> Ryerson, Adolphus Eqriton, 1813- 185- CONTROVERSY BETWEEN DR. RYERSON, CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT OF AND REV. J. M. BRUYERE, RECTOR OF ST. MICHAEL'S ON THE APPROPRIATION OF THE Clergy Reserves Funds; FREE SCHOOLS vs. STATE SCHOOLS; AND COMMON SCHOOLS, ATTACKED AND DEFENDed. REV. J. M. BRUYERE FOR THE PROSECUTION. DR. RYERSON FOR THE DEFENCE. TO WHICH IS APPENDED A LETTER FROM THE RIGHT REV. DR. TORONTO: LEADER AND PATRIOT STEAM-PRESS PRINT, KING STREET EAST. INTRODUCTION. By a recent Act of the Legislature, the monies derived from the sale of the Lands called Clergy Reserves, were placed at the disposal of the different municipalities in the country, with a certain restriction-that they might be expended for any object to which the municipalities have authority to apply other monies, and for no other. For the information of those who may not be acquainted with the subject, it may be necessary briefly to state what the Clergy Reserves were. In 1791 the Imperial Parliament passed an Act, known as the Canada Bill, which was to serve as the future Constitution of the Province. Among other things, this Constitutional Act provided that one-seventh of all the public lands granted were to be "reserved" for the support and maintenance of a Protestant Clergy. This reservation did not constitute an act of appropriation. There seems to have been an intention on the part of the British Government, that the lands so reserved, should be afterwards appropriated as endowments of Church of England Rectories. This, however, was never done except to a very limited extent; and the lands so appropriated ceased to be treated as Clergy Reserves. The whole amount of lands thus reserved was about three millions of acres, of which some two-thirds lay in Upper Canada. In 1819, the Imperial Government instructed the Colonial Government of Upper Canada to erect a Church of England Rectory in every township: their endowment, not immediately provided for, was to be a matter for future consideration. For some reason, never explained, the Imperial instructions were disregarded. They were repeated in 1826, with this addition, that the endowment of the rectories was to accompany their erection. Again these instructions were disregarded; and this time the explanation is not so far to seek; for previous to that period an agitation on the subject of the Clergy Reserves had begun to be excited. The attempt to collect tythes for the Church of England, in Upper Canada, had failed; and it began to be apparent that the scheme of endowing rectories would be equally unpopular. The Church of Scotland made a claim to part of the Reserves; founding it on the allegation that by the act of union between England and Scotland, the latter country was entitled to an equality of rights with the former, and alleging that the Church of Scotland was, equally with the Church of England, a national Church. The legal question being submitted to the law officers of the Crown, in England, the claim of the Church of Scotland was admitted; but by the same decision all other religious denominations, except these two, were excluded from all right of participation. This tended to array all the other religious bodies against the Reserves; and the feeling soon assumed a popular shape. So early as 1831, the Imperial Government was obliged to declare its abandonment of the reserved lands, and its desire that they should revert to the general demesne of the Crown. But as the Legislative Council, a body then nominated by the Crown, was averse to the popular feeling on this subject, any settlement was prevented for many years. The Legislative Assembly declared in favor of devoting these reserved lands to general public purposes, no less than sixteen times; and as often was that House thwarted by the opposition of the other Branch of the Legislature. At length, in 1839, Lord SYDENHAM, with the indomitable en ergy which characterized his administration, procured the passage of a bill, by a majority of one, for distributing the proceeds of these lands among certain religious denominations. But although the greater share had fallen to the Church of England, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury was not pleased with the disposition made; and he brought on Lord John RUSSELL'S Government to bear such a pressure as compelled the Imperial Government to alter the bill to his liking. This was called a settlement of the question; but it was so unpopular in Canada that it could not be maintained. In the present Legislature, it was found that out of 130 members, less than twenty were favorable to the maintenance of that act. Leave having been obtained from the Imperial Parliament, a bill to dispose of the question was introduced in the Canadian Legislature, making the disposition of the lands already stated. The time had come for distributing a first instalment of the monies derived from this fund, amounting to some £300,000, to the municipalities; when Dr. RYERSON, Chief Superintendent of Education, for Upper Canada, issued a circular, calling upon the municipalities to make a particular disposition of the funds-to apply them to school purposes and the purchase of township libraries-Rev. M. BRUYERE objected to that recommendation, from a belief that its adoption would be unjust to the Roman Catholic body; and thus the following controversy commenced. Of the merits of that controversy the public will be enabled to judge, since Rev. M. BRUYERE has acceded to the appeals which had been publicly made, to allow the whole cor: espondence to be printed in pamphlet form. Dr. RYERSON declined to answer all appeals of this kind, or to accept the invitation to join in the publication of the correspondence; and Rev. M. BRUYERE was induced to assume the whole charge of the publication. |