merely been exchanged from one tyranny to another. Yet, free from what was a grievous dominion, the Church of England, through the acts, not of one single Convocation belonging to one single Province

of the Church, and under the authority of a Roman privilege giving undue power to the See of Canterbury, nor yet, under the pressure of a bad King, did she pretend to legislate for the whole Church. But acts of Parliament and the greed of the State rapidly overlaid the powers of the Church, and wellnigh suppressed her voice, as a living veritable body. Aggression after aggression was perpetrated. Bound in chains and fettered so as to be motionless, she felt her life ebbing away; children nursed at her side turned from her nerveless grasp, which, cold and feeble, seemed to them but the death chill which accompanies dissolution; and Ministers of State, despising her weakness, dared to dash her mitres to the ground, and trample her Dioceses in the dust. Thus manacled and held within the narrow bounds of the Parent State, the loyal Christian hearts in England turned their thoughts to effect their Mother's liberation from bondage, and from the far distant shores of her revolted sons, a commiserating voice was heard, which, growing louder and clearer, reached the ears and touched the hearts of those who were determined to be free.

The effect of the freedom of Synodal action in the American, in liberating the English Church, is too evident to be denied; and, however slow some may consider the work in its accomplishment, we, nevertheless, cannot conceal the fact, that the meetings of Synods, Diocesan and Provincial, in Britain, are facts, with which we have to deal. We have been led to make these preliminary remarks, in consequence of certain observations which have been promulgated in the Provincial Synod recently held in the Province of Canada, and in the Metropolitan city of Montreal; observations, which were evidently intended to awaken reflection, and which must be taken into consideration by the whole National Church.

We would, however, urge our brethren in Canada, not to be dismayed at the difficulties before them, nor to cease from the work, until they accomplish that which they have undertaken in their Master's name. Judging from the tenor of the remarks made by the learned mover, who undertook to carry through the House the requisite petition to the Queen, to amend the Patent constituting the Lord Bishop of Mont

real Metropolitan, we arrive at the conclusion, that it was his object to carry, by force of legal cunning, a document which was loaded with words speaking great things, but which were really and truly mere empty sounds. It may be the wisdom of the serpent to ask the Crown to perpetuate, in exploded forms, legal fictions, shadows of a power, effete and dead but we question much, whether it savors of the harmlessnes of the dove, for a religious Assembly to pander to the vices of official red-tapeism. We must do justice, however, to the consummate skill of the great lawyer, which could thus defeat a proposition, truthful in itself, by apparently yielding to that formalism of Government officials, which rendered it necessary to ask her Majesty, the Queen of England, to confer, by Patent, powers on the Rt. Rev. Bishop of Montreal, which the Crown has not the legal ability to enforce.

Before we expose, however, the fallacy contained in the arguments of the learned Counsel, we propose to pass in review the proposition which was the provoking cause of the debate, and which was brought up by one of the delegates from the Diocese of Toronto, Dr. Bovell.-It was moved,

"That the Queen, in issuing the new letters patent, be respectfully requested to restrict the powers conferred by the present patent, and temporarily to confer such as give to the Metropolitan the right to convene Synods, and also such other pow ers as may be necessary to constitute him a Court of Appeal for the Province of Canada. And that this House do, through the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, or proper authority, further petition the Crown, that Her Majesty may be pleased to issue a Commission, to such number of Arch-Bishops and Bishops of England, Ireland and the Colonies, as to her may seem fit, to inquire into the most effectual mode of maintaining inviolate the unity of the Church, in the Colonies, with the Mother Church of England and Ireland."

In supporting the above resolution, it was shown, that the attempt to subjugate the Colonial Dioceses to the See of Canterbury was not only at variance with the fundamental principles of the Reformation in England, by constituting the Archbishop a sort of Protestant Pope, but was not sustained by law, and further, placed the Provinces of York in England, and of Armagh and Dublin in Ireland, in a very false position, by giving to the Province of Canterbury an extra Pro